Brendan Shanahan OUT as Maple Leafs President | Instant Analysis

After 11 years, the Shana plan is over. The Toronto Maple Leafs announced that President Brendan Shanahan is no longer President Shanahan. They will not be renewing his contract. And I know based on some of the things that you’ve heard me say on the podcast and in videos recently, you might think I’d be jumping for joy. I’m sad. Now, that doesn’t mean I don’t think this was the right decision, and it doesn’t mean I don’t think this will ultimately be good for the Toronto Maple Leafs, but it is sad nonetheless. Let’s read the Leaf statement and relive some history here. Following the completion of the Maple Leafs 24-25 season with a loss in the second round of the Stanley Cup playoffs to the Florida Panthers. They didn’t need to put that part. That was unnecessary. Just after the season, that’s all. Anyway, with a traumatic loss to the Florida Panthers, MLSSE announced that the contract for team president and alternate governor Brendan Shanahan would not be renewed this off season. Over the past 11 years, Brendan Shanahan has made countless contributions to the Toronto Maple Leafs on ice, on the ice, off the ice, and in the community, said MLSSE president and CEO Keith P. Brendan is one of the most respected leaders in the game. and he has instilled many of the traits that were the signature of his Hall of Fame career throughout the organization, uniting this storied franchise in the honor, pride, and courage that it was founded on. Our responsibility and driving motivation, however, is to add a new chapter to the Maple Leafs championship history, and it was determined that a new voice was required to take the team to the next level in the years ahead. The franchise will be forever grateful for Brendan’s contributions and wish him and his family every success and happiness in the future. Brendan Shanahan was announced as Toronto Maple Leafs team president in April 2014. The Sorry, I’m losing it. That was a month after my wife and I moved into our house in Ashawa where we lived for nine years. Then we moved out of that place and came here and he predates that man. Like he he predates our marriage. We’ve been married over a decade now. Anyway, uh Brennan Shanahan was announced as Toronto May team president in April 2014, joining the team after serving in various roles as an executive with the National Hockey League, most recently as director of player safety. As president and alternate governor for the Maple Leafs, Shanahan was responsible for all areas of the club’s operations and led the building of the team that would go on to qualify for the playoffs for a league leading nine consecutive seasons. His impact of Man, they really had to put that, huh? His impact off the ice has been equally important, overseeing the franchise’s centennial anniversary celebrations during the 201617 season, introducing Legends Row in Maple Leaf Square, a series of statues that paid tribute to the greatest players in Maple Leaf’s history and tireless work to rebuild strong ties between the team’s strong alumni network and the club. Now, Brendan Shanahan was not let go as president of or not renewed, whatever, as president of the Toronto Maple Leafs because they made it to the playoffs for nine straight years. We’re all quite happy about that actually, like in a vacuum. The problem has been they’ve won two rounds in that time. And this year, you might go, “Oh, well, they had a sevename series against the defending Stanley Cup champions.” All right. Well, they only lost to the defending Stanley Cup champions twice out of those seven times. The beginning, middle, and end of it is this was it. This is all that’s left. Other than moving off of the core, which is going to happen whether Brendan Shanahan likes it or not, the GM is gone. Actually, a couple GMs are gone. The head coach was gone. In fact, several head coaches are gone. How many assistant coaches? Like a dozen. At some point, this team that has struggled with futility like none other in the history of the NHL, there was a common denominator and it was one guy and he was in charge of everything. Now, he released a statement and I think it’s worth reading and then I think it’s worth looking back at Shanahan’s time as president. Elliot Freeman tweeted this out. Statement from Brennan Shanahan. Following a meeting today, I was informed that I was no longer going to remain as president and alternate governor of the Toronto Maple Leafs. I want to thank the board of MLSSE for thus tremendous support they have shown me over my tenure. Toronto is where I was born and raised, where my family still lives, and being a part of this historic franchise will always be one of the greatest honors of my life. I want to thank the entire Maple Leaf staff for their commitment and hard work over the years. They are second to none in the National Hockey League. I want to thank the alumni for all their support and the tremendous work they do at our games and within the community. Many of them were my heroes growing up and it has been a pleasure to get to know them on a personal level. I want to thank the fans for their passion and loyalty. Notice how he didn’t say it was the fans fault that the Leafs kept losing. There’s some people who should probably take note of that. Anyway, while I am proud of the rebuild we embarked on starting in 2014, ultimately I came here to help win the Stanley Cup and we did not. There is nothing more I wanted to deliver to our fans and my biggest regret is that we could not finish the job. I greatly enjoyed working with Brad and Craig and I firmly believed they are excellent in their roles and have done a great job in their time with the team. Also, I want to thank the players. They are committed and passionate about delivering a championship to this city and will do everything within their power to accomplish that goal. I wish them all the very best. Thank you, Brendan. I want to tell you about something that is sometimes difficult about this. Something that is difficult about having a YouTube channel where you have like a quarter million subscribers over a 100,000 like way over 100,000 people are going to watch this video. SDBN’s YouTube channel just crossed 150,000 subscribers. Your words carry weight with those numbers and I have been all over Brendan Shanahan for years and I’ve met Brendan Shanahan. I’ve had nothing but pleasant interactions with Brennan Shanahan and the Leafs players and any of the coaches that I’ve ever met. Brennan Shanahan has been nothing but kind to me in person and I repaid that by for a couple years now saying, “Hey, the Leafs should probably fire this guy.” But I don’t make these videos for the board at MLSSE, the executives at the Toronto Maple Leafs, the coaches or the players. These are for the fans. The fans who have wanted to see this team win a Stanley Cup since two-year prior to the moon landing. the fans who have eagerly awaited the playoffs every year for nine straight years only to be disappointed each and every time. He might be a great guy. I don’t know him like that. I tell you what, I don’t know anything about Bill Zto as a guy, but I can tell you that as an executive, he works for the team and runs the team that are the current Stanley Cup champions. They are the defending Stanley Cup champions and they’re still in the final four and they just knocked off the Leafs as the Leafs mentioned in that press release unnecessarily. The best stuff Brendan Shanahan did with the Toronto Maple Leafs is probably near the beginning of his tenure with the Leafs and that’s probably a big reason why he hung around for so long. Before the Leafs centennial year, he talked about a five-year plan that changes every day. On opening night, he surprised everybody by no longer honoring jersey numbers, but retiring them. James Van Remdikeke changes his jersey number on opening night of the season. And he builds Legends Row, which is a very popular attraction outside of Scosia Bank Arena. I see people taking pictures with it every time I walk by it. And I love the thing. So many people who this organization has either turned away or alienated over so many years came back to the team. Matt Sundine, I still think his relationship with the Leafs is a little bit complicated, but for the most part, he’s back. Dave Keon was nowhere to be found and Brennan Shanahan brought him back into the building and immortalized him several times over. He changed the logo and the jersey to one that thoroughly does not suck, unlike the ones before it. The alumni that you see at the games are not necessarily the same alumni you would see at the games before Brendan Shanahan became president of the team. Again, they were ignored andor alienated. The Leafs for many, many years did the same crap, trotted out the same people, and not to mention trotted out the same awful team. Well, what happens two years into Brendan Shanahan’s tenure with the Toronto Maple Leafs? The dude gets the first overall pick and selects Austin Matthews. And who gets to make that pick? A front office of Mark Hunter, a a grizzly guy who ended up getting on the stage and making the pick. A legend in junior hockey circles. Kyle Dubis, one one of the hot young free agents that was on the market at the time and he gets him. and Lou Lamarello the most accomplished and prestigious executive probably in the history of the sport. It’s like him and like I don’t know is Scotty Bowman more of an executive or a coach. It depends. Add to that he gets a prestigious coach and Mike Babcock at the time to join the team. Remember we really wanted that at the time. Mitch Marner is selected fourth overall the year before. William Knander selected eighth overall the year before. The core is there. Lou leaves. Kyle Dubis becomes the GM and one of the first things he does is he signs John Tvaris as a free agent. That’s Shanny. I don’t want all of Brennan Shanahan’s tenure with the Leafs to be remembered as one of epic failure because so many of the things he did around the Leafs, frankly off the ice with the Leafs were really objectively very very good. And yeah, they made the playoffs nine straight years and they won the division a couple times. One of them was made up, the other was this year. And yeah, the salary cap went stagnant for a few years because of co and I think that wrecked a lot of plans. Might have even wrecked the Shana plan as a whole. But for a 5-year plan that supposedly changes each and every day, this team under Brendan Shanahan was unbelievably, inexcusably, unjustifiably stubborn. The Leafs are about to lose Mitch Mner. One of the greatest regular season performers they’ve ever had. His name is all throughout the top fives and top 10s in basically every offensive category. He was nominated for the Selki Trophy. The Leafs are about to lose this player for nothing because they didn’t make hard decisions when they had a chance to. I’ve walked through this many times. I’m going to walk through it again. 2021, you lose to the Habs, you blow a 3-1 series lead. You could have made moves then, right? significant moves. You didn’t. Okay. 2022, you lose to the defending Stanley Cup champions in seven. Sound familiar? On home ice. Sound familiar? And you only score one goal in that game seven. Sound familiar? Listen, do you make significant moves then? Well, no. Okay. 2023, you win a round. Ah, finally. Shane Plan is working. Everything is working. We were right to stick with it. You get demolished in the second round by Florida. Kyle Dubis does a press conference. It was not a very good press conference. In fact, it got him fired. But within that press conference, Kyle Dubis said for the first time, hinted at for the first time, you know what? I can move off of this court. He was fired hours later. Hours later, Brad T comes in and he’s got five weeks before Mitch Mner’s no move clause kicks in. The Leafs, Brandon Shanahan especially, had known that that no move clause was going to kick in for four years. Four years warning they had. And Brad Tring is is stuck there look, you know, patting his pockets looking for his keys. So July 1st comes, you let the no move clause kick in. Now you can’t trade Mner without Mner’s approval, and he didn’t give you the approval. I don’t blame him. The guy sticks to something that he negotiated for and earned. Okay, great. So you got Mner, you got Tavvaris, whose contract will be coming up. It’s actually up right now. And Austin Matthews. Okay, so Willy’s gone then, right? Willy’s gone. He starts the next season, William Knander does, and is one of the best offensive producers in the entire NHL. And he keeps that up for several months. And the Leafs lock him up to 8 years, 11.5 million. The Leafs have four players making 900,000 or more per season than Sasha Barov. They had two final lifelines to switch off of the core. It was July 1st, 2023 when Mner’s no move clause kicked in. You opted to keep him. Fine. Cool. You cannot keep Willie. You can’t. You cannot do it. They keep him. They extend him for eight years. Now you’ve made your bed. If you don’t get it done in the next two years with a new GM, with a new coach after a year, if you do not get it done in the next two years, you risk losing Mitch Mner and John Tvaris both for nothing. That was always the risk. And now it looks like Mitch is probably gone. And who knows about Jon, but Jon is in his mid30s. It’s not nearly as high stakes as this dude who just hit 100 points for the first time. So yes, Brandon Shanahan and the Toronto Maple Leafs under him have done a lot of good things. A lot of good things. He’s leaving them in not good shape. Okay, Brad Trl’s there and that’s a Shaneahan hire and I generally like the job he’s done. Greg Barub is there and he’s the head coach and he’s a Shaneahan hire and I generally like what he’s done. Where’s all the draft picks? They’ve all been traded. Okay. Where’s all the prospects? Most of them have been traded. Okay. Where are the playoff accolades? There are none. Where is Mner going and what are you getting for him? The Leafs, it sounds like, are going to have a boatload of cap space this summer. What are they going to spend it on? It’s not all that great of a free agent class, is it? Well, they can just trade. Trade what? Draft picks. Prospects. They don’t have those. I still think that the Leafs can make the playoffs next year. Obviously, whether or not they do anything in them is a matter of it’s it’s a very hot topic, but this is the winning business. Brandon knows that. That’s why he’s in the hockey hall of fame. When he was a player, he won a lot, but during his tenure with the Leafs, they did not win. Not when it mattered most, not even close. They never even got halfway. And now their position going forward is down. That is why the Brendan Shanahan era is over in Toronto. Now, he might be going to the Islanders. I don’t know. Maybe he goes back to the league. I don’t know. I don’t really care what other teams do. I don’t care what the league does. I care about what the Toronto Maple Leafs do, and I care about what’s next. Listen, the hockey world is getting way more unpredictable than it ever has. Take for example, while shooting this video, Canada lost at the World Hockey Championship to Denmark. Well, it’s a World Hockey Championship. They had Crosby, McKinnon, Sanheim, and Kknney were on the Four Nations team. Wild stuff. There are elite worldclass hockey players out there who you’ve never heard of in your entire life. Executives with varying degrees of experience. Maybe someone who’s never even gotten a shot. Maybe someone who’s been doing this for 20, 30, 40 years. Whoever MLS decides to bring in, they have to do one thing. one to make the fans truly happy win. That is the entire goal and it’s also way easier said than done. Now, we’ll have more to talk about with this on the Steve Dangle podcast tomorrow. I’m going to be there with Adam Wild and Jesse Blake. We’re going to record our thoughts. Then we’re going to take a quick break because Jesse is going to go across the street to Scotia Bank Arena to take part in a press conference featuring Keith Py and the Brain Trust of MLSC. And then after he gets quotes from that, finds out what they’re going to say, he’s going to come back and we’re going to record our thoughts after that. In the meantime, what do you think of this decision? What did you think of Brennan Shanahan’s tenure with the Toronto Maple Leafs? What was the best? What was the worst? How will you remember this time in Leafland? For now, that is it for this one. Thank you very much for watching. Click like if you like this video. Click subscribe if you really liked it. Tell all your friends. We need a new plan.

Steve Dangle breaks down the Toronto Maple Leafs decision to move on from President Brendan Shanahan. Steve goes through the positives and negatives of Shanny’s time in Toronto and helps explain why he believes this was the right decision for the team to make.

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46 comments

  1. The part about Shanahan that I will not get over is where he didn't learn from his winningest coach and GM, Scotty Bowman. Nor, in fact, did Yzerman. You CANNOT WIN A CUP WITH HIGH-FLYING OFFENSE! You have to have a solid defense-first mindset and a hot goalie and grit and the capability to absorb hits while making plays. With the exception of Tavares, NONE of the Core 4 had that. Detroit was always robbed in the playoffs in the 90s (the Leafs did that to them once in that famous '93 series) until Scotty worked his magic on them.

    Gilmour and Sundin could absorb hits, and make great plays and goals in front of the net. The Core 4 cannot.

    I think Berube's style is more attuned to this defense-first mindset, though.

  2. lol , look what the panthers , are doing , to carolina , if no other team , can take the panthers to 7 games i would say the leafs did what they could against a beast of a team , the pantthers … i hate the panthers ….

  3. As a Canadiens fan, I’m disappointed to see Shanahan go—he did excellent work during his tenure. But I’m confident that whoever succeeds him will carry on the tradition.

  4. He let the league walk all over us, and he didn't do a damned thing about it, while other teams got to essentially circumvent the cap, get away with suspendable actions, horrible reffing, and tampering. As one of the big 3 money making markets, you need to bend the rules to get every advantage you can in a parity league, and he didn't. Instead, he got bent over.

  5. Leafs need to score more in the playoffs.

    Leafs just need to focus on loading up 3 lines of pure offense.

    No more completely depending on the core 4.

  7. Was certainly well past time for that change and they have missed a number of flashpoints to have pivoted the organisation and team construction to achieve greater playoff success. But is the goal of winning the cup realistic to have every single season…? It's hard to build organisational depth going all in every year. Death by a thousand cuts rather than one lethal bullet. Will be an interesting off season.

  9. I wanna thank Brendan Shanahan for his service this past decade plus. Thank you for making hockey not suck anymore. It really was much more miserable than this.

  11. Shanahan had the right idea from the word go.. however to be fair, I think that Nick Kypreos said it best.. "you have a team of individuals who were not playing together, rather trying to out-do each other in "who gets the bigger contract". IMO there is far too much talent on that team with far too little experience (JT excluded) getting paid far too much money.. WIN the STANLEY CUP = getting PAID.. not the other way around.

  12. A year ago when Marner turned down a great offer for 8 yr's , He was showing He didn't want to stay.
    Why wud you not bench him, especially in the playoffs, when he is showing NO desire to challenge for the puck.
    If Marner was your employee pulling this crap, wouldn't You Fire Them?
    If Toronto benched Marner for any good checking forward, We would still be in the playoffs

  18. It's easy to criticize Brendan for all of the Leafs problems.  But, what people don't understand is that The Toronto Maple Leafs is a Corporation of about 12 or 13 owners.  Personally, I would have traded Austin and Mitch in 2022 after another playoff  loss.  I would have asked for prospects and first round picks.  I would have built for the future just like the Habs.  But, to make that happen, you need the approvals of those owners.  Some owners would have said  no since their jerseys and other memorabilias that are sold pay their salaries.   The owners don't have to dig into their profits to pay for their salaries.  The owners of the Leafs first, second and third priority is to make money.  They consider playoffs wins like bonuses.  Harold Ballard had the same philosophy and it hasn't changed since he died in 1990.  The only difference is that Ballard was saying it outloud.  The problem with the Leafs is that they are great during the season but there is zero chemistry in the playoffs.  It dawned on me after the loss against the Habs in 2021.  That should have been the alarm bell.  The Leafs have a full house every night so they don't need Austin or Mitch to sell tickets.  Their season goals are worth nothing if they don't perform during the playoffs.  Those changes should have been made 3 years ago.

  21. Good riddance. Now, let's resign Knies, promote Tanev, throw Matthews + Rielly on the table for "offers", sign Johnny T for $4 Mil, rebuild. Go Buds.

  25. The Shanaplan is NOT over…Shanny hired Treliving and the Leafs will be far worse for it…buckle up Leafers, Tre is going to crash this team.

  26. Shanny made the moves he thought was right at the time. Just didn’t work out and then towards the end got stubborn and just couldn’t realize that it’s not gonna work.

  27. The best, for me, was that series against the Caps. I doubt anyone had expected Leafs heading into the Playoffs, let alone advance beyond the first round, but that series was so much fun to watch, and it was a sign of things to come. Well.. somewhat. Honestly, felt like each year was going to be year. Crazy season performance, mixed with the typical Leafs lack of consistency for 60 minutes, but crazy good season performance, regardless. After 2021 was when I felt this Core does not mix well, and 2022 cemented that. You take away these guys, individually? Insane, very skilled, elite players. Together? Great performance throughout the season. Playoff hockey? They FAIL horribly.

  28. Leafs need to let Tavares and marner both walk … and sign 3 players in free agency 1. Sam Bennett 2. Brad Marchand 3. Cory Perry

    Also trade Morgan kampf jarnkrok

    Bring in buugstad and either tropchenkk or rempe in a trade scenario

    1. Knies mathews perry
    2. Cowan bennet nylander
    3. Marchand laughton tropchenko
    4. Lorentz stenlund paciority

    1. McCabe tanev
    2. Ekman Larson Carlo
    3. Benoit myers

  30. Great job Steve, Shanny seems like a genuinely great guy, and obviously a legend as a player…but…(yes, there's always a "but")…NHL hockey is the business of winning hockey games, more specifically winning 16 of them during a very specific part of the season – the Leafs are the most valuable franchise in the NHL, the only one worth 4 (that's FOUR) Billion (that's billion with a "B") dollars…you'd think our Leafs would a cup now and then, at least more than once every 58 years, or 59 years, or 60 years…ok now I have a headache and a stomach ache

  39. Curse of Ballard. This team will never win anything. They don't have to. It's a monopoly, and the shareholders are laughing their asses off all the way to the bank. Keep selling out the house, buy the jerseys, flock like sheep. They're counting on it.

  42. It is ultimately good because it means that our GM can finally do what's necessary. Shanahan was holing the GM from trading any of the core four for years.. finally someone with a brain can actually make a decision on that unit and create a full team instead of assuming 4 forwards could do it all. Reilly trade is next.. I'm tired of that guy who can't produce as an offensive defenseman and also can't play defense. Goodbye to this stagnation, goodbye to this cowardly style of hockey and goodbye to Matthews, the captain who jumps ship and blames his crew instead of taking responsibility for his own failures. Finally the wall comes down and we can reorganize the way we should have 5 years ago!

  43. I have a feeling marner takes a smaller deal because of his kid and 91 takes a smaller deal to stay. 15 total cap hit for both

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