Toronto Maple Leafs: Who Is This Laurence Gilman guy?

The Toronto Maple Leafs have hired Laurence Gilman to be an assistant G.M

The Toronto Maple Leafs finally made a move that brought in someone from outside the franchise. Laurence Gilman is a lawyer by trade but has been in the NHL since the original Winnipeg Jets.

According to the recent Craig Custance podcast, Gilman attended school in North Dakota. In one of his classes he went against the grain of focusing on Agriculture Law and wrote a paper on hockey and how contract arbitration and disputes can be handled. His professor read this piece and called him in to his office the next day.

The professor told Gilman that he didn’t understand many parts of the paper, but could tell that Hockey was something Gilman was very passionate about. The professor told Gilman to send this report he wrote to many NHL teams and was ultimately offered a job by the Winnipeg Jets. While Gilman wasn’t a manager at the time, he was apart of the finance department where he would work with lawyers on contracts to help the team save money where he could. This kind of knowledge will help the Toronto Maple Leafs with their salary cap situation going forward.

After spending thirteen years with the Jets/Coyotes franchise, Gilman moved on to the Vancouver Canucks. Gilman helped the Canucks build their non-winning dynasty through their farm team. You know, the years when they would win the president’s trophy but not do anything in the playoffs. Included in those years was the year the Canucks went to the Stanley Cup Finals and eventually lost to the Boston Bruins.

What Is He Doing Here

Gilman was hired to maintain the same roll Kyle Dubas had as AGM/GM of the Toronto Marlies. While this will likely be his primary role, he will help the Dubas and Pridham with some of the contracts. I believe that The Toronto Maple Leafs will use Gilman’s financial mind to help with the pending cap situation. The Toronto Maple Leafs need to sign Nylander, Matthews and Marner along with newer players to replace the pending UFAs.

Personally I believe that Gilman will be a great addition to the Toronto Maple Leafs head office. He seemed to have a very solid head on his shoulders. The Winnipeg Jets brought him in to help with their finances in their future salary negotiations. With Matthews, Nylander and Marner coming due for extensions along with a plethora of Toronto Marlies prospects coming of age, this will benefit the Toronto Maple Leafs.

While it is usually frowned upon to promote another media outlet, Gilman was on ‘The Full 60’ podcast from Craig Custance (of The Athletic) roughly three months ago. It was quite difficult to find information on Gilman. He was not really one of the main faces during his tenure with the Jets/Coyotes and Canucks. Listening to the podcast with Craig Custance, I learned a lot about Gilman. Custance went on to say that he would be surprised if Gilman didn’t have a job by next season. The way Gilman responded on the podcast really comforted me that he knew what he is doing.

Next: Leafs Draft Picks Through the Years

If you would like to read more about Laurence Gilman, Mike Stephens wrote two pieces about him earlier this week.