The Toronto Maple Leafs have made a whole lot of changes on and off the ice this summer, and their latest move is getting some praise from outside the organization.
Andy O'Brien was hired by the Leafs earlier this week to lead their entire sports performance department, to try to get the most out of their current athletes. Famously, he is the offseason trainer of Sidney Crosby and has worked in both the Pittsburgh Penguins and Florida Panthers organization. While it isn't a star player who could turn the team around and maybe get them back into the playoffs, hiring the guy who so many elite players have trusted to optimize everything that will make them into a better hockey player, is never a bad call.
And now, some former NHL players are coming out to praise the move.
Erik Johnson thinks the Leafs did something great
Longtime defenseman and current NHL on ESPN analyst Erik Johnson, recently posted just how much of a win this is for Toronto and how he himself knows that O'Brien is great at what he does.
Whatever the #Leafs paid Andy is worth it x10000.
— Erik Johnson (@6ErikJohnson) August 5, 2026
Brilliant guy and I can speak from firsthand experience how good he is.
Everything he has you do off the ice translates on ice.
Some teams do not hire the best for this position because it is $$$$. Leafs stepped up here. https://t.co/ftWwm85lEk
“Brilliant guy, and I can speak from firsthand experience about how good he is. Everything he has you do off the ice translates on the ice. Some teams do not hire the best for this position because it is $$$$. The Leafs stepped up here," Johnson posted on Twitter Wednesday.
It's not known just how Johnson has this personal experience, since he wasn't with the Penguins or the Panthers when they employed O'Brien. This is a complete guess but maybe he's heard good things from longtime teammate Nathan MacKinnon, who in turn heard about O'Brien from good friend Crosby. That wouldn't be first-hand experience, but oh well.
But it is true that some teams cheap out when it comes to this. It's not the most vital positions, but really making sure all your players are performing up to the abilities can take a good player to a truly impactful talent. It's not like the Leafs were to ever not pay for a key off-ice position, and didn't have sports performance staff before, but O'Brien really seems like a top-end person in that industry, as Johnson noted.
Especially considering John Chayka's own background is in sports performance -- largely, being Max Domi's summer coach while he was in London -- he must try to get only the best in that category.
One more hire with just two months left in the offseason.
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