Leafs Make First Personnel Change of the Season

Chris Zelkovich of the Toronto Star is reporting this morning that Harry Neale will be leaving the Toronto Maple Leafs' broadcast team to join the Buffalo Sabres' team. A spot with the Sabres opened up with the recent retirement of Jim Lorentz, who was unwilling to take on another season's worth of travel. The move, says Zelkovich, will be announced later today.

I find this very intriguing. At the very least, the timing of this move is odd. Harry Neale called each Leafs pre-season game for LeafsTV. He was slated to work every Leafs regional broadcast as well as most of CBC Hockey Night In Canada games. He'll still do the HNIC games, however, which are mostly Leafs games. As for the regional broadcasts, Zelkovich says Neale's spot will be filled by Greg Millen, who was the ice-level reporter (read: grunt) for the duration or the pre-season.

The conspiracy theorist in me is running wild with reasons why this happened now. Could the Sabres have forced Lorentz into retirement, wanting Neale? Were the Leafs more keen on Millen than Neale, axing ole Harry and forcing him to look elsewhere? Was Neale so unhappy with the reduced role he's been asked to play that he walked away from the Leafs? Was it as simply as Harry wanting to live closer to his home in Buffalo? Or calling a better team? Was it some combination of the above?

In any event, the timing of the move is still queer. Jim Lorentz's reason for retiring doesn't hold water, IMO. He has been in the business a long time - he knew exactly how gruelling the travel schedule was to be. It wasn't as if the travel schedule was a surprise - why didn't he retire in the off-season? Why wait until a couple of days before the start of the regular season? It seems to me that there is more to the story; maybe we'll learn more when the move is officially announced. I should also mention that nobody else -other than The Star - is reporting such a move, so don't go burning your Harry Neale effigies just yet.

Assuming the Zelkovich story is true, Harry Neale will now work with the best, most exciting play-by-play man in the business: Rick Jeanneret. Check out the 10 best Jeanneret calls below.