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Report: Maple Leafs currently focused on one hire, open minded to different types of FO structures
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Michael Mazzei
Apr 15, 2026, 06:00 EDTUpdated: Apr 14, 2026, 23:06 EDT
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The Toronto Maple Leafs are currently focused on making one hire to lead their hockey operations, though they are open-minded to different types of front-office structures, according to SDPN’s Chris Johnston.
“ It’s still very wide open. There’s a lot of fixation I’d say here in the Toronto market on one job, one structure, this or that,” he said during Tuesday’s edition of The Chris Johnston Show. “ Keith Pelley is not committed to what the structure of that front office is gonna be.  What they’re focused on though is finding and identifying one head of their hockey operations department – title TBD – and then having that person dictate how the structure flows from there.”
Johnston added that while in most cases people from the outside have a general understanding of which way the search will go, this is not the case in Toronto with no one person currently being considered a for sure favourite to land the gig. He did, however, suggest that it is unlikely that the Leafs will decide to promote one of their assistant GMs to become the head of hockey operations.
Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman shared a similar report during Saturday Headlines, noting that nothing was imminent as the Leafs are committed to speaking with as many candidates as possible with interviews set to begin this week. Pelley did not commit to what front-office structure he would go with during his media availability on March 31, though he did specify that the next person to manage the hockey operations needed to be data-centric.
“ I think people are getting hung up on a lot of the titles here.  They’re getting hung up on the whole data-centric thing,” Johnston continued.  ”The Leafs are really rebuilding a front office. It starts with hiring one person who’s gonna sit at the top of the hockey operation structure. But they’re re-imagining how they work, how things go within that front office to make sure they’re correctly making use of all the resources available to them.  It’s mid-April, the earliest I think we’re getting news on this is mid-May. Maybe it speeds up, but this is still gonna be a blow-by-blow thing.”
Johnston was later asked by co-host Julian McKenzie where things stood for Craig Berube, and he reiterated that the plan for Berube is that he will remain in limbo until the new front office has been assembled and they will determine the head coach’s fate.
While who exactly has a legitimate shot of leading the Leafs’ new-look front office remains anyone’s guess at the time of filing, some candidates have generated a lot of buzz in the last few weeks. Florida Panthers’ assistant GM Sunny Mehta has already been granted permission to speak with the Leafs and New Jersey Devils, and he may not be the only person in their front office that the Leafs are interested in. There’s also legitimate interest from the Leafs in former Vancouver Canucks GM Mike Gillis, who is on friendly terms with Pelley and the two are set for a second meeting soon.
It’s worth noting that Sportsnet’s Nick Kypreos reported that the Leafs are probably not going to go after a more traditional hockey guy at this time. This means people like Doug Armstrong, Peter Chiarelli, Dean Lombardi, and Ron Francis likely won’t be in consideration for the head of hockey operations in Toronto.
Regardless of how this all unfolds, it is clear that the Leafs are open-minded to the structure of their new front office and that means it will take some time to complete the process.

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