TSN Hockey Insider Pierre LeBrun joins Gino Reda to discuss the Maple Leafs and Devils both being interested in Sunny Mehta and receiving permission from the Panthers to speak with their assistant general manager, Mike Gillis also being on Toronto’s radar, Alex Ovechkin’s future beyond this season, and the vote of confidence given to Capitals head coach Spencer Carbery.
Gino Reda: If the Leafs want their choice of who they believe is their top available candidate for general manager, they better hurry, because the Devils and Predators are also in the hunt and also circling right now. To discuss that and more here is our Insider Pierre LeBrun.
Pierre, let’s start with the Leafs and Devils specifically where it looks like they could both be very interested in the same guy?
Pierre LeBrun: Yeah, well, listen. I mean at the end of the day, it’s only natural when you have three GM openings overall, that there’s going to be overlap in those three search processes. There’s only so many people available around the league.
So, in the case of New Jersey and Toronto, as I reported on this day, it’s been confirmed to me that the Leafs and the Devils have asked and received permission from the Florida Panthers to speak with Sunny Mehta as part of their process.
And, of course, Sunny Mehta, who has been a name that’s been all the rage of late here, especially in the Toronto market, fits the profile I think of both the kind of candidate that both New Jersey and Toronto are looking for on the data analytics side. He’s the head of analytics for the Florida Panthers. But certainly, Gino, to your point, he’s not the only person that’s drawn interest from the Florida Panthers’ front office.
Brett Peterson, assistant GM, who was also by the way last month named GM of Team USA for the IIHF Men’s World Championship. Peterson has interviewed twice now with the Nashville Predators. Well, certainly a preliminary discussion, and then an in-person interview. Those in-person interviews are considered the second phase of the process for Nashville and began last week. Not saying he’s going to get the job, but obviously there’s enough interest there where they’ve talked a couple times.
So, you know, the bigger point here too is that what happens when a team that wins back-to-back Stanley Cups. People want to see how the sausage is made, right? And so it’s not surprising at all that people might be wanting to raid the Panthers’ front office.
And I’ll also add this – there are some GMs over the years that have said ‘Nope, I’m not ready to lose that guy yet.’ But Bill Zito, the president and GM of the Florida Panthers, has consistently talked about over the years that he was appreciative that the Columbus Blue Jackets allowed him to be part of numerous GM interviews over the years. He interviewed in Edmonton, in New Jersey, in Minnesota over the years – a bunch of different spots before finally landing the Florida gig in 2020.
This is his way of saying I remember that feeling and I remember being appreciative and I think he wants to extend that same courtesy to his front office people. We’ll see where it goes.
Reda: You and I were right there when Keith Pelley announced the fact that Brad Treliving was out of work and fired and they were moving on. And right after we discussed why the move, we started discussing the candidates and one of the names that came up almost immediately was Mike Gillis, who has been around but hasn’t been working specifically at the top of an NHL organization for a number of years now since he was with the Vancouver Canucks. But now he’s on the list for the Leafs as well?
LeBrun: Yeah, it’s my understanding that Mike Gillis is officially on this long list of candidates for the Maple Leafs, which is what we said at the outset was a strong possibility. Where I think it gets interesting is that Mike Gillis in the past has been open in other media interviews that he doesn’t ever see himself coming back as a GM. If he came back, under the right circumstances, it would be as a president of hockey operations working with a GM. And I think he believes strongly in that structure and what he can best bring to an organization that way.
And so, when the Leafs do meet with Mike Gillis at some point here as part of this process, you know, I think that will be explained again. It just goes to show you, and I think this is why Keith Pelley labelled the search at the outset as the head of hockey operations because I think some people will be seen as GM candidates and some people as more of president of hockey ops. Between all that, they’ll get their hire, or hires done in Toronto. So it will be interesting to see how it all ends up.
But the one thing I would say too about Mike Gillis is that he’s a former agent – as you know too Gino – he was an agent for many years before he ended up in Vancouver. On the one side, one of the real hot trends right now is looking at data guys. We know that. We just talked about it. But the other side is former agents turned GM.
Bill Zito is obviously the poster boy. Who’s had more success than him as a former agent turned GM? Kent Hughes excelling in Montreal as a former agent turned GM. Well, Mike Gillis is a former agent. All interesting when you find the links between all this.
Reda: Here’s the other question now. Going back to when Keith Pelley held the press conference, one of the notes he made was this is probably going to be the most significant he makes in his tenure at the top of MLSE. So he wants to be sure about it. He wants to go through a whole good search process. He was thinking originally at the earliest the middle of May, which is still a month away.
But now that there’s so many guys out there looking very seriously at the same bodies, is there more of a sense of urgency that you’re getting from the Preds, or the Devils, or the Leafs, that if we want our guy, we’re going to have to move faster than we’d like on this?
LeBrun: What I would say on that is from talking to someone with the Devils the day after they parted ways with Tom Fitzgerald is that they were going to get right at it. And again, as I mentioned Tuesday, the belief there is that there would be ownership in conjunction with senior upper management that would handle that search for the Devils. But they weren’t going to take a day off. They were going to get right into it.
I do think that the Leafs, if once they start these interviews they feel that where they’ve gotten to where they want with their candidate, there could be a hire. Even before mid-May, I think. That’s possible depending on how it goes.
Whereas with Nashville, who have had the most time of all, Barry Trotz announced he was stepping down back in early February. They still insist when I’ve checked in on that they will not be rushed just because there are other openings now. That they continue to do their thing and want to be patient. And they will hire a GM when they feel that they have found the right person and not be influenced by two other GM openings elsewhere in the league. Different approaches there.
Reda: Another name that’s been floating around, another big question mark is Alex Ovechkin. Did he just play his last game in Canada last night in Toronto? Is he now just a week away from stepping away from the NHL game?
You spoke with Caps general manager Chris Patrick. What does he have to say about Ovie’s future?
LeBrun: It was funny, the timing of my interview with Chris Patrick because it literally came within the hour of the Caps announcing, via their social media, a radio interview with Alex Ovechkin saying he needs more time. He’s going to wait until the summer to make up his mind. So, that was fresh news as I sat down with Chris Patrick. And what Patrick said was listen, the Caps really don’t know where Ovechkin is leaning.
All they know is Ovechkin has gone to them and said, “I need more time.” But having said all that, I will say that being at Scotiabank Arena for the morning skates, the Caps confirmed to me that they had more in-house media hanging around this road trip taking more footage than normal of you know what. Just in case, which is smart. Just in case this is it for him.
But it is interesting that Ovechkin doesn’t want to decide this here before the end of the regular season. It’s a little different than what happened with Wayne Gretzky when it leaked out in the second last game in Ottawa that he is retiring and had that great final game at Madison Square Garden.
On the flip side, completely different from Anze Kopitar, who I think had had a wonderful season in terms of the reaction from opposing players skating his hand after every game. Kopitar announcing before the year that this was it. Ovechkin needs more time and he’s going to decide at some point on his own clock.
Reda: What about their head coach if the Caps don’t somehow find a way to sneak into the playoffs this season. Is Spencer Carbery’s job in danger?
LeBrun: No, and I can tell you of all the questions I asked Chris Patrick in that interview for that piece in The Athletic, that was the one that got absolutely zero hesitation. The words were out of the GM’s mouth before my question was out of my mouth. One hundred per cent Spencer Carbery is their coach. He’s coming back next year. In fact, the quote I got from Chris Patrick was something like “As long as we can have him he’ll be here.”
So, obviously Carbery and Patrick are on the same page in terms of this retool. And listen, it’s a disappointing tumble in the standings from first place to where they are now just on the outskirts of the playoff bracket. But let’s also mention that their retool continues. Ilya Protas made his NHL debut Wednesday night. They continue to integrate young players. Cole Hutson in the last month.
So they are doing what they planned at the outset three years ago. Which is to retool while trying to stay competitive.
Reda: That’s the early edition of Insider Trading. The full IT with Pierre and TSN Hockey Insider Darren Dreger to come on the early edition of SportsCentre.
