Facing the most important hire of his career with Maple Leaf Sports & Entertainment, company president and CEO Keith Pelley is turning to Neil Glasberg for assistance in identifying the Toronto Maple Leafs’ next head of hockey operations.
Glasberg wears many hats, from representing NHL coaches in contract negotiations to managing personal brands to conducting executive searches, like the one he will now manage for MLSE.
The Toronto-based founder, president and CEO of PBI Sports and Entertainment is a familiar face around Scotiabank Arena. He frequently attends morning skates while meeting with clients in town with visiting teams. New York Rangers coach Mike Sullivan, San Jose Sharks coach Ryan Warsofsky and Seattle Kraken coach Lane Lambert are among his clientele.
MLSE retained Glasberg through “The Coaches Agency,” which is a sister company to PBI that boasts of being a boutique talent search firm specializing in advising team owners in sourcing management candidates.
“Team management talent needs to be properly sourced, properly vetted, and evaluated based on competencies, qualifications and accomplishments, rather than by the breadth of their network of contacts,” reads an entry on the company’s website. “In other words, ‘who you know’ and ‘hire a friend’ mentalities should be a thing of the past.”
Glasberg also formally represents NHL executives, including Edmonton Oilers general manager Stan Bowman and New Jersey Devils senior adviser Chuck Fletcher, and has offered career management and advisory services to others throughout the industry.
Florida Panthers assistant GM Sunny Mehta, who is among the candidates of interest to MLSE per league sources, was notably featured in a September post on PBI’s official Instagram account.
Multiple league sources told The Athletic that they felt Glasberg’s role in MLSE’s executive search represents a conflict because he also represents potential candidates, but it doesn’t violate any NHL rules. He’s previously been involved with executive searches for the Philadelphia Flyers, the Vancouver Canucks, the Anaheim Ducks and the Kraken.
MLSE has not formally decided exactly what role it’s seeking to fill following general manager Brad Treliving’s firing on March 30. Pelley declared the search “wide open” at a press conference last week and said he was open-minded about whatever structure the new front office ended up taking.
The organization is operating on a compressed timeline, with the hope of making a hire as soon as mid-May. While MLSE hasn’t formally disclosed Glasberg’s role, league sources indicate that he’s been brought aboard to manage the search, including vetting candidates, but isn’t being leaned on to influence or sway a decision.
Among the deliverables listed on “The Coaches Agency” website is the ability to create an efficient hiring process: “Our framework is rooted in the thorough, collaborative creation of an appropriate and targeted role profile. We make sure the candidates are well-versed and can hit the ground running when hired. They also understand the team’s priorities and goals as well as the resources and challenges. This work helps us present fully-vetted, highly qualified candidates.”
Mehta has been mentioned prominently in connection with the Leafs job because of his extensive background in analytics. The New Jersey native spent four years with the Devils organization before being hired by Florida in 2020, first as vice president of Hockey Strategy & Intelligence before being promoted to assistant GM and director of analytics.
He holds a master’s degree in data science and won two Stanley Cups with the Panthers.
That background aligns with the profile Pelley told reporters he was looking for in Treliving’s replacement.
“They have to be data-centric,” Pelley said. “They have to really understand the importance of data and where data is moving. We have just completed a complete rebuild of (Toronto FC), all using data combined with cultural checks. That’s what we will do, and every single decision we make will be evidence-based. Evidence-based decisions are never wrong, and that’s not to say there’s not room for the heart — not to say there’s no room to check culture — but it’s all evidence-based.”
Among the other potential candidates for the Leafs job are former NHL GMs Mike Gillis, Dean Lombardi, John Chayka, Peter Chiarelli and Kevyn Adams. Hockey Hall of Famer Chris Pronger has been mentioned as a possibility.
With the help of Glasberg, the Leafs will almost certainly formulate a list much longer than that one.
The Coaches Agency promises to help clients every step of the way throughout the search process: “While we won’t say we have coaching and management searches down to a science, we can tell you that we’re not far off.”