The Toronto Maple Leafs reportedly have their eyes set on Florida Panthers assistant GM Sunny Mehta as a target to replace former GM Brad Treliving, according to Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman.
“One name I do think is gonna be part of Toronto’s search, and he’s been kind of discussed this week, is Sunny Mehta, one of the assistant general managers of the Florida Panthers. I do think he’s gonna be a factor,”
he said during Saturday Headlines.
MLSE CEO Keith Pelley admitted during his presser on Tuesday that one of the primary criteria that the Leafs are looking for as the successor to Treliving is that the new GM has to be ‘data-centric,’ and Mehta certainly meets that description. While his background before becoming a hockey executive is unconventional due to him being a legendary poker player and writing a best-selling book on the sport, his superior understanding of math and the salary cap has helped play a role in the Panthers’ two-straight Stanley Cups.
Pelley wants to win above all, and Mehta has been remarkably successful in every avenue of his career. In some respects, you could almost liken him to Ernie Adams, the shadowy director of football intelligence for the New England Patriots, who operated as Bill Belichick’s man in the sky throughout the dynasty years. It will be an exhaustive search, and Mehta is the perfect balance between Traditional Hockey Executive, and an unconventional, progressive thinker who could help the Maple Leafs eventually reach their goal of winning the Stanley Cup.
In addition to the Leafs’ interest in Mehta, Friedman also noted that it is unlikely that Doug Armstrong will be in consideration for a position in Toronto.
“ You know Doug Armstrong’s name and I mentioned Doug Armstrong. It just doesn’t seem like the timing is right for the Blues and the Maple Leafs for Doug Armstrong,” he said. “Anything can change, and I reserve the right that I could be right now and then wrong later, but it just doesn’t seem like the timing is right for Doug Armstrong and the Maple Leafs.”
Armstrong has long been rumoured to be someone the Leafs would target as a potential replacement in the front office, given his ample experience in a front office, aggressiveness in decision making, and putting together a Stanley Cup team. While there have been rumblings that he still has the itch to be a GM despite his impending position change, he already signed a three-year extension to be St. Louis’ president and is undergoing a succession plan with Alex Steen taking over which makes him unlikely to be a legit option for the Leafs at this time.
Friedman mentioned that the Leafs have yet to seek permission from other teams to speak with any executive currently under contract, a sign that they are still early in the process. He also made it clear that Treliving’s dismissal isn’t the only change forthcoming.
“ After the change at the GM spot, Keith Pelley held a Zoom call with the members of the hockey operations department. Just from talking to a few people after it was over and in the last couple of days, it’s pretty clear that they are expecting major change,” he said. “I asked ‘Did Pelley say anything specifically about change in there?’ It wasn’t so much the word, it’s about how he talked. One of the things he kind of mentioned was we are going to use our resources to the fullest capacity we can. They were kind of left with the impression that he felt that they hadn’t been doing that, so that’s why I think a lot of people are expecting that there’s gonna be even more changes than the one we already saw.”
Regardless of whether it ends up being a combination of Mehta and Mike Gillis, just one of them, or someone else, it is clear that the Leafs front office and how they operate is going to be vastly different from how it looked at the start of the season.
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