The Maple Leafs aren’t operating like a serious hockey team

“At the end of the day, this is the most important decision that I will likely make in my tenure at MLSE.”

The “decision” that Keith Pelley, the president and CEO of MLSE, was referring to in late March was the hiring of the following entrance workplace of the Toronto Maple Leafs.

This was it then? With a very powerful choice of his tenure, at a essential pivot level for the franchise, the most effective Pelley might do — the most effective the Leafs, one of many league’s most iconic and richest franchises, might do — was rent John Chayka as basic supervisor and the obvious head of hockey operations and Mats Sundin as senior government adviser of hockey operations?

The finest Pelley might do was hand the keys to the entrance workplace to somebody who hasn’t been within the NHL since he was suspended by the commissioner 5 years in the past after a largely ineffective run with the Arizona Coyotes and another person who has by no means run an NHL team, nor been across the team or league for practically 20 years?

And all apparently with an uncommon, convoluted setup the place Chayka is apparently in charge?

This will not be a serious hockey team. That’s what this choice suggests. A serious team, decided to win the franchise’s first Stanley Cup title in virtually 60 years at any price, with the most important monetary muscle mass within the sport, would have pursued and landed essentially the most credentialed front-office expertise doable.

This will not be that.

And after overseeing one of the most chaotic seasons in franchise historical past, following prior actions within the entrance workplace that included the dismissals of Kyle Dubas after which Brendan Shanahan, Pelley and an possession group in transition have not earned the good thing about the doubt.

Why Chayka drew the highest job is the most important query right here.

Only one 12 months after he was introduced in as an inexperienced assistant GM to then-GM Don Maloney in 2015, Chayka turned the youngest GM in professional sports activities historical past, at age 26. The Coyotes completed with 70 factors in his first season (third-worst within the NHL) and 70 factors in his second season (third-worst once more). They missed the playoffs each occasions. They missed the playoffs once more in Year 3, by 4 factors, and had been sitting eleventh within the Western Conference when the 2019-20 season was halted by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Shortly earlier than the NHL resumed play for the playoffs, Chayka give up in controversial style.

Soon after that, in the summertime of 2020, the Coyotes had been compelled to forfeit first- and second-round picks within the 2020 and 2021 drafts as a result of they’d violated the league’s draft mix testing coverage whereas Chayka was in cost. And not lengthy after that, in early 2021, in a transfer with out a lot precedent, the NHL suspended Chayka for conduct detrimental to the league.

NHL commissioner Gary Bettman informed Chayka “breached his obligation to the club” by reportedly pursuing alternatives with different NHL groups, specifically, the New Jersey Devils, whereas he was nonetheless employed by the Coyotes.

No team had employed him in any capability since — till the Leafs. Twenty-five basic managers have been employed at the moment.

Those controversies could be simpler to put aside if Chayka had an impeccable managerial file. But he would not.

About a month after he turned GM, the Coyotes scored on the 2016 draft, deciding on Clayton Keller and Jakob Chychrun within the first spherical. But that was it for main draft finds in his quick tenure. His entrance workplace notably handed on Quinn Hughes (485 profession factors) within the 2018 draft and chosen Barrett Hayton (155) as a substitute. The Coyotes did signal some younger expertise — Keller, Chychrun, Nick Schmaltz — to offers that may develop into favorable and safe their crease. But in addition they took huge swings that bombed, akin to an eight-year contract for Oliver Ekman-Larsson that was later purchased out, a commerce for Phil Kessel as his prime days had been ending, and a expensive gamble on pending UFA Taylor Hall in a livid bid to make the playoffs.

The Coyotes had been one of many NHL’s largest spenders by the tip of Chayka’s run.

This was not profitable rebuild or retool: Arizona, after dropping within the second spherical within the aftermath of Chayka’s ignominious exit, would miss the playoffs in its last 4 seasons within the desert.

He has since been serving because the CEO of JKC Capital, a family-run enterprise which, in response to the corporate web site, holds 50 Wendy’s franchises and 5 Tim Hortons franchises in Ontario and Quebec. Chayka can be on the board of Wendy’s Canada, the web site says.

He was the most effective particular person the Leafs might discover to handle their team now of all occasions, in a probably franchise-altering offseason? Why had no different team employed him — in any capability — within the four-plus years since his suspension ended?

With Pelley now on the helm, MLSE seems to be making the identical mistake with Chayka as they made together with his predecessor, Brad Treliving, ignoring a observe file that does not scream success or something near it.

While Sundin has no front-office expertise, Chayka has a mere 5 years.

Sundin, feeling extra like the second fiddle on this new front-office setup, is among the many biggest gamers in Leafs historical past, with essentially the most factors ever by a Leaf and, till this previous season when he was handed by Auston Matthews, essentially the most objectives. He was the captain of the team for 10 seasons and has a plaque within the Hall of Fame.

But Sundin has by no means labored in an NHL entrance workplace in any capability and has been a scarce presence across the Leafs since he retired from the NHL in 2009. What will he examine aside from a taking part in profession that ended 17 years in the past, when the wage cap was nonetheless comparatively new, in a league that appears radically totally different at the moment? What position will he even play for a team that is in a perilous place in the meanwhile?

He’s not the president. The Leafs nonetheless aren’t filling that position for some motive. So what’s his position precisely?

According to the team, Sundin will “provide support across hockey operations, with a focus on team culture, player development and leadership support.”

It shall be tempting to view Sundin as a not-so-dissimilar alternative from Shanahan a dozen years in the past. Hall of Famer, that’s, with no front-office expertise.

Except that Shanahan, a month after his retirement as a participant, went to work within the league’s head workplace and had even performed a central position in pushing the league towards the sooner, extra expert product we see at the moment.

And it seems that Sundin will not have the ability that Shanahan had as president.

Mats Sundin returns to the Leafs in his first front-office position. (Nick Turchiaro / Imagn Images)

Choosing Sundin as an government adviser has the texture of a PR play for a team in disaster.

It feels very paying homage to the Francesco Aquilini-led Vancouver Canucks putting in Trevor Linden, a franchise icon and longtime captain with no front-office expertise, as their president within the spring of 2014 and pairing him up with Jim Benning as GM in a run that proved disastrous.

How hungrily did Pelley pursue prime managerial expertise from rival groups? Was it simply a perfunctory telephone name to the Tampa Bay Lightning to inquire about Julien BriseBois and that was that? Did he pivot to Chris MacFarland, Eric Tulsky or Kelly McCrimmon afterward? Was there actually an all-out try to seek out the most effective expertise?

And if there was, how did Chayka, in the beginning, and Sundin together with him, emerge as the most effective this team might do?

It is a huge gamble on two individuals with questionable credentials. And at a time when Auston Matthews’ future with the team is in actual doubt.

The search course of itself raises questions: from Tie Domi (the daddy of a participant on the team) being concerned; to Chayka, a longtime good friend of that participant (Max) being employed; to Neil Glasberg’s search agency additionally representing candidates; to not have a clear-cut plan for the front-office construction within the first place.

Yes, there’s a risk that this all works one way or the other. That Chayka finds redemption in his second tour as GM. That Sundin proves to be a dynamic front-office chief regardless of his inexperience.

But that risk would have existed with anybody. Hiring extra certified individuals would enhance the percentages of success.

That this was the most effective that Pelley and MLSE might do for a jewel of an NHL franchise, with a loyal and passionate fan base determined to see a Stanley Cup victory for the primary time in six many years, it actually is difficult to imagine.