Leafs hire group to lead head of hockey operations search
According to multiple reports, initially from Sportsnet’s Luke Fox, the Toronto Maple Leafs have retained Neil Glasberg and his firm The Coaches Agency to run the team’s search for a new leader of hockey operations.
Glasberg and his firm have been brought on to run the searches for six different NHL executive openings, notably Vancouver, Anaheim and Philadelphia.
In 2023, Frank Seravalli reported that figures around the league had concerns over conflict of interest issues relating to Glasberg’s representation of executive and coaching candidates he could potentially hire while running searches for teams in a separate capacity. At the time, he was running a search on behalf of the Philadelphia Flyers.
“There’s a reason why the NHLPA has a rule in place where agents are not allowed to represent both players and coaches or managers,” an NHL coach told Daily Faceoff at the time. “You can’t sit on both sides of the table. That’s not right.”
Both the Flyers and NHL deputy commissioner Bill Daly told Daily Faceoff at the time that they were aware of Glasberg’s clients and did not see any such issue.
As noted by The Athletic‘s Chris Johnston, Florida Panthers assistant general manager Sunny Mehta, seen by many as a strong fit and candidate for the job in Toronto, is a client of Glasberg’s.
The Leafs are in the market for a new team president and/or general manager after moving on from Brad Treliving last month. Treliving, who had been Toronto’s general manager for the past three seasons, was not able to improve the quality of the roster that was left to him by Kyle Dubas, now with the Pittsburgh Penguins.
The situation reached a boiling point this season as the Leafs quickly faded out of playoff contention after having been a part of each of the past 10 Stanley Cup Playoffs.
On Mar. 31, Leafs’ President and CEO Keith Pelley addressed the media to lay out his vision for the franchise moving forward in the wake of Treliving’s dismissal.
Pelley emphasized the need for the next head of hockey operations in Toronto to be “data-driven” while also expressing a vision for having experienced hockey minds in the room, suggesting that hiring both a general manager and president of hockey operations was on the table.