The Toronto Maple Leafs are in desperate need to hire a smart general manager, but the names being thrown around are getting out of control.
You can't be succesful every year, but it's crazy how far this team has fallen. Say what you want about Mike Babcok, Brendan Shanahan and Lou Lamoriello but it wasn't that long ago that those three individual were running the Leafs organization. With multiple Stanley Cups between them, that may be have been the most successful front office in the NHL.
Even when Kyle Dubas and Sheldon Keefe were in charge, the Leafs essentially went from an old-school hockey mentality to a modern approach which worked, as Auston Matthews was the most impressive he's ever looked and the team always made the playoffs.
Once Dubas and Keefe left, the Leafs went back to the old-school hockey mind, but downgraded tremendously. Craig Berube is a Stanley Cup winner, but it was a flash in the pan. He got lucky with a hot goaltender and one of the best defensive cores in hockey, while Brad Treliving has lost every trade he's ever made and hasn't reached a Conference Finals.
After being one of the best ran franchises in hockey, the Leafs find themselves in a weird spot with some very silly interviews ahead. Speaking of which, let's look at a few of those now.
Mike Gillis
Nothing screams young and innovating more than a 67 year-old who hasn't been a GM in the NHL since 2014, right? When Gillis ran the Vancouver Canucks, he helped bring his team to Game 7 of the Stanley Cup Finals, but in my opinion, he's unfortunately too old and has been out of the league for too long to be the man for this job.
Lamoriello was even older than Gillis when the Leafs hired him, but he had a much better pedigree than him and essentially had a succession plan in place with Dubas from the start. The fact that Gillis is somehow at the top of the list right is confusing.
John Chayka
This is going to sound harsh but isn't Chayka just a terrible version of Dubas? Both of them came from an analytics background, yet Chayka couldn't rebuild the Arizona Coyotes and Dubas has been successful everywhere he's been.
Chayka was in tough to turn around the Coyotes, but in his four years with the team, they only made the playoffs once. Also, did I mention he was abruptly suspended by the NHL and had his contract was terminated? With the pick of the litter, there is a ton of risk with this candidate.
There's almost nobody more succesful in the hockey world than Hunter, but we've been through this before. Hunter was a great assistant general manager in Toronto and essentially quit when he wasn't given the general manager position.