TSN’s Hockey Insiders on Toronto’s hope to have a search firm hired by the end of next week, how the Leafs hope to copy Carolina with a data-driven hire, the next phase of Nashville’s general manager search and GM Patrik Allvin remaining a big part of the Canucks’ future.
Gino Reda: With the Insiders, Pierre LeBrun and Darren Dreger. Gentlemen, from the moment Keith Pelley fired Brad Treliving, Maple Leafs fans have been wondering who will be his replacement and how long until he is in place?
Before anyone gets ahead of themselves, what’s the first step, Pierre?
Pierre LeBrun: Before anyone starts saying ‘the short list has been shortened,’ there has to be a search firm hired, and that hasn’t happened quite yet.
I was told on Thursday that MLSE hopes to have a search firm in place by the end of next weekend at the latest.
Once that happens then this process starts more formally. It doesn’t mean that Keith Pelley, the head of MLSE, is sitting on his hands until then.
My understanding is that he continues to have dialogue with a number of people around the league so that when that search firm is hired he will probably hand over a list of eight to ten names to get the process going.
What is this interview process labelled, is it for a GM? Is it for a president of hockey operations? I was told on Thursday that it is for a head of hockey operations, and from there we’ll see where it goes.
I think Keith Pelley wants to stay as flexible as possible in terms of whether it’s just a GM hire, or a GM and a president of hockey operations and whether it’s one person that handles both or not, they don’t want to get boxed in.
So they’d like to get someone hired by the end of May.
Darren Dreger: And it was suggested to me on Thursday that it’s more likely that Keith Pelley and the Toronto Maple Leafs just hire a general manager, and that seems like a bit of a miss when you look at the mammoth task ahead for whomever that head of hockey operations is.
I think most of the hockey world believe that managing the Maple Leafs through the next phase requires somebody with a wealth of management experience.
However, there is a strong consideration being given to copying the Carolina Hurricanes model. We all heard Keith Pelley speak glowingly of the work of Eric Tulsky, who’s general manager of the Hurricanes, and many believe that Keith Pelley – who’s a believer in evidence-based decisions – feels strongly that the next GM of the Maple Leafs has to be entrenched in that analytics world.
Reda: Guys, it’s been a couple of months since Barry Trotz announced he was stepping down as GM of the Nashville Predators. Is there any news on that front, Pierre?
LeBrun: Yeah, it’s not like they’ve been sitting by and not doing anything, I can tell you that much. They’ve talked to as many as 15 different candidates – more informally – over Zoom in the past month or so.
But now that whole process has entered a second phase, which is that they have begun in-person interviews with a shorter list of candidates over the past couple of days, and now it’s getting a little more serious.
Now, having said that, the organization has maintained throughout that they don’t have an artificial deadline. Of course they’d like to have a new GM hired by the draft, but the fact that Barry Trotz is signed through next season – they’re going to hire someone once they know they’ve hired the right person.
So the Leafs having an opening, I’m told, does not influence the Predators having to rush out their process, they’re not going to do that.
Reda: As teams continue to be officially eliminated from this year’s playoff race, questions begin to circulate as to who else could be out of work and when, but it doesn’t look like the Vancouver Canucks are making similar changes to the Leafs, Dregs?
Dreger: Well not to that degree. There’s been so much speculation around the future of management from president of hockey operations Jim Rutherford to GM Patrik Allvin.
I can tell you that Allvin has no intention of leaving as GM of the Canucks and he remains highly regarded as GM of the team.
He’s viewed as being an excellent evaluator of talent, an excellent manager when it comes to finding talent.
His primary focus for the second half of the regular season, for the duration of this season and leading up to the draft, is what could be a very significant draft to the Canucks.
Vancouver has 10 draft picks. He wants to see the rebuild through and so does Rutherford. You could see hockey operations changes in Vancouver, but I don’t think it’s going to happen in senior management or at the position of GM.
Reda: Just two weeks left in the regular season, at that point 16 teams are going to be done and taking a hard look at what they need to do to avoid being left out again at this time next season.