MLSE President and CEO Keith Pelley addressed the media after the departure of former Maple Leafs President and Alternate Governor Brendan Shanahan.
Pelley’s Opening Statement
Pelley: Yesterday was a difficult and very tough day. Brendan Shanahan is an integral part of Leafs history. In his 11 years here, he accomplished so many incredible things. I thoroughly enjoyed working with Brendan over the last year. He is a quality individual and a legend in the hockey world. As I said to him yesterday, wherever he goes, I know he will be successful. I wish him and his family the very best.
There has been a lot of chatter and discussion around pressure — pressure of being a Maple Leaf player, or pressure of working with the Leafs, or as an executive. Even sitting in the stands on Sunday night with my 22-year-old son, just prior to the game, he put his leg on my leg and said, “Dad, are you nervous?” I said, “Of course, I am nervous.” He said, “Do you feel the pressure?” I said, “Of course, I feel the pressure.” But pressure is really a privilege. It is a privilege to be that nervous. It is a privilege to be the CEO of MLSE. It was a privilege to be in those seats at Game 7.
I said it prior to coming to Toronto, and I really found myself thinking over the last 10 years in Europe — running the European Tour and the Ryder Cup — that the greatest game on earth is hockey — and it is not ice hockey; it is hockey. And the greatest hockey team in the world is the Toronto Maple Leafs. As a result, you have seen the passion and tribalism that exists. I saw it this year more than I could remember.
That tribalism reminded me of my involvement in European football and what happens in the Premier League. People are invested. They are invested in their team. It matters so much. For a lot of people — a lot of people in Europe, and a lot of people here in Toronto — they are as happy as the team is playing well. There is nothing more evident than seeing that on Sunday.
I respect, understand, and appreciate their disappointment in the way the season ended. I thank them for it. I thank them for the way they invested in the team. I understand, to our fans, that winning is the only thing that matters.
I said to you last year that good simply isn’t good enough. That is the case here. Having said that, we made some strides this year. I have incredible confidence in Brad Treliving, in only his second year as the General Manager. I talked to him just a couple of minutes ago. Unfortunately, Brad couldn’t be here. This, as I said, happened very rapidly. He is in Calgary right now at his daughter’s graduation, and the first time we have a chance to get together will be Sunday evening for dinner. I think we made some strides in Brad’s second season here as the General Manager.
I did have a great opportunity to spend a bit of time and have dinner with [Craig Berube] last night. We certainly made some strides under Chief.
Yes, we won the Atlantic Division, and we came one game away from making the Conference Finals and beating the defending champions — a pretty good Florida team that seems to be having their way with the Carolina Hurricanes right now. But, as I said, winning is what matters. That is what I said last year. That is what ownership is committed to. That is what we are committed to.
I have my utmost confidence in Brad and my utmost confidence in Craig. I am not looking to replace Brendan; I am looking to work more closely with Brad and Craig. We will, just like in any other business, evaluate all facets of the organization in terms of how we utilize resources. We have all the resources here to be a championship team, but it is about using the resources in the right way, and how we structure the utilization of resources could make the difference. That is what we will spend the next weeks looking at.
I am confident in Brad. I am confident in Craig. I am confident in the resources that we have. But I do believe that we, as the custodians of the biggest hockey brand in the world, have a responsibility to our fans. That responsibility is winning championships. We will do everything we possibly can and will not stop until we reach that goal.
Q&A with Keith Pelley
Would anything have saved Brendan Shanahan’s job? Was this a results-based decision that the team didn’t win the Stanley Cup? Had the team gone deeper, would he still be around for a few years?
Pelley: I would answer that by saying I don’t speculate on hypothetical situations. This was my decision. I had the support of ownership. I had that conversation yesterday. We made the decision.
I talked to Brendan at 3 p.m. EST yesterday. He, as expected, acted like a true professional and the Hall-of-Famer that he is. He understood and wanted to move very, very quickly. Outside of that, I don’t speculate on hypothetical situations. We didn’t win the Cup.
Can you speak to what Shanahan did wrong specifically?
Pelley: I don’t think it is a one-word or a one-phrase or even a paragraph answer. At the end of the day, Brendan has added a lot to this organization. He has revamped it. He has put it in a really good position in so many ways. But it is about results. This is a results-driven business. It is about winning championships. Sometimes, you need a change to get to the next level. That is what we feel we need right now.
Can you walk us through the decision not to replace Brendan Shanahan as President? Do you anticipate adding another job title to Brad Treliving? A lot of GMs around the league carry the “President of Hockey Operations” title as well.
Pelley: We are really on day one. Anything is possible. My plan right now is not to replace Brendan. Brad will be our GM. Whether he takes on a larger role will be something that is determined down the road.
The reality is that we (MLSE) are a different organization because we have multiple teams. When you have multiple teams, you have centers of excellence. That is from your commercial side, your ticket side, your marketing side, and your communications side. There are many teams that have Presidents and General Managers without separate [roles]. It is similar to the National Basketball Association.
There is not a right or wrong way to do it. At the same time, there is no need, at this particular time, to make a hasty decision. Everything we will do will be methodical. If we feel we need to make a move like that, we will, but at this particular time, there is no plan to do it. I have the utmost confidence in Brad Treliving and Craig Berube as our coach.
What do you anticipate your own role to be with the day-to-day involvement in terms of hockey decisions?
Pelley: It is very important to tell you that, as much as I love the game — and I love the NBA, and I love Major League Soccer — I am the CEO of MLSE. The people who are going to make the key hockey decisions and key basketball decisions are basketball-oriented people and hockey-oriented people. My role is to be a sounding board. My role is to try to create a culture and a chemistry within that organization that builds a culture of winning championships.
That is the way I look at it. I look at it as a holistic leader who can provide support and guidance from a leadership perspective and a culture side. I am not going to be deciding who we draft and what free agents we are going to sign. That will be the decision by the hockey operations group.
It has been reported that the ownership structure has changed or will change this summer. Has that happened? If it has or hasn’t, how does it change how you go about your day-to-day?
Pelley: Our ownership group, and I have said this before, is one of the best ownership groups in sports. They have provided all of the resources to win. It is my responsibility to deliver on that. That is not going to change.
What will be the measure of success moving forward? Does the team have to win the Stanley Cup next year for you to be satisfied?
Pelley: I think we have to be on the pathway to winning the Stanley Cup. I think the city has told us that. The media has told us that. We haven’t won since 1967.
When you look at the last 11 years, no other team has made the playoffs nine times in 11 years. It is a testament to the development and the foundation that Brendan built. Our next step is to take it to the next level. We felt that this move would help us get to the next level.
Make no mistake about it: Making the playoffs and winning rounds is not our aspirational goal. Our goal is to win the Stanley Cup.
You mentioned you were in the stands in Game 7. What were you thinking in the third period when one of your best players is getting booed, jerseys are hitting the ice, and beer is thrown over the glass?
Pelley: It was tough. Sports bring you on an emotional rollercoaster — team sports, in particular. I hadn’t really experienced that type of emotion in some time — maybe ever. When you are running a golf tour, every single weekend, you have a new winner, and you say, “Congratulations!” But you are not cheering for anyone.
The only time I felt something like Game 7 was in Whistling Straits when Team Europe — whom I was running — lost to Team USA in my very first Ryder Cup. And then there was the euphoria with the Ryder Cup team in Paris and the Ryder Cup in Rome when we won.
I have felt those emotions, but this was at a different level. Listening to the fans and understanding and respecting it, the electricity in the building — and I have heard this from so many people — hadn’t been there even over the last number of years, understanding that I haven’t been here. The electricity during that game in the first period was palpable and unmeasured before.
To go from that euphoric moment to the way that we felt in the third period was very difficult. I was saddened by it, and I feel that I need to take some responsibility for that.
With the way Game 7 and Game 5 played out, what was your takeaway from those experiences? Does it raise questions about how the team is built and who its main leaders are?
Pelley: I think Game 5 and Game 7 were very difficult games. We all know that. I have already made my comments on that.
I think we have made strides. Florida is a very good hockey team. We are seeing that this week as well against Carolina, who is also a very good hockey team. As I said, I think we made strides this year, but it is now time for us to take it to another level.
What ideas do you have for improving the relationship between the team and its fans?
Pelley: That is an excellent question. It is one that we have talked about. It is one that we have talked about over the last 24 hours but also one we have talked about over the last 6-12 months.
We launched a new program — the Fan Access program — at the beginning of the playoffs. We now have 13,000 fans in Fan Access. 50% of them have never been inside Scotiabank Arena. You know, if you have been on Fan Access — which is going to grow significantly — we are giving away tickets. You can join Fan Access for free. There will be in the neighbourhood of 150 tickets that will be given away on a game-to-game basis, where people can enter into draws.
You see it outside with the younger demographic at the tailgate party. By the way, on Fan Access, the age group is 15 years younger than the age group of our season ticket holders. That is pretty significant.
The biggest thing is how our players relate to the fans, and quite honestly, how we relate to the media. I understand the importance of the media, having worked in it for so long. We need to embrace the media. We need to embrace the fans. We need to be out there more.
We are going to have a full detailed plan, and we will work on it in the offseason, but that is really a priority for us: how we relate to the fans.
You spoke about the difficulty of Game 5 and Game 7 and your ethos about championships. There are two significant pending free agents with the Maple Leafs. Do you think that the roster requires an element of turnover to get to that point? Would bringing back the same roster be accepted by the fans?
Pelley: That is not a question for today. That is a question for Brad Treliving, and it is a question for Brad and perhaps myself after we have spent significant time together. I am not here to talk about individual details on players. I am only talking about a grandiose, holistic plan. We want to win championships, and if change is needed, we will make that.
Change is natural in sport, but change is hard. The Harvard Business School wrote in 2012 that less than 10% of people who have bypass surgery make a major modification to their diet. Change is hard. Today is hard. Today is not easy.
We have made a lot of changes over the last year with this team, and we have made a lot of progress. We made a change in TFC, and we are starting to see the progress. Further change will probably be needed to get us to the next level, and yesterday was the first step in that direction.
You are only in your first year in the MLSE President and CEO role. You have said that good is not good enough, and you are going to change the culture. We have heard similar things said year after year when there is failure in the playoffs. Why should anyone believe this time is going to be different?
Pelley: I can’t comment on what has transpired or what has happened in the last 10 years. I can only comment on what I have seen in the last year.
I looked at TFC, and I didn’t think we had the right team ethos. I think you need to be consistent with how you are going to attract players, how you are going to scout, and all of that.
I can’t comment on the last 10 years. I can only comment on the last year. I am saying that we made a lot of progress under Brad. We made a lot of progress under Chief. I think you will all agree that Chief changed the culture. Now, we are going to make another step, and as I said, winning is about hoisting championships. That is our goal.
You let go of Toronto FC’s President, Bill Manning, about a year ago. In that time, the team has won six of 24 league matches. What have you learned from not having a President at TFC that you can apply to the Leafs going forward?
Pelley: I don’t think there is any parallel between that.
As I outlined at the time when we made that decision, I also reiterated that we were changing the team ethos. We were going to change the way we operate our academy and operate the structure of the team. I am totally confident that TFC is headed in the right direction.
The 6-1 win over Montreal last week — the most goals they’ve ever scored — is the start of it. TFC is going to contend for championships every year. I have the utmost confidence in Jason Hernandez; this is just his second year, and we are giving him the reins on that. I am confident in TFC. I know we are on the right track.
When you create a team ethos of the way you want to play and recruit players, you have to be diligent in staying with that philosophy. That is what we are going to do at TFC. We are not going to chase it. We are going to be diligent in that team ethos, how we want to play, and what we are going to try to attract. I am really pleased with where we are right now.
