On Tuesday afternoon, Maple Leaf Sports & Entertainment CEO Keith Pelley met with the media to close off a hectic 24 hours that began with the firing of Brad Treliving as Toronto Maple Leafs’ general manager. The Maple Leafs have seven games remaining in the season and are bound to miss the playoffs for the first time in a decade, so while the firing of Treliving wasn’t necessarily unexpected, the timing came as a shock to many.

Pelley opened his press conference with the following statement:

“I’m disappointed as I sit here today, disappointed like we all are, in the results for the team this year, but personally affected by having to make this difficult decision and change in leadership for the Toronto Maple Leafs. Like everyone in this room, I have great appreciation and respect for the man of Brad Treliving. He’s a good man and an excellent hockey executive. We will immediately begin the search process for the next head of hockey operations for the Leafs, and during that process, Brandon Pridham and Ryan Hardy, two of our assistant general managers, will work together to manage the team operations to the end of the season and into the offseason.”

After Pelley opened the floor to questions from reporters, he was asked by Pierre LeBrun of TSN if the Leafs would be in pursuit of a President of Hockey Operations. Pelley wouldn’t commit to a specific structure, highlighting that there’s no right or wrong way to organize the depth chart.

“The way that I look at it is that there’s not a definitive one way to run the operation,” Pelley said. “As I said, we have the resources, so we are going to determine what is the best structure to run it. There are 12 teams that run it as a president and a general manager separately, there are eight teams that run it where the president and the GM are one person, and then there’s 12 teams that only have a general manager…what I think we have the ability to do with the structure and the support of ownership that we have, is to put a structure in place that gives us the best chance to win.”

While Pelley wouldn’t elaborate on the exact position he’s looking to fill, he made it clear that whoever his next hire is will need to be ‘data-centric’.

“They have to be data-centric. They have to really understand the importance of data and where data is moving. We have just completed a complete rebuild of TFC, all using date 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.”

When Treliving was hired in place of Kyle Dubas following the 2022-23, season, the Maple Leafs went with the most experienced and easiest to call candidate in Treliving. Pelley was asked if the next candidate would need a certain level of experience, to which he said that the floor was open for candidates and all would be considered.

“It’s wide open. Nothing has been determined with the final structure. We currently have six assistant general managers, is that the right structure? What is the right structure? It might come down from interviewing candidates, after talking to people, but we are open.”