Ever since the Toronto Maple Leafs fired Brendan Shanahan as team president, the organization has suffered.
Who knows if it's a simple coincidence or his leadership was more valued than we thought, but it feels like this team needs a president of hockey operations more than ever. Since MLSE President and CEO Keith Pelley fired Shanahan, the Leafs have had their worst season of Auston Matthews' career and are on the verge of missing the playoffs for the first time since 2016.
Pelley's business acolades are impressive but when it comes to winning a hockey game, he has zero experience. He may be good at driving revenue but unfortunately the fanbase couldn't care less. At the end of the day, ironically, winning is what will drive the most revenue anyway, so Pelley needs to hire someone with more hockey knowledge immediately if he wants a bigger christmas bonus next year.
When Shanahan was hired, he convinced the board that this team needed a rebuild. They bottomed out, fired a ton of executives, acquired a bunch of draft picks and eventually drafted William Nylander, Mitch Marner and Auston Matthews. Those three guided the team to the playoffs and then Shanahan's hire of Kyle Dubas and Sheldon Keefe almost got this team to a Conference Final and beyond.
They ultimately failed at winning a championship, but Shanahan's guidance was huge in restoring the fanbase. Instead of Alex Ovechkin and Sidney Crosby jerseys in Toronto, you saw young kids wearing Marner and Matthews sweaters and were proud to be Leafs fans.
Shanhan's stubborness to keep Marner too long was his ultimate downfall, but overall his guidance was very important and this organization wouldn't have gone to nine straight playoffs without him. Now that he's gone, the team desperately needs a sucessor and here are three potential candidates.
Mats Sundin
If MLSE wants to go down the former player angle, there is no better person than Mats Sundin. He has a 100 percent approval rating and the fanbase would adore and respect his decision making. The one issue with Sundin is that he primarily lives in Sweden and doesn't have a ton of hockey operations experience.
Despite the lesser business resume, Sundin's obviously a smart person and knows what it means to win in Toronto more than anything. We've recently seen the Atlanta Falcons hire Matt Ryan as their President of Football without a business degree and have seen multiple examples throughout professional sport. As such, I think Sundin would be able to help drive this team forward.
Jason Spezza
Currently serving as the assistant GM to Kyle Dubas with the Pittsburgh Penguins, it feels like Spezza is getting groomed to be the next general manager there or with a different organization. Instead of making the leap to GM, why not give him a bigger bump and promote him to President?
After playing over 1200 NHL games, including three seasons in Toronto, Spezza has spent the last four years in management. Players have always praised Spezza for his hard work and smart hockey IQ, so he could be a perfect candidate with the Leafs. It may be hard to push him away from his buddy Dubas, but I think the Mississagua, ON native would jump at the opportunity to run his childhood team and would do a fantastic job if given the opportunity.
Hayley Wickenheiser
If the Leafs want to hire a Hockey Hall of Famer and one of the smartest people in the game, they could look internally at Hayley Wickenheiser.
Wickenheiser is currently an Assitant GM in Toronto and is a born leader. The former Team Canada Olympics captain is not only smart but has incredible hockey knowledge, and wouldn't be intimidated by this promotion. It's only a mater of time before she is promoted to become a GM for another organization so instead of letting that happen, why not give her a shot at running the entire team?