{"id":542150,"date":"2026-04-05T14:20:26","date_gmt":"2026-04-05T14:20:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/542150\/"},"modified":"2026-04-05T14:20:26","modified_gmt":"2026-04-05T14:20:26","slug":"sunny-mehta-expected-to-be-a-target-as-maple-leafs-gm","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/542150\/","title":{"rendered":"Sunny Mehta expected to be a target as Maple Leafs GM"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Toronto Maple Leafs<\/a> reportedly have their eyes set on Florida Panthers assistant GM Sunny Mehta as a target to replace former GM Brad Treliving, according to Sportsnet\u2019s Elliotte Friedman.\u201cOne name I do think is gonna be part of Toronto\u2019s search, and he\u2019s been kind of discussed this week, is Sunny Mehta, one of the assistant general managers of the Florida Panthers. I do think he\u2019s gonna be a factor,\u201d he said during Saturday Headlines<\/a>.MLSE CEO Keith Pelley admitted during his presser on Tuesday that one of the primary criteria that the Leafs are looking for as the successor to Treliving is that the new GM has to be \u2018data-centric,\u2019<\/a> and Mehta certainly meets that description. While his background before becoming a hockey executive is unconventional due to him being a legendary poker player and writing a best-selling book on the sport, his superior understanding of math and the salary cap has helped play a role in the Panthers\u2019 two-straight Stanley Cups.<\/p>\n

Pelley wants to win above all, and Mehta has been remarkably successful in every avenue of his career. In some respects, you could almost liken him to Ernie Adams, the shadowy director of football intelligence for the New England Patriots, who operated as Bill Belichick\u2019s man in the sky throughout the dynasty years. It will be an exhaustive search, and Mehta is the perfect balance between Traditional Hockey Executive, and an unconventional, progressive thinker who could help the Maple Leafs eventually reach their goal of winning the Stanley Cup.<\/p>\n

In addition to the Leafs\u2019 interest in Mehta, Friedman also noted that it is unlikely that Doug Armstrong will be in consideration for a position in Toronto.<\/p>\n

\u201c\u200aYou know Doug Armstrong\u2019s name and I mentioned Doug Armstrong. It just doesn\u2019t seem like the timing is right for the Blues and the Maple Leafs for Doug Armstrong,\u201d he said. \u201cAnything can change, and I reserve the right that I could be right now and then wrong later, but it just doesn\u2019t seem like the timing is right for Doug Armstrong and the Maple Leafs.\u201d<\/p>\n

Armstrong has long been rumoured<\/a> to be someone the Leafs would target as a potential replacement in the front office, given his ample experience in a front office, aggressiveness in decision making, and putting together a Stanley Cup team. While there have been rumblings that he still has the itch to be a GM despite his impending position change, he already signed a three-year extension to be St. Louis\u2019 president and is undergoing a succession plan with Alex Steen taking over which makes him unlikely to be a legit option for the Leafs at this time.<\/p>\n

Friedman mentioned that the Leafs have yet to seek permission from other teams to speak with any executive currently under contract, a sign that they are still early in the process. He also made it clear that Treliving\u2019s dismissal isn\u2019t the only change forthcoming.<\/p>\n

\u201c\u200aAfter the change at the GM spot, Keith Pelley held a Zoom call with the members of the hockey operations department. Just from talking to a few people after it was over and in the last couple of days, it\u2019s pretty clear that they are expecting major change,\u201d he said. \u201cI asked \u2018Did Pelley say anything specifically about change in there?\u2019 It wasn\u2019t so much the word, it\u2019s about how he talked. One of the things he kind of mentioned was we are going to use our resources to the fullest capacity we can. They were kind of left with the impression that he felt that they hadn\u2019t been doing that, so that\u2019s why I think a lot of people are expecting that there\u2019s gonna be even more changes than the one we already saw.\u201d<\/p>\n

Regardless of whether it ends up being a combination of Mehta and Mike Gillis<\/a>, just one of them, or someone else, it is clear that the Leafs front office and how they operate is going to be vastly different from how it looked at the start of the season.CHECK OUT OFF THE ROSTER \u2013 NEW EPISODES EVERY WEEKDAY\"\"<\/a>Off The Roster is Toronto sports. Hosted by Cabbie Richards, Lindsay Dunn, and Dan Riccio, this is the go-to morning conversation for everything happening in the 6ix \u2013 Hockey, Baseball, Basketball and everything in between. From breakout performances and questionable trades to throwback jerseys, viral moments, and the stories fans are actually talking about\u2014it\u2019s smart, sharp, and never scripted. Live weekday mornings on the Nation Network YouTube channel<\/a> and available wherever you stream podcasts, the show delivers real opinions, real chemistry, and real Toronto energy. Missed an episode? Catch up anytime. Off The Roster\u2014The new sound of the 6ix.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Toronto Maple Leafs reportedly have their eyes set on Florida Panthers assistant GM Sunny Mehta as a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":542151,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5106],"tags":[5,20,5172,4,66,31,5171],"class_list":{"0":"post-542150","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-toronto-maple-leafs","8":"tag-hockey","9":"tag-maple-leafs","10":"tag-mapleleafs","11":"tag-nhl","12":"tag-toronto","13":"tag-toronto-maple-leafs","14":"tag-torontomapleleafs"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nhl\/116352545095694089","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/542150","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=542150"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/542150\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/542151"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=542150"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=542150"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=542150"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}