{"id":585006,"date":"2026-04-06T02:59:13","date_gmt":"2026-04-06T02:59:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/585006\/"},"modified":"2026-04-06T02:59:13","modified_gmt":"2026-04-06T02:59:13","slug":"maple-leafs-linked-to-sunny-mehta-for-gm-vacancy-pro-hockey-rumors","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/585006\/","title":{"rendered":"Maple Leafs Linked To Sunny Mehta For GM Vacancy \u2013 Pro Hockey Rumors"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The Maple Leafs have Panthers assistant general manager Sunny Mehta on their initial list of desired candidates to succeed Brad Treliving in the GM\u2019s chair, <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.sportsnet.ca\/nhl\/video\/saturday-headlines-more-changes-expected-in-toronto\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Elliotte Friedman of Sportsnet<\/a> said on last night\u2019s \u201cSaturday Headlines.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Mehta, 47, has long been a prominent face in advanced analytics. The Michigan native has had quite the long and winding road through his professional life \u2013 from earning a master\u2019s degree in data science to becoming a professional poker player and bestselling author \u2013 before he got into online analytics blogging in the early 2010s. After quickly gaining acclaim in that sphere, he did some consulting work for the Coyotes before being hired as the Devils\u2019 director of analytics in 2014, heading up the league\u2019s first dedicated analytics department.<\/p>\n<p>He remained in that role with New Jersey through 2018. He then did some freelance work with the Capitals and several Major League Baseball teams before getting brought into the Panthers\u2019 front office by then fresh-faced GM Bill Zito in 2021. Mehta served as the team\u2019s director of hockey strategy and intelligence for two years before Zito promoted him to his inner circle as an AGM, a role he\u2019s stayed in since the Cats\u2019 first of three consecutive trips to the Stanley Cup Final in 2023 while also serving as their director of analytics.<\/p>\n<p>Keith Pelley, the president of the Leafs\u2019 parent company, <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.prohockeyrumors.com\/2026\/03\/maple-leafs-linked-to-mike-gillis-for-gm-vacancy.html\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">made clear in his media availability at the beginning of last week<\/a> that his GM hire would be \u201cdata-centric.\u201d There\u2019s perhaps no individual more fitting of that description than Mehta. He\u2019s played a key role in Florida\u2019s successful acquisition of under-utilized depth pieces like\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.hockey-reference.com\/players\/r\/rodriev01.html?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=www.prohockeyrumors.com&amp;utm_campaign=2026-04-05_hr\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Evan Rodrigues<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.hockey-reference.com\/players\/m\/mikkoni01.html?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=www.prohockeyrumors.com&amp;utm_campaign=2026-04-05_hr\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Niko Mikkola<\/a>\u00a0over the past few years.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Maple Leafs have Panthers assistant general manager Sunny Mehta on their initial list of desired candidates to&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":418745,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[747,43,44,223498,41,39,42,40,746],"class_list":{"0":"post-585006","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-headlines","8":"tag-florida-panthers","9":"tag-headlines","10":"tag-news","11":"tag-sunny-mehta","12":"tag-top-news","13":"tag-top-stories","14":"tag-topnews","15":"tag-topstories","16":"tag-toronto-maple-leafs"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/585006","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=585006"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/585006\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/418745"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=585006"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=585006"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=585006"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}