Brendan Shanahan might have the one virtue that will allow him to survive as Maple Leafs president: A thick skin.

He’s going to need it.

Because, as NHL senior vice-president Mike Murphy — a former Leafs coach — so aptly described it on Friday: “The Pope could come in here and be criticized — that’s what a high-profile, highly criticized job Brendan is stepping into.”

But it’s a post that those who know him best — established hockey people such as Murphy, Colin Campbell and Ken Holland — claim he is up to the challenge.

On Friday, all three execs were asked if Shanahan was qualified to run an NHL franchise here in the self-proclaimed centre of the hockey universe. To a man, they made one thing clear: Sheriff Shanny is well-prepared to face the heat.

When your previous gig was serving as the NHL’s chief disciplinarian, you learn to tune out the criticism swirling around you when forced to make tough choices.

“His first couple of days on the job, it will be all good,” Campbell said on Friday, referring to public reaction of Shanahan’s hiring. “But after that, watch out.

“People forget about his career. Now he’s just some (bleep) from the league discipline office.”

When Shanahan took over from Campbell in 2011, he quickly discovered what a despised figure anyone doing that job suddenly becomes.

Now serving as the NHL’s director of hockey operations, Campbell said being the NHL’s head rules enforcer sometimes makes you a target from all sides.

“In that job, whenever you make a ruling, at least one team doesn’t like it. Their fans don’t, either. Sometimes both of the teams and their fans don’t like it,” Campbell said.

“But those are experiences that Brendan might be able to benefit from in his new role. He’s accustomed to making decisions that, while they might be unpopular to the outside world, are the ones he truly believes are the right ones.

“In the job he’s got now in Toronto, he’ll find himself in similar situations. The fans are passionate and they’ll let you know what they think. But Brendan has experience in tuning out that stuff and doing what he thinks is best, not what everyone outside the team thinks.

“He’s lived the criticism.”

At the same time, Campbell said there are other aspects of Shanahan’s portfolio that should serve him well with the Leafs.

He had a Hall of Fame career as a player. He was involved in CBA negotiations during the lockout of 2004-05 while contributing to the NHLPA. And after he retired and joined the league’s hockey operations branch, Shanahan ultimately ran his own department — the department of player safety.

“He did a great job,” Murphy said. “He brought in guys to his department like Rob Blake, who went on to become the assistant GM of the Kings. He met with marketing people. He dealt with the NHL Network, who shot his supplementary discipline videos. He’s worked with the commissioner. He’s been at all the GMs’ meetings and probably talked to every GM one-on-one.

“His network of NHL contacts is expansive, both in the board room and on the ice. And I think his experience with the department of player safety showed that he can motivate those who work under him, which will be important with his new role.”

For Holland, the most telling indication of Shanahan’s ambitions to remain in the game after his playing days were over came during the 2004-05 lockout.

Shanahan, still four years away from retirement, put together “The Shanahan Summit,” a two-day conference of players, coaches, and other influential voices to discuss improvements to the flow of the game. Ten recommendations were presented to the league and the union as a result, including the removal of the centre ice red line.

“That showed that Brendan had vision,” the Red Wings GM said. “And for me, the biggest thing in running an NHL team is that the man at the top has vision, whether it’s in the people you hire, your staff, all of it.”

Shanahan won three Stanley Cups playing for Holland’s Red Wings. Ending the Leafs’ 47-year Cup dry spell likely will be a much more difficult task.

To that end, Campbell was asked if he offered any condolences to Shanahan for taking the Leafs position.

“Nah,” he said. “I did that when he took over my old job (three) years ago.”

SHANAHAN FULFILS HIS GOAL

After Brendan Shanahan had hung up his blades in 2009, the future Hall of Famer told Red Wings general manager Kenny Holland of a specific goal he had in mind for his post-playing life.

“I recall Brendan saying during the one or two times I talked to him after his retirement that he wanted to run his own hockey team one day,” Holland said during a phone interview on Friday. “But he made it clear he had a lot of work to do and lots of things to learn before he ever got to that point.”

On Friday, Shanahan achieved his dream when he was officially named the president of the Leafs. Not only is the Mimico native now guiding an NHL team, he’s at the wheel of his hometown franchise.

With his Wings having reached the Stanley Cup playoffs for a 23rd consecutive season, Holland looks around the Eastern Conference and sees two of his former players directing rival franchises: Shanahan in Toronto and Steve Yzerman in Tampa, where he is the GM of the Lightning.

Both Shanahan and Yzerman played for the 2002 Red Wings team that won the Cup in what proved to be coach Scotty Bowman’s final season behind the bench. So, too, did Kirk Maltby and Kris Draper, who work for the Wings, and Sergei Fedorov, the GM of CSKA Moscow.

“Interesting how many of those guys from that ’02 team are still in hockey in some capacity, whether in a managerial role, whatever,” Holland said. “It shows you how much they learned from Scotty. He was a great mentor.”

mike.zeisberger@sunmedia.ca