The Toronto Maple Leafs can’t make any moves until they hire a new general manager, and their search has narrowed down to a few candidates.
Following the Maple Leafs’ termination of Brad Treliving as general manager last month, no one knew what direction Toronto would take with their next recruitment. Even after Keith Pelley had his now-famous press conference and set some criteria for the new front office, no one knew which current NHL or hockey professional would be the Maple Leafs general manager.
However, thanks to a new report, we may have a very clear idea of who the Leafs will employ as their new general manager. And it might arrive as early as this week.
Maple Leafs GM search nears completion, with two candidates emerging as finalists.
According to Frank Seravalli, two of the finalists who are approaching the final stages of the Maple Leafs’ search for a new general manager are Evan Gold, an assistant general manager with the Bruins, and Ryan Martin, an assistant general manager with the Rangers.
Both Gold and Martin were among the hundreds of names on Elliotte Friedman’s huge list of applicants earlier on Monday, and both are intriguing.
Gold, a Toronto native, joined the Bruins front office in 2015 as the Director of Hockey Operations, focusing on the legal aspects of hockey ops for four years before being promoted to assistant general manager in 2019. For the past three seasons, he has been the general manager of the Bruins’ AHL affiliate and has played a significant role in player development.
Given the Bruins’ numerous outstanding trades and signings—and how they rebuilt their squad after a terrible year—Gold might be the ideal candidate to do the same for Toronto.
Overall, Martin is a fascinating choice. Before joining the Rangers front office, he worked for the Red Wings for more than 15 years, including a stint as Ken Holland’s assistant general manager during the team’s less-than-successful years in Detroit. And now he’s a member of a Rangers team that isn’t having a good time and is in a really difficult situation. If he had his fingerprints on some of the decisions made in Detroit or New York, Toronto might be making a slew of short-sighted win-now choices.
We’ll see, however — no one knows what an executive is like until they have complete control over their decisions. However, it is worth mentioning that both of them would be first-time general managers, and if engaged, it is almost certain that someone will be appointed as president of hockey operations, with Mike Gillis most likely.
The Maple Leafs will take their first efforts toward reversing the situation.
