Over the past few weeks, as the Maple Leafs’ 2025-26 season painfully wound down, all the attention has shifted to who will take control of the franchise.
We looked at the Leafs six (!) AGMs at a high level (most of which should probably go), as well as who the Leafs should try to emulate (hint: not the other MLSE organizations), and the start of their hiring process, where they brought in Neil Glasberg to help conduct the search.
Before we get into potential candidates, I think it’s really important to frame the dynamics of the job at hand. This conversation, in my opinion, has really been lost amid all the potential executives’ names being liberally thrown around and debated.
Above all else, this isn’t a learn-on-the-job opportunity. Whoever is hired will be thrown into the proverbial fire and will face extremely difficult, complex questions immediately. There will be zero time to burn a season sussing out the group, learning about the room, the players, the prospects, or any other kind of patient evaluation process most GMs want to undertake when they walk into an opportunity. Whether you think the team should retool, rebuild, or somewhere in between, there is a significant amount of work ahead that will need to be attacked decisively.
Before we can even get to the player roster, though, whoever is hired will have a ton of work to do rebuilding the management group and coaching staff.
In the fallout of The Athletic’s piece (which we wrote about this week), there has been major internal strife, as Nick Kypreos discussed on Real Kyper and Bourne:
“I can tell you that The Athletic story has been really upsetting to a lot of people underneath that roof in terms of whose talking, whose not talking, who can I trust, who cannot I trust… There’s a lot of stuff going on in terms of where all that information is coming from… There are people trying to figure out where all this information is coming from; there’s a leakage problem, guys. It’s always tough in this town, but it got a lot tougher in the last week.”
At the time, I wrote that MLSE should make an effort to find and remove the sources of those internal leaks. It’s not a criticism of The Athletic for running the story – they are doing their jobs – but from the MLSE perspective, it’s unacceptable. They obviously cannot maintain an environment where employees don’t trust their fellow colleagues, which is exactly what happens when stories like this break. Yes, it speaks to the current culture within the organization that it even happened in the first place, but it doesn’t excuse it. MLSE can’t change it by thinking, “We’ll offer a better culture moving forward, so hopefully, you don’t go to the media to talk poorly about us anonymously!” It doesn’t work that way, not in the real world.
As it relates to the Leafs’ top job, it’s another layer of work for the new hire to undertake, and it’s something that, in my estimation, the incoming executive will need to clean up before they can even get to work on the player personnel. For the role the Leafs are currently looking to fill, it has to be top of mind.
This became even more evident when New Jersey hired Sunny Mehta, who has since been described as the Devils’ final decision-maker. He already worked with the Devils and will know people in and around the organization; he played a key role in drafting certain players and will already be familiar with a good chunk of the roster. That’s a much easier situation for him to jump into and make decisions – he knows the lay of the land already – while potentially adding the odd management person here or there.
That’s great for Mehta and the Devils, but that’s not what the Leafs’ position requires. The successful candidate will need to rebuild this management group and then the coaching staff. Of course, he’ll need to address the actual NHL roster, too.
It’s easy to suggest everything is rotten within the organization after a bottom-five season, but in this case, there is a fair bit of truth to it. The player development system hasn’t produced anything in years, aside from the talented prospects who simply bypassed it altogether (Easton Cowan, Matthew Knies). The coaching staff took Jacob Quillan and buried him on the fourth line, where the results were predictable. Even now, with the Marlies, Quillan is not playing with Easton Cowan; it’s Luke Haymes, who Quillan has still out-produced despite spending a chunk of the year with the Leafs. The NHL team hasn’t won a trade in years and was nonexistent in free agency last summer. For years, they’ve been unable to keep players healthy, especially in the playoffs.
Beyond the six AGMs, the Leafs have six other directors ranging from Director of Amateur Scouting to Security, five coaches (including goalie coach Curtis Sanford), 11 performance staff, six on the research and development team, 20 scouts, and five video staff. We’ve not mentioned everyone involved with the Marlies. We’re easily looking at upwards of 70 employees under this umbrella. They can’t all go, but major reform is required.
Next, there is the team’s state on the ice. No matter the direction, significant trades will be required. When Brad Treliving originally took over, we said at the time that it was still easily a playoff team and that he could bide his time adjusting accordingly. He signed some UFAs, made bare-minimum trades, and the Leafs coasted into the playoffs in Treliving’s first year.
Now, the franchise has had an abysmal year, and significant work is required immediately. This isn’t a job where the successful candidate can wade in, take a year to evaluate 70+ staffers, and see how the team performs before making any major decisions. The new hire can’t spend a year getting their feet wet and finding their bearings. This isn’t a learning-as-you-go job right now, where the organization is investing in someone it believes in and trusting them to evolve and develop into an organizational leader. It’s a job for a steady hand with some experience and credibility already built in.
For the new hire, I’m wondering: Have you built a management team before? Do you have people you will inevitably bring with you to the Leafs to help you tackle this whale of a job? This will limit who the team can hire, but the job is too big. Even when Kyle Dubas became a first-time GM with the Leafs, he had worked within the organization for years, had built-in relationships, had already hired some of his own people, and was taking over a team in a great spot. It’s not remotely comparable to the Leafs’ current situation.
This isn’t about finding a GM smart enough to identify “value” free agents; it’s about hiring a leader savvy enough to rebuild the management team, the coaching staff, set a direction on and off the ice, and see it through.
Notes
– With all of the above in mind, this is why Mike Gillis really stands out as a candidate. He’s just about the only one they’ve reportedly interviewed who has actually tackled a job like this one, and he did very well at it. All of the other candidates look more like a number-two option, below Gillis, on paper. I would have personally included Sunny Mehta on that number two list, too, and, considering New Jersey offered him full control, I don’t see how the Leafs could have matched it, even though he might be a great candidate I would have loved to bring on board as the GM.
– Given the task at hand, we can see why Doug Armstrong has been brought up regularly. He is experienced and connected enough to head up a hockey franchise. But his results have been a mixed bag, and it sounds like the Blues’ owner has just about zero interest in letting him go. I don’t think Armstrong is accomplished enough to jump through hoops to poach him.
– On that note, short of poaching someone from another organization, the list of candidates is basically the ones interviewed so far: Gillis, an experienced President with some pedigree, and a collection of number-two options.
– I feel like I’m living in an alternate universe anytime John Chayka’s name surfaces. Did everyone forget what he did in Arizona? Put aside anything he may have done with the NHL roster; this is about his off-ice conduct. Greg Wyshynski outlined it here, but to summarize: While with the Coyotes, a new owner in Alex Meruelo finally offered him the financial flexibility needed to build a contending organization, and Chayka was rewarded with a contract extension. An NHL owner then called Meruelo asking for permission to speak with Chayka. Meruelo denied the request, as is his right, but Chayka reportedly went to Meruelo seeking permission to speak with the owner under the premise that it wasn’t a job interview, making the argument that previous Coyotes owners would have permitted the conversation, as it was intended to “build relationships with owners in hockey” and “get market knowledge.” Well, it turned out to be a job interview, and then all hell broke loose, culminating in Chayka resigning right before his team was about to start the COVID play-in tournament.
The old saying applies here: When someone shows you who they are, believe them. To have a contract in hand, seek to leverage it, effectively lie to your boss, and then, after all of that, quit on the team at the most inopportune time possible is deplorable behaviour. Plenty of people around the hockey world don’t think he’ll ever work for an NHL team, given those events. It’s stunning to me that the Leafs even interviewed him. I couldn’t care less about the moves he made with the Coyotes; this is not someone you should ever do business with.
– It’s understandable that people would feel like any potential Mats Sundin addition to the front office is simply a PR move. The test for me there is whether he would move to Toronto or stay in Sweden for the job. He doesn’t need to come here; he’s more than okay financially, and he has a young family. Moving back across the Atlantic with some real skin in the game would send a message that he’s in it for real, though.
The Leafs’ list of stars over this millennium has been largely aloof or combative publicly: Phil Kessel, Dion Phaneuf, Mitch Marner, William Nylander, Auston Matthews. John Tavares says and does the right things, but he has always come off as a bit robotic. How many of those players even identify, or will identify, as Leafs post-career? It’s not a high bar to clear, but Sundin easily passes all of those players for me in terms of a public presence who is genuinely passionate about the franchise and market. On Spittin’ Chiclets last year, he absolutely gushed about being a Leaf. There’s something to be said about having people in the organization who care about the logo and can work with players on navigating the market and buying into Toronto.
The Leafs iced a veteran team in Sundin’s prime years, and they all respected him within the room as the unquestioned leader of the group. He has a real presence among players, even if they ultimately didn’t win. I would equate hiring Sundin to what Roberto Luongo does with Florida, provided Sundin actually relocates to Toronto. He would likely provide a breath of fresh air behind closed doors, too.
– Player exit interviews are often an exercise in “I’m just here so I don’t get fined,” so I hardly ever put any stock into anything said. I will say, though, that by far the most impressive player was Chris Tanev, who took far more responsibility than necessary for his lost season. He also talked about how hard he will work to return (and I will tell you this: among those who work out where Tanev does in the summer, everyone agrees that nobody works harder), and he reiterated how much he still loves the game. The Leafs really missed not just Tanev’s play but his overall leadership. He wouldn’t have tolerated how lazy the group was defensively. I have no idea what to expect from 37-year-old Tanev after a year off, but I have a lot of time for the person.
– My only other note is on the outspoken Anthony Stolarz. On the surface, I generally find myself agreeing with his thoughts, whether it’s about the team’s softness, the need to protect the goalies more, or even his recent “play like bastards” line. The problem is, Stolarz has played in only 60 of 164 games since joining the Leafs, or less than 37% of the team’s games. If a veteran like Jake McCabe, who grinded all season, wants to opine on the team’s need to dig in and battle harder, I’d have a lot of time for it. A goalie who can’t stay healthy, though? That’s “stay in your lane and take care of your own business first” territory.
– It wouldn’t be surprising if the Leafs make their hiring announcement sooner rather than later, but we will start profiling candidates this week.
