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I dunno. If McKenna can't land us the #1D we've been looking for all these years, can we rebuild around him?

Yes, something like this. 1OA gives a lot of exciting possibilities for real hockey trades. And management pressure to compete with Nylander and Matthews incentivizes such trades.

You know who could help the Leafs the next couple seasons? Zach Werenski.

Sounds familiar!

Why not take McKenna and then go shopping for a #1D?

Is it that or is it just this? I dunno. All that stuff that makes him controversial can be dismissed as old boys club grievances, but what’s the record of accomplishment beneath that? 1 year as an AGM, 4 poor years as GM. What does he know about building a winning organization?

I wonder if it’s as simple as this guy wasn’t in a position to demand a hefty salary or POHO organizational power, and Pelley wants to run it on the cheap and with ownership involvement. Chayka responded more positively to all that than the 26 other people they looked at.

This is the most troubling answer I heard, from Pelley: Setting “titles” against “goals” is what Keith was going for, and it’s obvious enough why. Between those two poles, I know where I would like to be, thanks! But he slipped and let some truth through, I think, when he said “structure.”...

Chayka sees holes that need filling and changes that need making, Mats thinks, historically, things were done well and also not well and the things that weren't done well should be done differently, and Keith isn't worried and did due diligence and his happy where they landed and did due...

Right. You can't recycle something that's been moldering at the dump for six years.

I’ve been very down on Shanahan since Dubas left — I believe that BS is responsible for stubbornly sticking with a decidedly not-Hawks core and burning so many assets, all the way up to Minten + a 1st, futilely trying to get them over the hump and that Dubas’s crash out was his desperate attempt...

Looks like Chayka hasn’t lost his touch pitching rich dudes and that Sundin is there as lipstick on a pig…

I take it as an index of how surprisingly awful things are right now. If Tie Domi and the suit’s golf buddy are indeed sitting opposite Pelley in the situation room and setting the direction of the front office, that is surprising, and it’s unsurprising that smart folks who’ve been with the team...

I mean, the reason we’re hearing this is because sources are willing to share with the media, and that says less about the media or fans than the dynamics of what’s happening in the org (evidently there’s a lot of concern!)

Second time as farce... or maybe it's, as Mirtle says, more like Linden in Vancouver.

That would be a question for the board to Pelley, right? MLSE paid for the search firm, and Pelley went with guys Tie Domi and "Todd Carroll, a former professional actor with a hockey background who met Pelley through" golf vouched for. WTF?

From a triple (Jonas/Mirtle/Johnston) by-line at the Athletic: I don’t love it!

That’s exactly what should be debated here, no? I don’t like that the controversial stuff seems to be getting in the way of a full vetting of his actual track record as a GM. I don’t much care if his departure from the Coyotes was overblown or not if he’s a mediocre manager.

Well…. Yeah. There is that. It’s no small thing. Also, promotions. I’m sure, in most cases, their current team’s ownership would just match, but MLSE using its resources to bid up the cost of doing business for less rich franchises isn’t a terrible idea. Maybe a new sport science head or...

The former is a reason none of them would be hired imminently, which Jonas didn’t suggest was a possibility let alone a priority, and the latter isn’t really much of an obstacle. All “under contract” means is you’ve got to ask permission. Are you saying they shouldn’t?