SIMMONS: Why Keith Pelley must hire two people, not one, to run the Maple Leafs

Steve Simmons says that the MLSE CEO needs to change his mind and that the Toronto job is too big for just one man.

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Published Apr 16, 2026  •  5 minute read

Keith Pelley, President and CEO of Maple Leaf Sports and Entertainment, addresses media at Scotiabank Arena in Toronto on Tuesday March 31, 2026, following the firing of Toronto Maple Leafs GM Brad Treliving. Ernest Doroszuk/Toronto Sun

A lot of words spoken on a locker cleanout day where nobody really cleans out their lockers anymore.

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A lot of optimistic drivel spread by the Maple Leafs hierarchy, players and coach.

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The head coach, Craig Berube — coming off his crummiest season in the NHL, finishing a league worst 5-15-5 after the Olympics when the Leafs weren’t trying to tank — explained almost nothing about how a season went completely wrong.

And the big shots, captain Auston Matthews — composed and trying his best to be honest — basically called the season a one-off, with William Nylander, the flashy winger, agreeing that the Leafs will be back in the playoffs next year.

They said that. With straight faces. With almost belief.

And for all the attention that the Maple Leafs words will get over the next few days — who said what and why — the only words that matter will come next from Keith Pelley, the CEO of Maple Leaf Sports and Entertainment, who has had trouble with words lately. Tripping over them. Specializing in corporate babble.

What Pelley does and what he decides in the next month is really all that matters for the Leafs in the coming days.

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Who are some GM candidates?

The names that have been floated around to replace Brad Treliving as general manager are hardly encouraging. You hear the turncoat, leak and occasional liar Mike Gilllis being mentioned as a possible Leafs leader.

You hear the name Sunny Mehta, the data-driven voice of the Florida Panthers mentioned, when so much of the general manager duties in pro sports are aspects that he never has quite mastered before.

You hear John Chayka’s name as a candidate and you want to cringe. What did he do in Arizona except break the rules, get suspended and miss the playoffs?

Please, there has to be someone out there more qualified than these three. And the approach, which has come from MLSE, seems dubious at best from the outside looking in.

The Leafs need a president of hockey operations and a general manager. You can title the jobs however you want, but you need two men atop this organization.

Why do the Leafs need to hire two leaders?

It’s too big a job in a place like Toronto for just one man.

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That wasn’t my idea. That was the opinion of several top hockey people in the industry who currently are employed. When Pelley fired Brendan Shanahan a year ago and didn’t replace him, he did so because he thought his job was superfluous.

One year later, the general manager is gone, the president was never replaced and Pelley needs to find the right person to run the most highly valued hockey franchise on the planet. This job needs to be about finding the best and it should be about attracting the best.

Going retread with Gillis or Chayka is not impressive. Going hot new guy with Mehta, who just happens to be the client of the search firm advocate Neil Glasberg, is dubious on its own.

Not hiring a president or director of hockey alongside a general manager is foolhardy. Some would say that trying to get in the playoffs next season also is the same.

But if you listen to the Leafs players — and many did Thursday morning — they sounded the way Mats Sundin used to sound in the later stages of his time in Toronto: He loved the team. He loved the city. He loved the players. He loved the coach. He can’t figure out how they didn’t make the playoffs and fully believes they will make the playoffs next season.

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There is always a next season.

What needs to change for the Leafs?

The new general manager will have a lot on his plate. He has two goaltenders who have not been dependable since they came to the NHL. Anthony Stolarz has never played more than 34 games in a season and he’s 32 years old. The tender Joseph Woll once played 42 games in a season.

Leafs goaltending this season wasn’t good enough.

Leafs defence was worse, near the bottom in the NHL, giving up the most shots on goal per game and the second-most goals against in the game. Their offence struggled because they had few puck-moving defenceman of quality, too much time spent in their own zone, and there are no defenceman of quality on the way (possible early draft pick aside).

Former captain John Tavares had fine scoring numbers — did well in the tight spots around the net that makes him so effective — but defensively he was a disaster. So was Nylander. So were almost all the Leafs forwards not named Matthews.

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You can’t come back next season with this group of forwards and expect better. Not with Berube coaching, which seems to be more of a money situation right now than anything else.

Berube has two years to go on a contract that pays him more than $3 million a year. Pelley says the Leafs are going to be more data-driven in the future. If that’s the case, the Leafs numbers are so bad you can show Berube the door right now.

Except for a few interruptions. Berube and Pelley are more than friendly. Pelley doesn’t want to fire his friend. He also doesn’t want to use more than $6 million of company money on someone not working for them.

Money matters now in a place where Shanahan once said they had a salary cap for everything but hockey operations. That is about to change if it hasn’t already.

Read More

1. 

   Why Auston Matthews says he 'can't predict' his future with the Maple Leafs

2. 

   Maple Leafs lose season finale against Senators, secure spot in NHL's bottom five

There is a lot to do for the new general manager and a lot to do if there was a president ahead of the GM on the corporate breakdown of executives. We don’t know if Pelley has opened his mind to the notion of hiring two people instead of one.

We don’t know if going through the best candidates — not the ones who have been publicly identified — will convince him to proceed the way

The best in the NHL have convinced me that the Leafs job is a two-man job.

The way it works in Montreal, Boston, Vegas and Colorado.

And should work in Toronto in the future.

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