Mike Gillis to the Leafs? Never say never

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The ex-Canucks GM has been linked to the Leafs. He’d be a perfect hire for an organization that’s always under pressure

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Published Mar 31, 2026 • Last updated 36 minutes ago • 4 minute read

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Canucks GM Mike Gillis, centre, takes questions from reporters as he watches a team practice at Rogers Arena on May 27, 2011. Photo by Jonathan Hayward /The Canadian PressArticle content

Keith Pelley, president of Maple Leafs Sports and Entertainment, is clearly very high on data.

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He wants whoever he hires to replace the now-fired Brad Treliving as the next hockey head of the Toronto Maple Leafs to be someone who knows how important it is to have data and information drive your decisions.

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That’s a funny thing to say, given the GM before Treliving was a guy who lives, and still lives for data, in Kyle Dubas. Dubas’ time with the Leafs, where there are always politics going on behind the scenes, was probably done whether or not it was Brendan Shanahan firing him, but you can’t help but note how well things are going for Dubas in Pittsburgh, where he’s rapidly restocked an empty prospect cupboard and made smart roster-building moves along the way. Who said a rebuild has to be long?

But we digress. Pelley’s note about data has not surprisingly got the Mike Gillis rumour machine rolling. There are still only a handful of faces in the NHL who you associate with a data-focused approach: Dubas, of course, Eric Tulsky in Carolina, Chris MacFarland in Colorado and Gillis. (Guys like Jim Nill clearly pay attention too, though he’s not considered as a data-first guy despite his obvious consistency in player acquisition.)

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Of course, the fact Gillis hasn’t run a team since 2014 does stand out. There have been a number of teams who have entertained the idea of bringing him in. A few have even interviewed him. But for one reason or another a fit hasn’t been found; to a degree, hockey has needed Gillis more than he’s needed hockey.

Mike Gillis poses after winning the NHL General Manager of the Year Award during the 2011 NHL Awards at The Pearl concert theater at the Palms Casino Resort on June 22, 2011 in Las Vegas, Nevada. Photo by Bruce Bennett /PNG

But he’s never gone away. He spent time at the NHLPA, at one point looking like he’d be Donald Fehr’s successor until the players chose to go with the politics-focused Marty Walsh.

So while he hasn’t landed in a conventional hockey position, he’s still kept busy. He’s gone around the world, literally, seeking out new ideas from just about any sport. He travelled to Australia to learn about the physical challenges of Australian rules football and how teams and athletes get through games that see the best players run 17.5 kilometres, sometimes in scorching heat. He went to New Zealand to learn about how the All Blacks rugby team are world-leaders in building team culture. He went to Spain to learn about Barcelona’s famed soccer academy. He went to Switzerland to learn about the work the Biotech Institute has been doing in things like cognitive science. He met with business school professors to learn more about organizational behaviour.

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Quite simply, he’s a data head and always has been. The Leafs, by the way, still have a fully functional research and development department, which was well regarded but seemed to go underused by Treliving. That right there would be an easy thing to build up.

He’s also cast his net far and wide in the hockey community, seeking out younger, up-and-coming hockey thinkers to learn more about what the game misses about itself, about what is possible but has yet to be tried. For many agents in the game he’s still the guy most aspire to be.

GM Mike Gillis speaks with CBC journalist Elliotte Friedman during the Vancouver Canucks practice Friday January 29th, 2010 at the Air Canada Centre in Toronto. Photo by Greg Henkenhaf /Toronto Sun

The challenge, of course, in a place like Toronto is there are all kinds of opinions and voices coming at you at all times. It’s a high-pressure environment, but high pressure is something he knows well: from his time as a hockey player, but most importantly from his time as a hockey agent and hockey administrator. He’s been involved in high-stakes negotiations on both sides of the table; as an agent he delivered some of the highest-value contracts in league history, while as a GM, he was able to convince his own guys, like the Sedins, to take less money so he could spend a little more on depth players.

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That final bit is crucial: ask any of the Canucks from that 2011 era, they’ll all go to bat for Gillis. The culture he helped them build, the trust in the organization those guys all had, they’ll agree that Gillis set the tone. Kevin Bieksa is a true believer. The Sedins are true believers. Alex Burrows. Alex Edler. They know they had it good. Current Leaf Chris Tanev is a true believer.

Jannik Hansen talked about his old boss on Sportsnet 650 on Tuesday.

“He kinda reinvented the whole thing,” the ex-Canuck said. “He brought in so much around the team. The sleep doctors, mind room, sports psychologist and all of these things to try and better the team. You see that now everywhere but he brought that to hockey.”

The organization was stable, it had direction, it had ambition, and it set standards for itself because of Gillis’s leadership. The Leafs would be wise to bring him in to lead the way.

pjohnston@postmedia.com

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Mike Gillis to the Leafs? Never say never

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