Published Aug 24, 2025 \u00a0\u2022\u00a0 Last updated 2\u00a0hours ago \u00a0\u2022\u00a0 9 minute read<\/p>\n
<\/a><\/p>\n You can save this article by registering for free here<\/a>. Or sign-in<\/a> if you have an account.<\/p>\n This could not have been the plan Keith Pelley had in mind when he took over at Maple Leaf Sports and Entertainment \u2014 to become the face of almost everything team-wise.<\/p>\n Advertisement 2<\/p>\n This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below.<\/p>\n THIS CONTENT IS RESERVED FOR SUBSCRIBERS ONLY<\/p>\n Subscribe now to read the latest news in your city and across Canada.<\/p>\n Unlimited online access to articles from across Canada with one account.Get exclusive access to the Toronto Sun ePaper, an electronic replica of the print edition that you can share, download and comment on.Enjoy insights and behind-the-scenes analysis from our award-winning journalists.Support local journalists and the next generation of journalists.Daily puzzles including the New York Times Crossword.<\/p>\n SUBSCRIBE TO UNLOCK MORE ARTICLES<\/p>\n Subscribe now to read the latest news in your city and across Canada.<\/p>\n Unlimited online access to articles from across Canada with one account.Get exclusive access to the Toronto Sun ePaper, an electronic replica of the print edition that you can share, download and comment on.Enjoy insights and behind-the-scenes analysis from our award-winning journalists.Support local journalists and the next generation of journalists.Daily puzzles including the New York Times Crossword.<\/p>\n REGISTER \/ SIGN IN TO UNLOCK MORE ARTICLES<\/p>\n Create an account or sign in to continue with your reading experience.<\/p>\n Access articles from across Canada with one account.Share your thoughts and join the conversation in the comments.Enjoy additional articles per month.Get email updates from your favourite authors.<\/p>\n THIS ARTICLE IS FREE TO READ REGISTER TO UNLOCK.<\/p>\n Create an account or sign in to continue with your reading experience.<\/p>\n Access articles from across Canada with one accountShare your thoughts and join the conversation in the commentsEnjoy additional articles per monthGet email updates from your favourite authors<\/p>\n Article content<\/p>\n In just more than a year on the job, Pelley has shown the door to Masai Ujiri, president of the Raptors; Brendan Shanahan president of the Maple Leafs; and Bill Manning, president of both the Argos and Toronto FC.<\/p>\n Article content<\/p>\n Article content<\/p>\n All of which combined for giant salary cuts \u2014 more than $20 million \u2014 none of which have necessarily strengthened the operations of any of the four Toronto teams involved.<\/p>\n Bobby Webster, general manager of the Raptors, is essentially GM and president now without portfolio. How he makes the franchise stronger, with Ujiri gone, is a question yet to be answered.<\/p>\n Brad Treliving is the GM of the Maple Leafs. He used to have Shanahan at his side for just about everything. Now, the somewhat inexperienced Shane Doan becomes his right hand man. Does this make the Maple Leafs front office stronger? It\u2019s impossible for Pelley, or any of us, to know how this impacts MLSE\u2019s signature franchise.<\/p>\n Your Midday Sun<\/p>\n Thanks for signing up!<\/p>\n Article content<\/p>\n Advertisement 3<\/p>\n This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below.<\/p>\n Article content<\/p>\n Manning has been gone from the Argos and TFC for a more than a year now. The Argos, through almost no one\u2019s fault, have gone from Grey Cup champions to last in the CFL. And anyone understanding the state of TFC, with all of its money exchanges and roster manipulations \u2014 for just five wins in 26 games this year \u2014 should probably consider MIT in their future.<\/p>\n So, Pelley has chopped hard from the top, putting himself in a position of either praise or blame. He says the only thing he is interested in is winning and all of those moves he made were with that in mind.<\/p>\n Whether intentional of not, MLSE has become his show, which was not his likely thought process from the very beginning.<\/p>\n THIS AND THAT<\/p>\n Mark Shapiro, not working for MLSE, is the last of the standing Toronto pro team presidents. He\u2019s being paid in the neighbourhood of $7 million by the Blue Jays and, based on this one season \u2014 and not the past nine \u2014 he\u2019s almost certain to get a contract extension \u2026 If you didn\u2019t get excited watching Shane Bieber make his return from Tommy John surgery on Friday night, check your pulse. So, here\u2019s the question: If the Blue Jays finish first in the American League East and open up with a best-of-five series, who starts the first three games? Max Scherzer, Bieber and Kevin Gausman? That\u2019s my call, order to be determined over the next five weeks \u2026 The pitcher the Jays traded to Cleveland for Bieber, Khal Stephen, has yet to throw a pitch for the Guardians or any of their farm teams. He has a shoulder problem \u2026 This is how bad the AL East is at the moment: The Jays have gone 12-12 in their past 24 games and have not relinquished anything to either the Yankees or Red Sox. If the Jays go 17-16 in their final 33 games, they will finish with 92 wins and that will assure them of first place in the East for just the seventh time in club history \u2026 If I\u2019m Addison Barger, and I\u2019m steroid-clean, I\u2019m calling my lawyer and suing Tommy Pham and possibly the Pittsburgh Pirates for libel. Legally, the onus would be on Pham to prove what he said. And if Barger is as clean as he says he is, that\u2019s money in the bank \u2026 For years, Paul Godfrey and J.P. Ricciardi tried to figure out how to get the Blue Jays out of the AL East and away from the Yankees and the Red Sox. And now, with so much talk about baseball realignment, there is conversation of moving the Jays to a division with Detroit, Cleveland and either Milwaukee or Minnesota. Personally, I\u2019d hate to see the Jays out of the AL East in its present form. But I would like to see them in a division with the Tigers. That\u2019s a rivalry gone missing \u2026 What commissioner Rob Manfred can\u2019t do is eliminate the American and National Leagues. You can\u2019t erase history \u2026 Hands up, both of you, who looked at the Jays schedule before the season began, saw a late-August series against the Milwaukee Brewers and thought: \u2018Now here\u2019s your World Series preview\u2019 \u2026 How much luck or good fortune has been involved in this crazy Jays season? The opening-day lineup against Baltimore had Anthony Santander in left field, Alan Roden in right and Barger playing for the Buffalo Bisons \u2026Jose Berrios is something of a scientific freak in these days of babying pitchers. He hasn\u2019t missed a start during eight seasons in Toronto and Minnesota. Scherzer, for one, can understand this: He went 10 straight seasons of 30-plus starts early in his career. The past 10 years, though, Scherzer has started 30-plus games just once \u2026 What\u2019s Bo Bichette worth in the open market? Somewhere just above the $280 to $300 million Xander Bogaerts and Trea Turner signed for in 2022. Bichette\u2019s stats are quite similar to the numbers of fellow shortstops Bogaerts, Dansby Swanson, Turner and Carlos Correa the past three seasons.<\/p>\n Advertisement 4<\/p>\n This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below.<\/p>\n Article content<\/p>\n HEAR AND THERE<\/p>\n The most impressive Mitch Marner statistic: The only right wingers in NHL history with more points per game than Marner are Mike Bossy, Nikita Kucherov and Guy Lafleur. And right after Marner on the list: Jari Kurri, Pavel Bure, Jaromir Jagr and Brett Hull \u2026 Did you know Shanahan is the third-highest goal-scoring left winger in NHL history, behind only Alexander Ovechkin and Luc Robitaille? And he\u2019s fourth in career points for his position behind Ovechkin, Robitaille and Johnny Bucyk \u2026 The next words of significance Auston Matthews<\/a> speaks will be his first since becoming captain of the Maple Leafs. Matthews is consistent, though. Like Floyd Smith once said as GM of the Leafs: \u2018He had nothing to say and he was only going to to say it once\u2019 \u2026When Bill Guerin put together his preliminary list for Team USA for the upcoming Milan Olympics, he made some history of his own. He named all three Hughes brothers to his camp roster. Centre Jack Hughes and defenceman Quinn Hughes<\/a> were obvious selections and will play big minutes for the Americans. But younger brother, Luke Hughes, though, is more of a long shot on defence. The dad, Jimmy Hughes, worked years ago for the Leafs in a position of player development, but the club let him go: Funny, but he\u2019s done just fine developing his three first-round sons \u2026 There have been five NHL-on-NHL Winter Olympic hockey tournaments. Team USA has won silver medals when the Games were played in the comfort of North America. When the Games were played in less suitable locales such as Japan, Italy or Russia, the Americans came away empty-handed. Team Canada, by the way, has won three of five gold medals in best-on-best tournaments, two in North America, one in Sochi.<\/p>\n Advertisement 5<\/p>\n This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below.<\/p>\n Article content<\/p>\n SCENE AND HEARD<\/p>\n It\u2019s easy to forget how great Mats Sundin was as an international player because we saw him so often on mediocre lines with the Leafs. Sundin led the Olympic tournament in scoring in 2002 and, four years, later captained Sweden to a gold medal. Not sure he ever played better than in Salt Lake City, before the Tommy Salo disaster goal \u2026 Had a wonderful conversation with Cliff Fletcher, just before his 90th birthday last weekend. Hope you got a chance to read the piece. A couple of things stuck with me after the fact: First, I didn\u2019t know or remember that Fletcher was offered the same position with the New York Rangers as he was with the Maple Leafs in 1991. He chose the Leafs. And one thing that didn\u2019t make the piece (a lot was left out because Cliff is so interesting): Fletcher\u2019s thoughts on being a general manager in today\u2019s NHL: \u201cI admire and respect today\u2019s GMs. Back in my day, there was no salary cap, there were no cell phones, there was no social media. The whole job has changed. It\u2019s a much more challenging job today. In our day, if you made a mistake, you could spend your way out of it if need be. You make a bad mistake now in a cap system and it\u2019s hard to recover from that.\u201d \u2026 Not sure anything like this has happened before, but could the brother combination of Mark Hunter and Dale Hunter \u2014 the GM and coach, respectively, of the London Knights \u2014 be considered as builders in tandem for Hockey Hall of Fame consideration? They\u2019re certainly deserving \u2026 The Olympic hockey rosters have expanded to 25 players (three more than the 4 Nations event) and 20 skaters can dress for each game. In playing with the numbers, that means a likely combination of seven defencemen and 13 forwards for each club. And that would give Evan Bouchard a much better chance of making the Canadian team. He might be the perfect seventh, second power-play, insurance defenceman. If coach Jon Cooper can\u2019t rely on him at even strength, he could pick and choose spots for the talented Bouchard without as much worry. A 13th forward might be a good spot for Brad Marchand if he isn\u2019t playing at his playoff level come February.<\/p>\n Advertisement 6<\/p>\n This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below.<\/p>\n Article content<\/p>\n AND ANOTHER THING<\/p>\n The CFL knew the World Cup of soccer was coming. It knew the rules, having to be out of stadiums in Toronto and Vancouver 30 days prior to the first World Cup games in Canada. But why did the league need to announce in mid-season that the Argos will move three home games to Winnipeg, Regina and Hamilton next season? They didn\u2019t make similar announcements with the B.C. Lions. Why not wait until the season ends to anger all of the 17 Argos fans I know? The Boatmen have a small, aging and rabid fan base that gets kicked around too often and this is just another example of that. If there were more ticket-buying fans, more games in Ontario would have been scheduled. Maybe in Guelph. Maybe in London. But the math didn\u2019t add up for the league, or the team, and the timing of the decision was worse than the actual decision itself \u2026 Tough draw for young Vicky Mboko at the U.S. Open. She opens against Barbora Krejcikova, a former winner of both Wimbledon and the French Open. Leylah Fernandez gets a better draw against fellow Canadian qualifier Rebecca Marino \u2026 The men did OK, draw-wise. Gabriel Diallo starts with Bosnian veteran Damir Dzumhur while Denis Shapovalov faces Marton Fucsovics of Hungary and Felix Auger-Aliassime faces a \u2018lucky loser\u2019 from the qualifying round \u2026 There seems to be money for just about everybody in the NBA these days, so why not for former Raptor Chris Boucher, who signed in Boston for just $3 million a year? \u2026 There was something special about watching Laurier\u2019s Taylor Elgersma throwing passes for the Green Bay Packers last weekend. The previous time a Canadian university player was playing quarterback in the NFL pre-season was 43 years ago. Elgersma got a shot at winding up on the Packers\u2019 practice squad \u2026 Can coach Sean McDermott lead the Buffalo Bills to the Super Bowl? Not sure he\u2019s the guy. In four playoff losses to Kansas City, McDermott\u2019s Bills gave up an average 34.75 points a game. Ironically, when the Bills lost four straight Super Bowls in the early 1990s, they gave up 34.75 points on average in each defeat \u2026 The defending-champion Oklahoma City Thunder will be on national TV in the States 34 times this coming season. Our beloved Raptors, by my count, will be on twice \u2026 The Blue Jays have won two World Series. Pat Gillick was GM for both teams. The Phillies, who have been around for 142 years, have won just two World Series, one with Gillick as GM. The Seattle Mariners have been in business since 1977: The most wins they\u2019ve had in a season was 116, the most in modern baseball history. Gillick was the GM in 2001 when that happened \u2026 And so, in a roundabout way, happy birthday to Gillick (88), Don King (94), Vince McMahon (80), Ray Ferraro (61), Cal Ripken Jr. (65), Glenn Healy (63), Reggie Miller (60), Kelsey Plum (31), Sonny Jurgensen (91), Anze Kopitar (38), Mason Miller (27) and Gerry Cooney (69) \u2026 And, hey, whatever became of Jeremy Lin?<\/p>\n Article content<\/p>\n Share this article in your social network<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Breadcrumb Trail Links Sports Get the latest from Steve Simmons straight to your inbox Sign Up Published Aug…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":93672,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[433],"tags":[49,48,448,82],"class_list":["post-93671","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nhl","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-nhl","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/93671","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=93671"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/93671\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/93672"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=93671"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=93671"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=93671"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"keith](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/0305-biz-wire-mlse-e1756002293479.jpg\")
Keith Pelley has chopped hard from the top since taking over at MLSE, but in doing so, has put himself in a position of either praise or blame. \u2002 The Canadian PressArticle content<\/p>\n![\"Toronto](\"https:\/\/dcs-static.gprod.postmedia.digital\/19.3.2\/websites\/images\/identity\/logo-identity-tsun.svg\"){kind=logo}
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