Toronto Maple Leafs reportedly close to finalizing two key front office hirings per Elliotte Friedman
Photo credit: Jerome Miron-Imagn Images
Tonight, a new report from Elliotte Friedman has confirmed that the Toronto Maple Leafs are in the final stages of potentially hiring John Chayka and Mats Sundin.
The Toronto Maple Leafs have conducted an extensive search over the last several weeks interviewing several front office candidates.
Throughout the process the Maple Leafs have been connected to multiple potential General Managers and now Elliotte Friedman believes they have closed in on Mats Sundin and John Chayka to lead the next era of Maple Leafs hockey.
Elliotte Friedman confirms Maple Leafs are closing in on hiring new General Manager
According to a recent report from Friedman, the Maple Leafs have chosen Mats Sundin as President of Hockey Operations and John Chayka as General Manager and are now negotiating contracts.
As it stands right now, I’m under the impression it’s gonna be Sundin and Chayka, and they just have to close the deal. Nothing is done until it’s done, but that’s what I believe is going on.
While this is not an official confirmation or final report of a deal being done from Friedman it seems things are well down the road towards a deal.
If Sundin and Chayka take over it will be a bold choice for the Maple Leafs to hand the keys to the franchise to these two.
Sundin does not have previous front office experience outside of being an occasional team consultant for Sweden making him a risky hire.
As for Chayka, he has experience but has been known to be a controversial decision maker with his methods and struggled to rebuild the Arizona Coyotes making him a risky hire as well for entirely different reasons.
If the deal does get done, it will be interesting to see if Chayka and Sundin can rebuild this core group around Auston Matthews and William Nylander to get things back on track.
As more news is provided on the Maple Leafs front office hires, we will pass along all of the latest details.
Also read on House Of Hockey :
The next Leafs GM has been made aware of one condition in order to keep job
The next Leafs GM has been made aware of one condition in order to keep job