When the Toronto Maple Leafs put together one of their worst seasons in a decade for their 2025-26 campaign, many had expected a big overhaul would take place at the management level to help the team get back to their winning ways. The Maple Leafs couldn’t even wait until the end of the season when they handed former General Manager Brad Treliving his papers in late March.
Since then, the Leafs have made some massive additions this offseason with the hirings of John Chayka and Mats Sundin to become the GM and Senior Executive Advisor respectively for the Toronto franchise going forward. On Monday, the Maple Leafs continued their front office overhaul as they mutually parted ways with their Special Advisor to the GM Shane Doan.
Maple Leafs continue major overhaul of their front office with latest move
Doan was originally hired by Treliving to join Leafs management back in 2023. The 49-year-old former Arizona Coyote also happened to be one of Auston Matthews’ favourite players growing up, as they eventually grew to know each other even more over the years in his hockey journey. So having Doan as part of the Maple Leafs organization could potentially help solidify Matthews’ stance to play at his best with Toronto going forward.
Doan’s tenure with his new club would get off to an amazing start as Toronto had one of their best seasons in years in 2024-25 when they finished atop of the Atlantic Division and made it once again all the way to the second round of the Stanley Cup Playoffs. However, the Maple Leafs would quickly follow that up with one of their most dreadful performances in years as well in 2025-26, putting many of the roles at the management level in doubt as a result.
But more surprisingly is the fact that Doan had actually previously worked with current Leafs GM Chayka during their time with the Coyotes, with Chayka being Arizona’s GM between 2016-2020 and Doan working as the team’s Chief Hockey Development Officer from 2021-2023. So one would have expected that the 49-year-old veteran could have the opportunity to stay on with the Maple Leafs with his former boss in town.
Nevertheless, with Doan leaving town, it officially gives Toronto new minds, a fresh start and a new look to their front office as they aim to redeem themselves and hope to return to contention status in due time. Especially now that the Leafs have also landed the first overall pick for the 2026 NHL Entry Draft, that turnaround could pretty much now happen sooner rather than later.
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