McNamara won two games, lost two and tied one in his 1961 stint, then played 23:18 in two relief appearances in January 1970, no decisions to his name. Overall, he had a 2.61 goals-against average and a .912 save percentage.
His Toronto career would continue as scout, then chief scout. In 1972, on a scouting trip to Sweden, he was so impressed with Salming that he phoned Maple Leafs general manager Jim Gregory in the middle of the night to make certain the Swedish great was on the team’s negotiation list. Salming and forward Inge Hammarstrom joined the team for 1973-74 as undrafted signings.
McNamara was named Maple Leafs GM in October 1981, replacing Punch Imlach, serving through Feb. 7, 1988, when he was fired by tempestuous team owner Harold Ballard. The Maple Leafs went to the Stanley Cup Playoffs three times on McNamara’s watch.
Ballard fired his GM by telephone, flying north from Florida, trying to get his resignation with the Maple Leafs mired in last place. When McNamara refused to quit, Ballard sacked him “because I didn’t want to embarrass Gerry.”
“I never ever dissed him,” McNamara said of Ballard, speaking to the Toronto Sun’s Lance Hornby in a 2015 interview. “He treated me and my family tremendously well. That doesn’t mean he did some things he shouldn’t have, but I still respect him. He gave me the opportunity and I appreciate that. I said, ‘You own the club, you have a right to do whatever you want with it’. And he did.”
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