The Toronto Maple Leafs will be looking to hire a “data-centric” visionary as they move on from a disappointing NHL season that led to the firing of general manager Brad Treliving.
Maple Leafs Sports & Entertainment president and chief executive officer Keith Pelley faced the media Tuesday to answer for a season gone wrong and give an idea of how the Leafs will move on in an increasingly competitive Atlantic Division.
“They have to be data-centric,” Pelley said of whoever will replace Treliving as the head of Toronto’s hockey operations. “They have to really understand the importance of data and where data is moving.
“Every single decision we make will be evidence based,” he added. “Evidence-based decisions are never wrong.
“That’s not to say there’s not room for the heart, that doesn’t mean there’s not room to check culture, but it’s evidence based.”
Pelley said the misfortunes of the Maple Leafs, who entered the day in third-last place in the Eastern Conference standings, could not be placed solely on Treliving’s shoulders.
But after firing him Monday following three seasons on the job, Pelley said the team must “chart a new course” under different leadership, calling Treliving a “good man” and an “excellent hockey executive.”
“The team is blessed with the best resources in hockey,” Pelley said. “I can emphatically tell you, with the greatest of confidence, that there are many teams competing next month in the Stanley Cup playoffs [whose] expenditures on hockey operations pales in in comparison to the Toronto Maple Leafs.
“But without the right structure, without the right processes in place, without the right culture, without the alignment and accountability among everyone inside the operation, we will not be successful.”
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Pelley said the search for the Maple Leafs’ new head of hockey operations will begin immediately, but assistant general managers Brandon Pridham and Ryan Hardy will share the duties on an interim basis for the rest of the season.
Pelley did not say whether the Leafs’ hockey operations would be led by a president, a general manager or a combination of the roles.
“There’s no right or wrong way to actually run it,” he said.
But perhaps Pelley can find clues from division rivals Montreal and Buffalo, two teams he lauded for making big leads this season.
“We definitely didn’t see the train coming, which was the Buffalo Sabres and the Montreal Canadiens,” Pelley said, adding they are young and energetic teams that are “going to be here for a long time.”
Buffalo entered Tuesday in second place in the Atlantic Division, tied in points with Tampa Bay, while the Canadiens were third while riding a five-game winning streak.
Treliving was hired by former Toronto president of hockey operations Brendan Shanahan after he handed Kyle Dubas his walking papers as GM in May 2023.
Treliving took over a top-heavy, high-priced roster led by Auston Matthews, Mitch Marner, William Nylander and John Tavares. Originally pieced together by Shanahan, Dubas and former GM Lou Lamoriello, it was never able to get over the playoff hump. Dating back to 2017, Toronto is 2-14 with a chance to eliminate an opponent and 0-7 in winner-take-all contests, including 0-6 in Games 7s.
Pelley, who took over as president of Maple Leaf Sports & Entertainment in April 2024, declined to renew Shanahan’s contract after last season’s second-round playoff exit that was accented by consecutive 6-1 losses to the Florida Panthers on home ice in Games 5 and 7. Shanahan’s position in the hockey brain trust wasn’t subsequently filled.
Treliving’s tenure, meanwhile, will be marked by the loss of Marner — there was a window where the organization could have traded the hometown forward before his contract’s no-movement clause kicked in — and the high price paid for defenceman Brandon Carlo and centre Scott Laughton ahead of last season’s NHL trade deadline.
The Maple Leafs shipped prized forward prospect Fraser Minten, a top-five protected first-round pick, this June and a fourth-rounder last year for Carlo, a veteran blueliner yet to meet expectations. Minten is 21-years-old and centring Boston’s top line in the middle of a playoff race.
A pending unrestricted free agent, Laughton was dealt to the Los Angeles Kings for a 2026 conditional third-round pick — much less than what Toronto paid 12 months earlier — at this season’s deadline.
