The Toronto Maple Leafs are in the midst of a very public search for their next GM. Based on CEO Keith Pelley’s comments and chatter from various insiders, the organization is looking for a candidate who can embrace a “data-driven” approach, while seemingly breathing new life into the team.
Well, that’s a funny thing to say because the Maple Leafs already dumped the candidate they are looking for.
Back in the 2023 offseason, the Maple Leafs were in a position where they needed to decide whether to keep Kyle Dubas. He was the wunderkind who took over for veteran exec Lou Lamoriello. Dubas’ analytics-first system and fresh insights into the game turned the Maple Leafs into a perennial playoff contender.
Sure, the Core Four was Dubas’ brainchild. But you can’t blame him for heading in that direction. The salary cap dynamics at that particular point suggested that championship teams had a solid core of stars, with interchangeable pieces around the fringes.
That approach motivated the organization to commit over half of its cap allocation to four players. The structure could have worked. But the Leafs were just unable to get over the hump.
That aside, it’s ironic how the Maple Leafs, who let Dubas walk in 2023, are now looking for the sort of GM that would use analytics and data to make decisions. That’s what Dubas did in Toronto. Too bad it didn’t work out.
Maple Leafs made crucial mistake when hiring Treliving
Contrary to Dubas, Brad Treliving has a bit of a throwback. He wasn’t an analytics genius, though, according to Pelley, the organization has spent a considerable amount of resources on data and tracking.
But when it came to roster decisions, Treliving was more of a gut-feeling kind of guy than a numbers-based decision-maker.
The rationale, it would seem, was that Dubas’ numbers-based approach didn’t work. So, it was time to go old-school. Since that didn’t work, either, the time has now come to move back to data.
That flip-flopping could ultimately do more harm than good. The organization can’t try something different every couple of years. The team needs to commit to a direction and make it work.
It will be interesting to see just how well a return to data and analytics will be. But one thing is certain: the numbers, even superficially, aren’t flattering for this team. Major changes are evident, data or not.
You don’t need to be an analytics whiz to see that things just aren’t too kosher in Toronto. Let’s hope that the numbers-crunching will lead to more informed decisions moving forward.