The Toronto Maple Leafs have a new man in charge as GM in John Chayka, and that was made possible by the search firm they hired which was headed by Neil Glasberg.

After they let go of Brad Treliving in the midst of a disastrous 2025-26 season, Keith Pelley and the Leafs opted to go with Glasberg’s search firm, The Coaches Agency. He had previously been involved with executive searches for the Philadelphia Flyers, the Vancouver Canucks, the Anaheim Ducks and the Seattle Kraken prior to his involvement with the Leafs.

Ahead of former Maple Leaf Zach Hyman’s celebrity golf tournament on Monday, Glasberg made an appearance on First Up where he went in depth about the process that led to the Leafs going with Chayka.

“It was an incredible exercise that we went through trying to figure out who the next GM of the Leafs was gonna be. And we exhausted the universe of candidates, as you can imagine,” he said. “Very high-profile job, lots of alumni interest. I was amazed at the number of Leafs alumni that reached out that said they wanted to be part of the process. I thought that was really genuine and really cool that guys bleed Leafs’ blood really wanted to add value. The unfortunate thing is we have lots of people and one job.”

Glasberg stated that he and the Leafs spoke with upwards of 25 people over the course of the interviewing process. How it worked was that Pelley would present Glasberg a list of candidates who had reached out to the MLSE CEO and then went to speak with them individually to get a baseline understanding of what they bring to the table and what they would do to fix the Leafs.

Glasberg made it clear that the process wasn’t just between him and Pelley; there was also a search committee at MLSE with three unnamed individuals that worked together in the search for the new GM.

“ Everything was combined. I wasn’t part of the decision, obviously. My job is to bring the best candidates forward, get everybody ready for the interviews to make sure that they understand,” he said. “At the end of the day, I want everybody looking great. I want everybody to go in with the same agenda, so to speak. I mean, what they wanna do individually is their call. But I wanted everybody to be ready to be able to answer the questions to the best of their ability.”

Glasberg also had a hand in the Leafs’ search for their new head coach that resulted in Jim Hiller, but he admitted that he was more behind the scenes and that the process and decision were spearheaded by Chayka and Mats Sundin.

The key aspect of the search for Glasberg and the Leafs was who was the best fit for the job given the unique circumstances of the Toronto market. He emphasized that in his previous searches and the one he did for Toronto, it boiled down to finding the one who was going to adapt the best to their environment in addition to their abilities as a GM.

It’s a tough market to be in, as everyone knows. I mean, the media is diligent, and there’s a lot of answering to the media. I hate that expression. I put that in quotes. But you’ve gotta be able to stand up and speak on about who you are,” Glasberg said. “That’s the one thing just about John, not to give him the plug, but John is very smart and very good with the media, and he tells it like it is. So there’s no BS, there’s no trying to figure out what the message is, and I think that that was a huge, huge selling factor in terms of the proper fit.”

While there were some justifiable criticisms of the Chayka hire when it was first announced, Leafs Nation has slowly warmed up to him in the months since as he has begun turning over the roster. Of course, winning the draft lottery and the right to select Gavin McKenna certainly helped with changing the mood, but Chayka also got a lot else done, with the most notable being the additions of Darren Raddysh and Sergei Bobrovsky.

Even though he grew up as a fan of the Montreal Canadiens, Glasberg is excited for what is to come for the Leafs this season and the years ahead.

“ Stuff seems to just happen, fall into place.  I was thrilled for them when it happened,” he said of his reaction to the Leafs winning the lottery. “ I was just this morning looking at the roster last year and the roster this year. I mean, it’s crazy. It’s unbelievable how different it looks, and it’s exciting.  I think that’s one of the things as a result of the search: there’s a positive vibe around. Hey, they’re making changes. They’re making positive change. Not change for change’s sake, but they wanna make this a better team.”