Since my last Fan Therapy, the Toronto Maple Leafs lost their final seven games of the season, missed the playoffs for the first time in 10 years, finished eighth in their division and fifth-worst in the league, and announced today that John Chayka and Mats Sundin will be running their hockey department.
The draft lottery is today. We have the fifth-best odds at first overall, which in a normal universe means a real shot at jumping into the top three. In the universe of the Toronto Maple Leafs, however, we are absolutely getting the sixth pick—which, thanks to that hilarious top-5 protection clause Treliving negotiated into the Brandon Carlo trade last spring, would belong to the Boston Bruins. Pray for ping pong balls. Please.
The hiring of John Chayka and Mats Sundin
Anyway. The new front office. Mats Sundin and Arizona’s own John Chayka.
Mats Sundin is one of the greatest Maple Leafs to ever play. Captained the team 11 seasons, franchise leading scorer until Auston catches him in a few years, Hall of Famer, statue on Legends Row, Olympic Gold, all of it.
He has also never worked in an NHL front office. Not as a scout, not in development, not anywhere. His only management experience is a consulting gig with Team Sweden at a tournament a decade ago. His new title is “Senior Executive Advisor, Hockey Operations,” which sounds like half the buzzwords in hockey. Elliotte Friedman said on 32 Thoughts that Sundin “isn’t coming here to kiss babies and shake hands.” Fine. But this is a guy who hasn’t been in the league for 17 years.
Then there’s John Chayka. Chayka was the youngest GM in NHL history when Arizona hired him at 26 in 2016. That’s two years younger than I am now, and I wouldn’t have trusted that guy to manage a Wendy’s (incidentally, Chayka owns 61 of those franchises). Chayka went 131–147–38 over four seasons with the Coyotes, made the playoffs once, and then, in July 2020, the day before the Coyotes’ first playoff game in eight years, he resigned. The Coyotes’ statement said he “chose to quit on a strong and competitive team.” Six months later, Gary Bettman suspended him through the end of 2021 for “conduct detrimental to the league.” The commissioner suspended him. That’s the new GM.
The dysfunction in Toronto
Steve Simmons wrote a column this weekend claiming that when Chayka was shown the door in Arizona, only one of the six computer monitors on his giant numbers-guru desk actually worked—the other five were frozen screens, just for show. Whether literally true or vintage Simmons, it sticks. Tie Domi is, per multiple reports, the king-maker who connected Sundin and Chayka to Pelley in the first place. His son Max wears Sundin’s number 13 in Toronto. It’s all very on the nose.
Here’s what’s bothering me. Brendan Shanahan was let go a year ago, and his job was never refilled. Brad Treliving got fired on March 30. Keith Pelley, CEO of MLSE, who came from running the European golf tour and has zero NHL management experience, has been driving this entire search. In March, he stood at a podium and said the next hire had to be “data-centric.” Cool buzzwords, Keith.
He has now hired a Hall of Famer with no front office experience and a guy who’s been out of the NHL for five years and got suspended on his way out. Sundin was reportedly brought in outside the formal search process on Tie Domi’s recommendation. James Mirtle said on the Bunkis podcast that NHL executives he’s spoken to are “a bit baffled that this is the choice.” Anthony Petrielli at Maple Leafs Hot Stove called it the pairing of “someone with no management experience” with a guy whose tenure was five years ago and ended badly.
Compare this to when Lou Lamoriello walked through that door in 2015. Three Stanley Cups, Hall of Fame, decades of professionalism. You knew exactly what you were getting the second he showed up. This is not that. This is a non-hockey suit reaching for two big names with thin résumés and hoping the optics paper over the process. It’s floundering.
However. Sundin and Chayka could prove me wrong. I want them to.
Room for optimism?
Chayka, for all the baggage, has at least some NHL management experience, more than Brendan Shanahan had when he took the President’s job here a decade ago. Joe Sakic became Colorado’s GM as a Hall of Famer and built a Cup. Steve Yzerman did similar in Tampa (ignore what’s happening in Detroit, please). There’s a template here. If Sundin is given real authority instead of being used as a credibility shield, and Chayka’s analytics background drags this org’s process into 2026, this could actually work.
I’m cynical, but I’m not nihilistic. The jury is out. I want this team to win a Cup before I’m dead. That is, somehow, the bar now.
Tuesday will be another firestorm, pretty much no matter what happens. In any scenario, Sundin and Chayka are both jumping right into the deep end. They’ve got a whole city, and countless more pulling for them. This one included. Go Leafs Go.
