The Toronto Maple Leafs front office is in turmoil. It has now been over two weeks since the Toronto Maple Leafs fired now-former general manager Brad Treliving, and while MLSE president and CEO Keith Pelley and company have yet to hire a replacement, Pelley himself has become caught in the rumour crosshairs after recent reports from The Athletic.
In a Wednesday article written by Jonas Siegel, Chris Johnston and James Mirtle, it was reported that at the 2026 NHL trade deadline, Keith Pelley had been present in the team’s ‘war room’ at the deadline, something he had never done to that point with the NBA’s Toronto Raptors or MLS’ Toronto FC—the two other big-league sports clubs that Pelley oversees. But rumour has it, Pelley was not just a mere observer of the Leafs’ front office operations at the deadline. According to reports, Pelley came equipped to the team’s war room with notes on potential trade returns—notes that reports say were suspected to be generated by artificial intelligence.
Did Pelley really use AI?
While saying that Pelley definitely used AI at the deadline would be more eye-catching and shocking, this is just a report at the end of the day, so its validity is a bit up in the air, but let’s go over the rumour itself.
According to The Athletic, at the time of the deadline, Pelley was “concerned by the direction the team was taking under general manager Brad Treliving and felt it necessary to get a first-hand view at how the front office operated under pressure and arrived at decisions.”
Pelley reportedly viewed himself as an observer in the Leafs’ war room during the deadline, but others present viewed it differently, alleging that Pelley was asking numerous questions to team scouts, demanding more “assets” in trade talks and even, as previously mentioned, had notes on trade returns that some team staff members believe were AI-generated.
These allegations don’t make Pelley look great; in this situation, he is already a non-hockey mind collaborating on the Leafs’ deadline decisions, and the reports of AI use make him look quite out of his depth in hockey decision-making. Pelley denied any use of AI by himself, so take these claims with a grain of salt; however, The Athletic did report that what Pelley witnessed from the Leafs’ front office at the deadline was “disorganized and directionless.” And it was this front office vibe that likely led to the firing of Treliving.
Conclusions to be drawn
This Pelley AI rumour is just that, a rumour, and with Pelley’s dismissal of these claims, it will likely remain unclear what really happened regarding Pelley’s involvement at the 2026 trade deadline. But if, for a moment, we believe that Pelley did attempt to utilize AI-generated trade returns, it actually lines up quite well with comments that Pelley has made in regard to the team’s ongoing GM hunt, specifically a comment he made to the media on March 31.
“They have to really understand the importance of data and where data is moving,” Pelley said. “Every single decision we make will be evidence-based. Evidence-based decisions are never wrong.”
Pelley’s emphasis on things like “data” and “evidence-based decisions” aligns fairly closely with using AI language models to support decision-making, as these models can provide assistance and answers by leveraging the seemingly endless wealth of data the internet offers. This isn’t to say that Pelley allegedly using AI to suggest potentially franchise-altering moves doesn’t come off as lazy and show a lack of hockey knowledge from MLSE’s top brass, but it does show a connection with Pelley and data-based decision-making if the rumours are in fact true.
If it is indeed true, it would strengthen even further the rumours of the Leafs’ immense interest in Florida Panthers assistant GM, Sunny Mehta. We have previously looked at Mehta’s potential fit with the Leafs, and to summarize, Mehta is a wizard with analytics and has helped the Panthers find players who will statistically thrive in their system—a system that won back-to-back Stanley Cups in 2024 and 2025.
With Pelley’s previous comments on data-based decision-making, combined with new rumours of his AI use, Mehta seems like just the kind of guy Pelley might want running the Leafs.
