Maple Leafs announce MLSE CEO Keith Pelley, President Brendan Shanahan, GM Brad Treliving to speak Friday

In the latest of a slew of end-of-season interviews and postmortem, the Toronto Maple Leafs elaborated on their plan for management to speak to the media. After head coach Sheldon Keefe along with a group of players spoke to reporters on Monday, it was announced that newly appointed Maple Leafs Sports & Entertainment CEO Keith Pelley, President of Hockey Operations Brendan Shanahan, and general manager Brad Treliving would be speaking to the media on Friday.

It was initially reported that “management” would be addressing the media on Thursday, without specifying who exactly would be attending. This led to some speculation regarding the future of Shanahan, who’s in year 10 of his tenure as Maple Leafs President of Hockey Ops without anything beyond a single round win in 2022-23 to speak of. There was also some speculation regarding Treliving’s future, but ultimately, the odds of him getting canned one year into his new job seemed far-fetched to begin with. Nevertheless, clarifications were made on Monday, and the media will now have the opportunity to hear from each leg of Leafs brass by the end of the week.

The news comes after an interesting quip from Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman in the latest edition of 32 Thoughts: The Podcast. The first 32 Thoughts after the Leafs’ season concludes is always an interesting one full of some juicy tidbits, and yesterday’s was no different. Between speculation that the Leafs would be done with the “Core Four” philosophy even if they have to run back the same core next season and rumours that the Leafs would be interested in bringing back Jake McCabe on an extension this offseason, Friedman also alluded to an interesting note regarding how he believes the organization would move forward if Shanahan parted ways with the organization.

“For me, the only question here is how much time does Pelley need to make the call [about Shanahan]? Is he keeping him, or is he moving on? And he has been quiet. He has done everything he can to prevent himself from being the story. And that’s the question I have, what is his timetable for making this decision? Now, in addition to the timetable, I had someone say to me, well, if they remove Shanahan, who replaces him? Honestly, I’m not sure that’s the question to ask because I’m not sure ownership wants that layer of management. I don’t necessarily believe they want a President of Hockey Ops anymore. Pelley is the active MLSE President, and it’s possible that layer is eliminated and not replaced, and the GM [Treliving] reports directly to him.”

With Shanahan now set to speak on Friday, it seems unlikely he’ll be losing his job before the end of the week, but the reality is, we won’t know what the verdict is until they all get a chance to speak. One thing is for sure, however, new MLSE CEO Keith Pelley is not afraid of change, as cited in a recent interview he did with Sportsnet.

“The people that I’ve met here are incredibly energized about the opportunity that we have. We’re going to be leaders, though,” Pelley said. “We’re not afraid of change; if you’re afraid of change, you risk the possibility of falling behind, and we’re not going to fall behind.”

Pelley joined the PGA European Tour as CEO and Commissioner in 2015 and said at the time that he would only return to Toronto for two potential jobs – to own a Toronto-based NFL team, or to oversee MLSE. He was hired in January and officially assumed his role on April 1.