I wouldn't put it past them, but I really hope Pelley meant what he said when he said he doesn't want to be involved in those decisions. I would hope that there's no "Two coaches and GM is fired" mentality or "The coach is under contract so we can't fire him." The POHO/GM should be able to have more freedom and flexibility if they need it.
Leafs Front Office 2026-27
- Thread starter herman
- Start date
herman
Well-known member
I think he does mean it. He literally left the Leafs alone last season until the Shana-canning. And it looks like he trusted Treliving and Berube* with the wheel early this season until the 18-wheeler had already flipped 3 times down the cliff.
* it's been mentioned somewhere** that Pelley is a huge Berube fan personally
** Steve Simmons
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ZBBM
Well-known member
Well, the list you just quoted contains Chayka for God's sake, which I guess makes your point. I never heard of the last 3. If they are going to pass over their own AGMs for another, the only name there that interests me is the guy from Dallas — they are a solid organization.
That said, is Tulsky the guy everyone would REALLY like to have? If so, move heaven and earth to make a run at him. Throw a ton of money at Carolina.
herman
Well-known member
People don't want retreads, but also don't want candidates they've never heard of before. And they have to be young and progressive, but experienced enough to be able to handle the Toronto mega-corporate market. It's a pretty small needle head to thread.
Therein lies the benefit of the Gillis + smart new GM (who preferably has a Toronto Maple Leafs Starter pullover windbreaker from the 90s) with extensive AGM experience managing a full team/org.
I think the guy to get is Evan Gold. He was originally the Pridham of the Capitals and Bruins, and absorbed more responsibilities to take on the AHL GM role of the Providence Bruins for the last 4 seasons, finishing top 3 in their division each time and top5ish in the league in that span; most recently the Bruins won the AHL equivalent of the President's trophy (please ignore their playoff results lol).
Therein lies the benefit of the Gillis + smart new GM (who preferably has a Toronto Maple Leafs Starter pullover windbreaker from the 90s) with extensive AGM experience managing a full team/org.
I think the guy to get is Evan Gold. He was originally the Pridham of the Capitals and Bruins, and absorbed more responsibilities to take on the AHL GM role of the Providence Bruins for the last 4 seasons, finishing top 3 in their division each time and top5ish in the league in that span; most recently the Bruins won the AHL equivalent of the President's trophy (please ignore their playoff results lol).
Jim Nill would have probably been my one true dream choice, so with him off the table his 2nd in command with Dallas certainly gets a bit of a leg-up for me compared to other AGMs. Might also help having Dallas' former head amateur scout here too already.
Redleaf
Well-known member
I’ll say the same thing I said they day he walked out the door… Why didn’t they just keep Dubas? Yeah.. I know it’s a worthless opinion now , but if we’d kept him and let Shanahan go instead we’d be in a much better spot right now . We’d probably have another 1st round this year and next year or a great prospect or player to show for the loss of Marner. It was Shanny that f*#ted up this team . Pelley let the wrong guy walk.
dappleganger
Well-known member
As long as the moves the GM wants to make fit under the budget (which should be quite large) they should have freedom and flexibility. The President should step in if the GM starts making moves that are self-serving and not in the best interest of the long term feasibility of the club. Pelley should stay out of all it. The board should be making the decisions to move on from the team President.
dappleganger
Well-known member
No Chayka please. He definitely came across as a snake oil salesman and like you say, didn't have any success in Phoenix.
I'm intrigued by Moldaver. Essentially he's a salesman and I think that's a big part of the GM job, and I think he'd only come as GM.
ZBBM
Well-known member
Not sure I can get behind both the HOHO and GM being ex-agents. Maybe it would work.
mr grieves
Well-known member
I liked Jonas's recent story saying MLSE should Ujiri it. Throw a HOHO title and huge pile of money at the top GMs in the league: Julien BriseBois, Chris MacFarland, Kelly McCrimmon, Eric Tulsky.
Joe S.
Moderator
I'm genuinely asking this - can someone explain to me why people are falling all over themselves for Tulsky?
What has he does that merits this genius level label that seems to be affixed to him? I was just looking at his moves and nothing jumps out to me as 'this guy is something else!'. He's also only been GM for 2 seasons.
I guess I'm also biased in that Carolina has always confounded me. They just seem so unimpressively 'impresive', nothing about them screams that this should be a cup contender, yet there they are at the top of the standings.
Im not trying to shit on him, I just don't see the awesomeness of whatever it is he's doing.
What has he does that merits this genius level label that seems to be affixed to him? I was just looking at his moves and nothing jumps out to me as 'this guy is something else!'. He's also only been GM for 2 seasons.
I guess I'm also biased in that Carolina has always confounded me. They just seem so unimpressively 'impresive', nothing about them screams that this should be a cup contender, yet there they are at the top of the standings.
Im not trying to shit on him, I just don't see the awesomeness of whatever it is he's doing.
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These guys are in the playoffs and under contract.
A few things that come to mind:
1) One thing that jumps out at me scrolling through his transaction history is that he hasn't been afraid of making big moves even in his short time as a GM. The whole Rantanen affair maybe didn't exactly work out the way Carolina hoped it would, but he took a massive swing and was even able to come out of it relatively ok when it became clearer that Rantanen didn't see himself in Carolina long-term. He's also gone big on a lot of his contract extensions and I think generally they all look like great deals even at the time and they'll only likely age even better as the cap explodes (Slavin, Jarvis, Stankoven, Blake all got 8 year deals).
2) I appreciate that he's a legitimately intelligent individual in a wide form of areas, hockey and otherwise.
3) I think he deserves a ton of credit for getting to where he is now. This is a guy with zero hockey background, zero hockey connections, didn't have a famous last name, didn't have a dad who owned Boston Pizza and was able to buy him a hockey league to get his career started with. He started writing about hockey almost as a hobby, turned that into a consultant position with the Canes, and then just kept rising through the ranks with that organization going from: consultant -> analyst -> director of analytics -> VP of hockey management - > assistant GM -> GM. In a league filled with nepotism one way or another he earned everything through pure merit and hard work.
Points 2 and 3 are I think particularly noteworthy in how they're such a stark contrast to the current trend of GMs just being dumb, uneducated former hockey players with no real world talents or skills that get handed GM positions on a silver platter.
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mr grieves
Well-known member
The former is a reason none of them would be hired imminently, which Jonas didn’t suggest was a possibility let alone a priority, and the latter isn’t really much of an obstacle. All “under contract” means is you’ve got to ask permission. Are you saying they shouldn’t?
Kaberle15
Well-known member
Carolina has a good draft record, perhaps is as simple as that...
Joe S.
Moderator
I appreciate you putting this together. All good points.
Joe S.
Moderator
I guess but he's only been GM for 2 drafts