When Toronto Maple Leafs coach Pat Quinn stands behind the bench for the season opener Oct. 11 against Montreal, don't be shocked if the general manager calling the shots is, well, Pat Quinn.

When the Leafs called a news conference June 27 to announce Quinn was stepping down as GM, they left the impression that an active search for his replacement would begin the very next day.

But Quinn raised eyebrows before his charity golf tournament at Glen Abbey Golf Club on Wednesday when asked for an update on the GM search.

"There has been no progress," Quinn said. "It's still in that evolutionary stage of assembling names and doing some research. Hopefully we're going to start and narrow in on it."

Quinn quickly added that there was still plenty of time to bring in a new man.

"There is no urgency," he said. "We've done the general manager's work all summer and that's the busy time. So let's do it right, get the right guy for this market and let him develop through the season next year."

It's up to the three-man team of Quinn, Maple Leaf Sports & Entertainment president Richard Peddie and MLSE vice-chairman Ken Dryden to find a new GM.

The list of candidates, depending on who you believe, may include Steve Tambellini, John Ferguson Jr., Dean Lombardi, Neil Smith, Glenn Healy, Craig Button and Colin Campbell.

"There's no hurry right now except if some guys are on windows and we think they're interesting, we may lose out on that," Quinn said.

By window Quinn means people who are under contract to other teams, but have clauses permitting them to look for other jobs during the summer. 

That would certainly apply to Tambellini, the vice-president of player personnel with the Vancouver Canucks, and Ferguson Jr., the director of hockey operations for the St. Louis Blues.

And if the Quinn-Peddie-Dryden trifecta can't find the right guy, the much-maligned dual portfolio Quinn had for four years could last another season.

"I guess there's a chance, sure," Quinn said. "We haven't started out with that in mind. But if we're going to have some problems in collective bargaining (labour war), maybe next year is the right time to do this sort of thing."

It hasn't been a banner summer for the Leafs, who have been criticized by their long-suffering fans for not dipping into the free-agent market (other than signing Bryan Marchment). 

The lack of movement in the GM search will only add to the debate, but Quinn thinks the Leafs are doing the right thing by showing patience in finding their man.

"If you understand the season and how it breaks down and how the responsibilities go, summer time is the culmination of all your year's work," he said. "So you need to do your draft, your signings and your qualifying offers and those sorts of things. No new guy coming in can really help you in that regard.

"The timing for a new manager should be for the start of the year."

The start of next season will be an interesting time for the Leafs, and not just because part of camp will be in Sweden. 

Not only will the Leafs possibly unveil their new GM at that time, but fireworks may fly in the Robert Svehla situation.

Svehla announced his retirement during the world hockey championships in May but the Leafs - aware that he had pulled this trick before with the Florida Panthers - picked up his $4-million US contract option for 2003-04 to prevent Svehla from playing in Europe.

Svehla, on the advice of agent Ritchie Winter, hasn't signed his retirement papers. If he did, he would have to sit out an entire season before possibly coming back.

The Leafs, meanwhile, are telling agents representing unrestricted free agents on the market that their hands are tied financially until the Svehla situation is resolved.

One way or another, the matter will come to a head come training camp.

"If he doesn't come at training camp time - and he may change his mind by then - then we'll either have a pretty good defenceman back or we'll have the money to go get one because he'll be suspended," Quinn said.

On the surface, the solution seems to be for both sides to tear up the $4-million contract and make him an unrestricted free agent, so both sides can move on.

"We made that offer to them about three weeks ago," Quinn said. "But they wanted some extra money to do that. It's about money.

"And Robert, when I spoke to him, said he wanted to stay in Slovakia. So it's kind of an agent working the business."

And while the Leafs may miss out on unrestricted free agents like Joe Nieuwendyk, Ken Klee or Magnus Arvedson, Quinn said there are other ways to improve the team.

"If we make any changes we'll do it through a trade rather than through (free-agent) acquisitions because the acquisitions in the free-agent market are questionable, quite frankly," Quinn said.