Next Leafs’ GM needs to retool, not rebuild

With the Toronto Maple Leafs going in a different direction, the question is, what should be the goal of the next general manager?

On Monday night, the Maple Leafs fired general manager Brad Treliving in the midst of a miserable season for the defending Atlantic Division champions. Maple Leaf Sports & Entertainment CEO Keith Pelley stated during a press conference on Tuesday that the Leafs will seek a “data-centric” person to fill the role, and that the team wants to retool rather than tear everything down and rebuild from the ground up.

On Wednesday’s edition of Daily Faceoff LIVE, Tyler Yaremchuk and Carter Hutton discuss what the next GM in Toronto should do regarding a retool.

Carter Hutton: I think for them, it’s just a tricky situation of – you’ve been through this on and dance already, right? You’ve seen Kyle Dubas come in there and then you move on to Brad Treliving. You’ve had a coaching change. There’s been so many different dynamics that have gone into it. But that being said, I don’t know where they go from here. I know we talked about having a data-centric general manager. I think it’s an interesting take. I just don’t know if that is going to be the solution of what you have.

Then, there’s the factor of what players do you have and where do you go from here? Is it a piece here or there that are going to make you better? Or is it going to take like some really big trades and some really big moves to actually make this team into a dynamic winner? Because what you see right now, they sure feel like they’re a long way away, especially when I look at their back end. It just seems totally depleted. It does not seem like a back end that can win a Stanley Cup.

Tyler Yaremchuk: That’s why I can understand if, you know, Keith Pelley and MLSE looks at some of the decisions that were made over the last three years and are like, ‘Okay, we need to be a little bit more forward thinking and kind of move out of the hole, build a blue line that’s big, rugged and tough.’ Jeff Marek threw a few names out on Twitter that would be in line with the sort of data-centric way of thinking. Tim Barnes from Washington, Tyler Dellow from Carolina, who’s actually from my neck of the woods in Edmonton. Sunny Mehta with the Panthers, the Leafs have some internal options like Darryl Metcalf.

I also think, and I know they sort of did this with Kyle Dubas and Lou Lamorello, but I think if they’re going to go with someone who’s a little green and inexperienced, like a Barnes, a Mehta, a Dellow, someone on that data side, I think putting them in as GM and going with a more experienced president of hockey operations is the way to go. That’s where I could see someone like a…John Chayka, who I think would be a pretty interesting name. He hasn’t worked in hockey in a number of years now, but like a John Chayka or a Mike Gillis, I think would be a great fit there. Doug Armstrong, we talked about him, if they can get him out of St. Louis. There’s so much pressure, and there’s so much more to do in that job in Toronto. There’s so much more that comes with it than any other GM job in the league outside of maybe Montreal. Even Montreal went with the Jeff Gorton/Kent Hughes kind of approach. I think putting a veteran in front of a data-driven GM, I think that’s the way the Leafs should go about this. I think it’s the way they need to go about this.

You can watch the full segment and entire episode here…