Leafs Hire Lindsay Hofford to Front Office Role

Just a few days ago reports began to surface that the Leafs were on the verge of hiring London Knights Director of Scouting Lindsay Hofford.  It appears that today that news became official, or at the very least the deal is all but done.  According to The Globe and Mail’s James Mirtle, Hofford will be taking on a front office position with the team.

We don’t know a lot about Lindsay Hofford.  He’s all but an unknown to most hockey fans.  However, Leafs Director of Player Personnel Mark Hunter would of course know him very well due to his long tenure within the Knights organization.  Kyle Dubas, who also has a good deal of OHL experience, may be familiar with him as well.

In any event, Hofford will be taking on what appears to be a pretty prominent role with the team.  At the conclusion of the season the Leafs fired a myriad of scouts as well as Director of Player Development Jim Hughes and Director of Pro Scouting Steve Kasper.  Just a hunch, but since we know Hofford is taking on a front office role and since he had previously served as London’s Director of Scouting, the safe assumption might be that Hofford will replace Steve Kasper as the team’s Director of Pro Scouting.  But this is all just speculation.

It should be a fun few weeks as Leafs fans.  The team is now in the process of completely revamping their coaching staffs at both the AHL and NHL level, the team still needs a general manager, they have a lot of scouting positions to fill, and of course there’s the whole matter of the draft and free agency and the possibility of making some franchise-altering trades.  Lindsay Hofford is just one move in an expected flurry of decisions that will reflect the team’s big organizational shift in philosophy.