The Maple Leafs have rounded out their front office by hiring a second assistant GM, Brandon Pridham.
Pridham has been working in the NHL head offices for 15 years, leaving a position as Director of the Central Registry and Central Scouting. Pridham will be the team’s resident capologist and CBA expert as well as negotiate contracts with the team’s pending free agents — the role Claude Loiselle was fired from in late July.
Pridham’s career with the NHL began in 1999 as a coordinator in Central Scouting. He has also served in the Central Scouting and Central Registry departments; his role was that of the “contact person” for NHL general managers on issues involving the CBA, salary cap and the Central Scouting department. That would suggest there are very few in the hockey world who know these things as inside and out as Pridham.
I am very grateful for the opportunities and experiences I’ve gained at the National Hockey League. I always looked forward to the opportunity to bring that experience to an NHL club and I’m thrilled with the chance to join Dave Nonis and his team with the Toronto Maple Leafs.
– Brandon Pridham
When the Leafs hired Loiselle, he came with some league executive experience as well as the Assistant Director of Hockey Operations, but he worked primarily in salary arbitration and collective bargaining. Pridham has been working with the League on salary cap issues specifically since it introduced the cap in 2005.
CapGeek reported last week that the Leafs‘ bonus overage wound up dinging the Leafs for $520,000 on the cap next season — for a team that finished eighth last in the League last season, that was perhaps the final straw for Loiselle, who faced much criticism for the buyout-proof structure of the David Clarkson deal, the team’s use of their compliance buyouts, and their season-long cap squeeze that saw the team lose Joe Colborne in preseason and limited their roster flexibility all year.
It looks like Kyle Dubas will be partly occupying Dave Poulin’s former position, at least in the sense that one of his roles looks to be overseeing the Toronto Marlies. Dubas has made a few small AHL signings in the past few weeks, including Patrick Watling, his former player in the Soo. Pridham will be the Leafs‘ cap guy and contract negotiator and is someone Shanahan’s likely quite familiar with from his time in the NHL head office.
Shanny continues to reshape the Leafs’ front office in his image, bit by bit.
