The Leafs announced today that the club and Assistant General Manager Mark Hunter have mutually agreed to part ways, effective immediately.
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Mark Hunter Has a Sad and Leaves Toronto
Photo credit: Steve Mitchell-USA TODAY Sports
By Jon Steitzer
May 22, 2018, 09:56 EDTUpdated: May 22, 2018, 09:57 EDT
So, nothing like starting off the work week with some big news…
“Following extensive discussions with Mark, he and @MapleLeafs have mutually agreed to part ways,” said Brendan Shanahan. “I’d like to sincerely thank Mark for everything he’s done for this organization over the last four years and I wish him nothing but the best in the future.”
The important stuff:
Expectation is that while Mark Hunter is departing TOR, because he has time remaining on his contract, one of the conditions of his departure is that he will not be permitted to work for another team until after 2018 draft and free agency period.
Which is to suggest he won’t necessarily be restricted from working for another team for the remaining year of his TOR contract, but it will be later in the summer before he would be permitted to do so.
TOR could have had Hunter run the 2018 draft but didn’t want someone who had expressed a desire to leave the organization doing it. So they agreed to part ways now, albeit with a condition on when he could begin working for another NHL team.
#Analysis
No matter how terrible Mark Hunter has proven to be at the draft table, it’s important the Leafs don’t let him take that information to another organization to use against them. I’m sure it’s also in the organization’s best interest to not retain someone who doesn’t want to be here anymore. There’s some speculation that Lou Lamoriello is going to bring Hunter with him to the Islanders, and in that case, I feel incredibly bad for the Islanders.
Hunter has been the “draft guru” for the Leafs, and aside from the 2015 draft, he has proven only capable of completely tanking anything that isn’t a first round pick. His strange love of overaged Russian players, and 6’5 pylon defensemen makes it seem like he’s a mix of being completely out of touch with where the game is at today, and at the same time trying to look like the smartest guy in the room by going off the board with his picks. A little off the board is fun, but save that for rounds 5-7, we don’t need to take Yegor Korshkov 31st overall.
Hunter’s drafting has produced some absolute head scratchers with Fedor Gordeev, Keaton Middleton, Nicolas Mattinen, Ryan O’Connell, Vladimir Bobylev, Ryan McGregor, Vladislav Kara, and Nikolai Chebykin. It’s hard to imagine producing worse second days of the draft that what the Leafs have done over the past couple of years, and it will be refreshing to see what Kyle “Young Sheldon” Dubas does different.
Final Thoughts
This seems like a middle aged manchild kicking up dust because he didn’t get his way, and can’t accept that someone young than him could be better at a job than him. Frankly, who needs to keep this kind of entitled jackass around? I’m sure we’ll see him land somewhere in the NHL, but it’s also entirely possible that he takes his remaining year of Toronto money and goes back to buying the best London Knights team they can, since blank cheques always go further than eyes for scouting talent anyway.
The most exciting aspect of this is that Kyle Dubas now potentially has two vacancies in his front office, one for head of scouting and another running the Marlies. It will be interesting to see how conventionally he fills these roles, though I wouldn’t be surprised to see at least one go to a “hockey man”.
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