Expect more front office changes beyond GM and president for Leafs
The Toronto Maple Leafs are set to embark on a new era in terms of the structure of their front office, and all signs are pointing to that meaning a combination of John Chayka and franchise legend Mats Sundin coming in general manager and president roles in the near future.
What does that mean for some of the holdovers from Brad Treliving’s staff? The Leafs still list Shane Doan as a special advisor to the general manager, while Brandon Pridham, Hayley Wickenheiser, Darryl Metcalf, Ryan Hardy and Derek Clancey all hold assistant general manager titles.
On Thursday’s episode of Daily Faceoff LIVE, host Tyler Yaremchuk and co-host and former NHL goaltender Carter Hutton were joined by NHL insider David Pagnotta to discuss what other parts of the Leafs’ current front office setup could be on the move.
Tyler Yaremchuk: Let’s kick things off in Toronto where it sounds like there may be closing in on their new structure of the front office Dave What can you tell us? What’s the latest on the search in TO?
David Pagnotta: Yeah, well they’re getting there. You know, all the spotlight is being placed on a combo of Mats Sundin and John Chayka. Scott White still in the mix in some capacity. We know Mike Futa is out, and it seemed like those were the three finalists for the GM role anyway, but I think the combination of understanding that they’re gonna move forward, or their preference is to move forward with a Sundin and Chayka combo. I think beyond that, we’re gonna see some additional changes to the front office of the Toronto Maple Leafs, and that might be part of, as they’re negotiating the deals for those guys, part of what gets rolled out. They don’t necessarily happen all at once, but it may be a staggered process. I believe some within management are on expiring contracts; others are entering the final year of their deals. You know Chayka and Sundin are gonna have to decide how this management front office structure looks like and what changes need to be made, or want to be made, and we’ve got to imagine you know, they’re gonna want to bring in some people on their own and under their own umbrella. Again, this is likely to be a bit of a staggered process, but it’s certainly moving towards the finish line. Although, it seems like almost every hour it changes from this is happening tomorrow to this is happening later, to so on and so on. So it’s still a little bit hazy as to when this will actually be rolled out officially, but it looks like they’ve at least identified their guys. It’s now a matter of those guys come into terms with the Leafs… It certainly sounds like if John Chayka is in, Shane Doan will be out, among others, so we’ll keep tabs on that. I mentioned last week Tie Domi’s connection to this whole process, and that’s getting more headlines tied to it as he has a relationship, as we know, with Mats Sundin and of course, John Chayka as well. He’s kind of been the facilitator between the two.
You can watch the full segment and the rest of the episode here…