The Toronto Maple Leafs are inching closer and closer to hiring a new general manager and NHL insider Elliotte Friedman just dropped a major update on their search.
It's a massive one and has to do with the Maple Leafs potentially narrowing down their candidates and he even speculates on who will end up getting the job. The end of the road could be coming.
Elliotte Friedman says Maple Leafs have narrowed down their GM candidates
On Friday's episode of 32 Thoughts: The Podcast, Friedman spills all the latest on the Maple Leafs' search for a new general manager and who might even end up standing on top.
"I said the finalists were Ryan Martin from the Rangers, Scott White from the Dallas Stars, and either John Chayka or Evan Gold from the Bruins. I wasn't sure about the third one, and now I believe it was Chayka. It was Chayka, Martin, and White," Friedman clarified.
The NHL insider went on to say that those three finalists were all invited back to Toronto on Tuesday for an in-person interview and they were all told that it was a possibility that a favourite candidate could be invited to stay and meet with the head of Rogers, Edward Rogers, on Wednesday. They would have the opportunity to impress the head of the company that now owns MLSE and then would be crowned general manager of the Maple Leafs if everything went well.
That second part, according to Friedman, did not happen. And, there was also a finalist told that they were no longer in the running.
"I'm told that Ryan Martin from the Rangers was informed sometime after that meeting that even though he had a couple of great interviews and they were impressed, he wasn't advancing further and that he wouldn't be the next GM," Friedman said.
So, according to Friedman, that leaves Scott White and John Chayka as the two finalists for the general maanger position. And as mentioned by Friedman, they are two very different candidates.
White has spent his entire hockey operations career in the Stars organization, dating all the way back to being the Director of Hockey Operations for their AHL affiliate in the 2005-06 season. Twenty years in one of the most well-run organizations in the NHL -- that's plenty of experience.
On the other hand, Chayka went from owning a private hockey analytics company to being heralded as the next golden boy general manager, being the youngest head executive in NHL history. He spent one year as assistant general manager for the Arizona Coyotes and then immediately got promoted and led that team for just four seasons until he had to unceremoniously get kicked out of the league and suspended for some hockey operations-related controversy.
And Friedman believes that the former boy wonder gets the job in the end.
"I do believe the organization is leaning that way at this time, but, and it is possible, I think Chayka gets it, but I think we're far from done."
Friedman went on to say that he doesn't think anything gets done this week or this weekend. That they're going to do more due diligence and really try to nail down this hire and not be in a rush to fill the position.
And honestly, the Maple Leafs can take all the time that they need. This has to be one of the most important hires in the team's modern history because it could mean getting back into playoff contention and respectability, or sinking down to being an irrelevant franchise yet again.
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