The Toronto Maple Leafs are, and have been, in a weird and annoying place for a while.
The Toronto Maple Leafs had an excellent young GM, but because they didn’t win immediately, and because he replaced a respected Hall of Fame Legend, and because he wasn’t an ex-player, but mostly (I posit) because he was aggressively intellectual and innovative, there was a segment of the fanbase, and media, that would never accept him.
This should not have surprised anyone, since hockey is, historically, rabidly against any kinds of innovation or new kinds of thinking.