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2026-27 Toronto Maple Leafs General Discussion | Official: Sundin & Chayka to lead front office

CarltonTheBear said:
https://twitter.com/x/status/2072084478634115459

Just remembered this. Those within the Florida organization always seemed to give McCabe a lot of credit for his work there. I wondered if Sundin would be looking to bring him aboard, but at the time it seemed like his role would overlap a little with Wickenheiser's. Now there's an opening...
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And that’s an org that you can clearly say they’ve manufactured rando NHL players out of weak draft positions almost routinely (almost as routinely as Tampa)
 
Zee said:
Yeah I don't even know how a fan can evaluate all these front office changes. We go by how good the product on the ice is, and the prospect pool to a lesser extent. I have no idea how much any of the people who were let go contributed to any of the actual on ice results.
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That is where I am. I liked Dr. Wickenheiser's media scrums but it is really hard to evaluate how well she did her job.
Having watched her for years - including before she joined the Leafs, it is hard for me to imagine her doing a bad job.
 
cw said:
That is where I am. I liked Dr. Wickenheiser's media scrums but it is really hard to evaluate how well she did her job.
Having watched her for years - including before she joined the Leafs, it is hard for me to imagine her doing a bad job.
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She was a pleasure to listen to.

Dubas was a pleasure to listen to.

Honestly, when Shanahan came here, he was a pleasure to listen to.

Results matter. The franchise underperformed in the playoffs. They don't have a great track record with drafting outside of the can't miss ones. Their player development hasn't really done a great job of identifying guys who significantly outperform when acquired.

Cleaning house isn't unreasonable.

Leach seems like a loss to move away from the guy who gets credit for Dallas' drafting but I do get that if Chayka values Brackett that it makes sense to have guys who align with the vision you want.

Everyone else seems like reasonable casualties for what was otherwise a bloated front office.
 
L K said:
She was a pleasure to listen to.

Dubas was a pleasure to listen to.

Honestly, when Shanahan came here, he was a pleasure to listen to.

Results matter. The franchise underperformed in the playoffs. They don't have a great track record with drafting outside of the can't miss ones. Their player development hasn't really done a great job of identifying guys who significantly outperform when acquired.

Cleaning house isn't unreasonable.

Leach seems like a loss to move away from the guy who gets credit for Dallas' drafting but I do get that if Chayka values Brackett that it makes sense to have guys who align with the vision you want.

Everyone else seems like reasonable casualties for what was otherwise a bloated front office.
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And we heard about the too many cooks in the kitchen aspect repeatedly. Can't really disagree with anything you've said here.
 
I have longed for a Leafs front office that both respected players and staff but could also handle business when business handling was warranted, and for the most part it is hard to argue against these being largely necessary. Leach's was the biggest question mark, but Chayka already hired Brackett over him and they have an overlapping skillset. Mark Leach sat second chair on all those vaunted Dallas/Detroit draft classes he was getting credit for. He did a relatively good job on the front end of this past draft, but draft boards are generally built under directives from above skewing the player types to prioritize and without knowing the full breadth of opportunity out there, it's very, very hard to say anything worthwhile about his selection quality/scouting group management.

We'll see how the hires look in backfilling the openings, but I've generally liked the direction of the hires that have been made so far. No arguments against the effectiveness of a more agile, cohesive decision-making group either.
 
L K said:
Results matter. The franchise underperformed in the playoffs. They don't have a great track record with drafting outside of the can't miss ones. Their player development hasn't really done a great job of identifying guys who significantly outperform when acquired.

Cleaning house isn't unreasonable.
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I agree

When Mark Hunter left, their drafting seemed to take a hit. That and trading their picks away.

Development to some extent is getting out of it what you put into it.
If there were a lot of examples of where players did not develop here and blossomed elsewhere, then I might be more down on development. You have to assess based upon the opportunity given. Between drafting and development, I think development got the shorter end of the stick.

But much like my response to hearing them speak, we're not there. We have little idea about what has gone on internally with development and what they're thinking about to improve it now. Again, I doubt Wickenheiser did a bad job. But their knock against her might be that her career/attention is split between the Leafs and being a medical doctor. I don't think it is unfair of the Leafs to say "we'd like a full time assistant GM for development ..." Trying to improve development doesn't seem like a bad thing given the results. If they cut back on the rentals, that will certainly help.
 
cw said:
I agree

When Mark Hunter left, their drafting seemed to take a hit. That and trading their picks away.
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He was hired in April 2015 and left around May 2018. So here are their draft picks in that time that have become NHLers:

2015:
Mitch Marner
Travis Dermott

2016:
Auston Matthews
Carl Grundstrom
Joseph Woll

2017:
Timothy Liljegren

Not including him for the 2018 draft because he left before it occurred. So he made 27 selections in that time, two of which were top 5 selections.

Not sure I buy the argument their drafting took a hit after he left. They hit on their two top 5 picks and Woll is a good pick, Grundstromf/Dermott/Liljegren are/were bottom of the lineup/tweeners. And this was the period their picks were the highest really.
 
herman said:
I have longed for a Leafs front office that both respected players and staff but could also handle business when business handling was warranted, and for the most part it is hard to argue against these being largely necessary.
Click to expand...

It’s interesting. What goes on under the hood is all so impossible for us to know that we can only make sense of these changes with reference to things we can see that are related but not as directly as we’d like.

If we look at this through the paralysis of the late Shanaplan and Treliving era, then it’s a welcome change: finally some accountability and change! We can take all that C-suite talk about agility, alignment, synergy at face value.

But if, on the other hand, we look at it through the surprise of the Chayka and Hillier hires (folks who were out there and known but not thought of as serious contenders for top jobs), then it looks different: media conglomerate behemoth is trying to squeeze a few more bucks of value out of all the columns on the ledger. The C-suite talk hits different.

I dunno which to believe just yet or whether, if it’s the latter, that’ll have any discernible impact on the team’s fortunes.
 
GhostofPotvin29 said:
He was hired in April 2015 and left around May 2018. So here are their draft picks in that time that have become NHLers:

2015:
Mitch Marner
Travis Dermott

2016:
Auston Matthews
Carl Grundstrom
Joseph Woll

2017:
Timothy Liljegren

Not including him for the 2018 draft because he left before it occurred. So he made 27 selections in that time, two of which were top 5 selections.

Not sure I buy the argument their drafting took a hit after he left. They hit on their two top 5 picks and Woll is a good pick, Grundstromf/Dermott/Liljegren are/were bottom of the lineup/tweeners. And this was the period their picks were the highest really.
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I mistakenly credited him with 2018
Sandin, Durzi & Holmberg (all traded away/cut loose)

The next three
2019 Robertson (traded for a 4th)
2020 Nothing yet Akhtyamov, Villeneuve
2021 Knies

2022 was better Minten, Hildeby, Grebenkin (but all traded away)

2023 Cowan (so far ..), Chadwick?
 
cw said:
I mistakenly credited him with 2018
Sandin, Durzi & Holmberg (all traded away/cut loose)

The next three
2019 Robertson (traded for a 4th)
2020 Nothing yet Akhtyamov, Villeneuve
2021 Knies

2022 was better Minten, Hildeby, Grebenkin (but all traded away)

2023 Cowan (so far ..), Chadwick?
Click to expand...

Then again their 1st rounder in 2020 literally died.
 
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