The Toronto Maple Leafs look ready to scrap the Shanaplan and move in a different direction.
Sportsnet confirmed on Wednesday afternoon that the Leafs have granted the New York Islanders permission to speak with current Leafs president Brendan Shanahan about an opening in their front office. Shanahan has been the Leafs president for 11 seasons. However, the team has found little success in that timeframe. The Leafs have only advanced to the second round twice in those 11 seasons, but no further.
During his first season as President of Hockey Operations for the Toronto Maple Leafs, the team finished the season with a 30-44-8 record, which put them in position to select Mitch Marner fourth overall in the upcoming draft. Now, the team looks ready to move on from both of them. Marner will be the best winger available in free agency if he does indeed hit the open market. As much as both Shanahan and Marner loved their time in Toronto, it looks like the time has come for them to move on.
Shanahan's plan for the future of the Maple Leafs started off very promising when the team hired Lou Lamoriello as the GM and Mike Babcock as the head coach. Both were veterans of the game who could guide a young team and teach them how to find success. However, things changed a couple of seasons later when Shanahan decided to hire a rookie GM (Kyle Dubas) and allow him to hire a rookie head coach (Sheldon Keefe). Neither achieved anything other than one playoff series win.
Shanahan made a U-turn before the 2023-24 season by letting Dubas go and hiring a veteran GM in Brad Treliving. Treliving would then hire a veteran head coach (Craig Berube) for the 2024-25 season. Although Berube was able to reach the second round of the NHL playoffs in his first season as the Leafs head coach, the end result was not enough to satisfy those in charge, and now Shanahan has run out of time.
Fans will wonder how this might affect Treliving and Berube's plans for the team. Will the new President of Hockey Operations be willing to keep Treliving and Berube, or will he want his own people in those roles? The summer of 2025 is shaping up to be an interesting one for the Maple Leafs.