There was a very brief update from Elliotte Friedman about the Leafs’ executive search on his Oilers NOW segment on Tuesday night, but it was a bit of a bombshell:
“We are waiting for Mats Sundin’s decision. I believe, if he says yes, it will be a John Chayka-Mats Sundin combination.”
The cynical angle on this report:
Mats Sundin, mostly beloved in Toronto, will arrive in possibly a advisory-type role in part to run some PR cover for Keith Pelley’s hiring of an individual widely viewed as a pariah in the hockey community due to his highly controversial exit from the Coyotes — one that involved allegations from team ownership about a bad-faith pursuit of another job opportunity while under contract (certainly, this is a two-side-to-the-story situation, without much credibility on the Coyotes’ ownership side, either), as well as an illegal draft combine event leading to the forfeiture of significant draft capital (a red flag). Messy divorce aside, Chayka’s Coyotes tenure was a mixed bag, he may have flirted with a possible conflict of interest while employed there, and he hasn’t worked in NHL management in over five years, while Sundin hasn’t worked in NHL management ever. This is the best they could come up with, with all of MLSE’s resources at their disposal?
The more optimistic spin:
The Leafs are going a more unconventional route than the Brad Treliving regime, leaning into a data-driven decision-making process with an iconic Leafs legend alongside an analytics-savvy, outside-of-the-box thinker as GM — one with half a decade of experience running his own team, who was just 26 when hired in Arizona, and who has certainly evolved since then. Former President Brendan Shanahan, whatever you might’ve thought about the ultimate lack of playoff results during his reign, started as a playing-days legend who was a relative novice from a team-management experience POV, and he initially oversaw a successful rebuild in Toronto. Sundin hasn’t been able to voice overly candid hockey opinions in the public forum in a Leafs alumni capacity, but apparently, he has plenty of passionate ideas about the direction of this franchise for those who talk to him behind the scenes. If he is indeed hired, we look forward to hearing those put on the record in more detail.
The specifics of the process behind arriving at this reported decision will be revealed in more detail in time, but you can be forgiven for approaching the whole thing with a good deal of skepticism for now — from the choice of the specific search firm hired, to the pool of candidates they pursued, to the finalists they settled on, to the people conducting the interviews, to the possible choice of Chayka alongside a potentially green POHO (if that is indeed Sundin’s role), to the fact that this would seemingly be an arranged marriage of two Pelley hires (as opposed to hiring a President, getting out of the way, and letting the President hire a GM), to the fact that Craig Berube still technically has his job right now (it should be a given for any new GM to bring in a new head coach, not decide if Berube is the right guy moving forward).
Certainly, if this is indeed the final outcome and Friedman’s intel is true, it will be an executive search that ends with just as many — if not more — questions than answers.
