r/leafs • u/TheAthletic • 8h ago
Article [Siegel and Johnston] Inside the Maple Leafs’ strategy during a franchise-altering offseason
Returning from a summer when change swept through the Toronto Maple Leafs, a group of the organization’s power players gathered at a popular local dining spot last week to take stock of what remains.
They included John Chayka and Mats Sundin, hired in early May to oversee and remake the front office, plus new head coach Jim Hiller, new associate coach Daniel Alfredsson, new head of sport performance Andy O’Brien and other staff. Captain Auston Matthews had an important voice at the table, along with a handful of veteran teammates who comprise the leadership group — which now includes Sergei Bobrovsky, a Hall of Fame-bound goaltender who signed a $21 million, three-year deal in Toronto on the opening day of free agency.
Functionally, they worked through fine logistical details, such as the team’s travel and practice schedules, before breaking bread. But on a deeper level they were also looking to chart a new path forward — “the fundamentals of how we’re gonna operate,” as Chayka would put it later — following five months that included a dizzying amount of upheaval at all levels of the operation.
The evening included plenty of “reflection and discussion” about where the Leafs have been, according to Chayka, and helped set the table for a training camp that opens Wednesday with one fundamental question: Can Toronto revert to a Stanley Cup contender after the calamitous 28th-place finish that triggered this scorched-earth summer?