Toronto Maple Leafs: What’s Next For Mark Hunter
It seems that Mark Hunter’s days with the Toronto Maple Leafs are coming to an end.
On May 11th, Brendan Shanahan and the Toronto Maple Leafs announced that Kyle Dubas would be general manager. Both, Dubas and Hunter were rumored to be promoted to general manager. If Hunter is keen on becoming a GM, he’ll have to leave the Toronto Maple Leafs organization.
Fortunately for Hunter, there are likely to be a few teams across the NHL who will be hungry for a new GM to take the reins. The teams who might be looking for a new face to lace their operations include the Minnesota Wild, Montreal Canadiens, New York Islanders and Dallas Stars.
All four squads really require a change in hockey operations. The Wild while being competitive and making the playoffs have failed to go far into the playoff race. On April 23rd, Chuck Fletcher was removed from his post as GM and the Wild are now searching for a replacement. The main challenge for the Wild is that they lack success on the power-play. If they add a forward like James van Riemsdyk or Thomas Vanek, they’d be much better off.
Their rival in the Central Division, the Stars have also had challenges getting to the Western Conference final and Stanley Cup final. I’ll give credit to Jim Nill, the current GM of the Stars as he has put together a team with solid depth. They have exciting players including Tyler Seguin, John Klingberg, Jamie Benn and Alexander Radulov. The Stars’ main issue is on the blue line, but on the bright side they have 17.67 USD million to play with on July 1st.
Habs & Isles
In the East, both the Canadiens and Islanders are in disaray. Marc Bergevin, the current GM for the Habs has been ineffective in his role. He’s made terrible decisions and have negatively impacted the team. Bergevin made a controversial trade with the Tampa Bay Lightning as he acquired Jonathan Drouin. Unfortunately for him, it didn’t pay off. The Habs parted with their top defensive prospect, Mikhali Sergachev. They could have used Sergachev’s defensive skill-set as the Habs struggled last year to keep the puck out of their own net. For what ever reason, the Molson family still continues to cut him a pay-check.
More from Editor In Leaf
- Toronto Maple Leafs: Nick Robertson Healthy and Ready
- Ryan Reaves Will Have Zero Impact on Toronto Maple Leafs
- Toronto Maple Leafs: Playing Max Domi In Top-Six a HUGE Mistake
- Top 10 Scandals in the History of the Toronto Maple Leafs
- Toronto Maple Leafs: Results from the Traverse City Prospects Tournament
Shifting to Long Island, the owners of the Islanders continue to let their team be mismanaged. Currently, Garth Snow is running the show in Brooklyn and needs to go. Aside from the looming fear of losing John Tavares on July 1st, Snow has failed to address the elephant in the room. He has yet to bring a top net-minder and solid defense to the club. It’s time for Snow to abandon ship and let someone else clean up the mess.
Where I’d Go
If I were Hunter, I would be itching to take over the Canadiens. Let me explain why.
The Canadiens have five draft picks in the first two rounds of this year’s draft. In addition, they have a multitude of assets that they could trade prior to the draft to land top prospects. Hunter could flip Max Pacioretty, Shea Weber and Karl Alzner for prospects and/or more draft picks.
In addition, at the moment, the Habs have 13 million USD in cap space. If they moved Pacioretty, Weber or Alzner prior to the draft, their cap space would only increase and would allow the Habs to pursue top free agents like Tavares.
Next: Maple Leafs Sign Four Players
Plus, by choosing to take the job in Montreal, you’d avoid the mess in Long Island. Also, you’d be in the drivers’ seat to build your own team rather than inherit a built one.
With July 1st not that far away, Hunter will probably be hired sooner than later. Editor in Leaf will keep you informed and up-to-date on the latest developments around Hunter’s job search.