{"id":600247,"date":"2026-04-22T20:29:09","date_gmt":"2026-04-22T20:29:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/600247\/"},"modified":"2026-04-22T20:29:09","modified_gmt":"2026-04-22T20:29:09","slug":"what-you-should-know-about-toronto-maple-leafs-gm-finalists","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/600247\/","title":{"rendered":"What you should know about Toronto Maple Leafs\u2019 GM finalists"},"content":{"rendered":"

TORONTO \u2014 MLSE president Keith Pelley seems to have\u00a0a type\u00a0he is targeting for the coveted title of Toronto Maple Leafs<\/a> general manager.<\/p>\n

Three of the four candidates reported by Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman<\/a> on Wednesday fit the profile of experienced front-office star on the rise, executives that have learned the business with well-run franchises as assistant GMs but would be first-time GMs at the National Hockey League level.<\/p>\n

These hopefuls may not splash headlines the way, perhaps, a savvy veteran like Doug Armstrong would.<\/p>\n

But this hiring strategy has proved successful elsewhere.<\/p>\n

The Stars\u2019 Jim Nill (Red Wings), Islanders\u2019 Mathieu Darche (Lightning) and Lightning\u2019s Julien BriseBois (Canadiens), to name a few, all cut their teeth with one strong organization before running the show with a competitor.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The New Jersey Devils are following this pattern with their new\u00a0Starter-jacket-wearing<\/a>\u00a0hockey ops honcho Sunny Mehta (Panthers).<\/p>\n

The Maple Leafs are conducting another round of in-person interviews this week in Toronto, as Friedman reported, and the following four executives have risen as serious contenders to succeed Brad Treliving.<\/p>\n

\"3232 Thoughts: The Podcast<\/p>\n

Hockey fans already know the name, but this is not the blog. From Sportsnet, 32 Thoughts: The Podcast with NHL Insider Elliotte Friedman and Kyle Bukauskas is a weekly deep dive into the biggest news and interviews from the hockey world.<\/p>\n

Latest episode<\/a><\/p>\n

Here\u2019s what we know about the finalists\u2026<\/p>\n

Not two years have passed since the Maple Leafs poached talent from the well-run Stars. In the summer of 2024, Brad Treliving snatched Mark Leach to direct the Leafs\u2019 amateur scouting department. So, with Nill himself re-signing in Dallas, Pelley has taken an interest in Nill\u2019s right-hand man.<\/p>\n

White is a hockey lifer who has held down nearly every rink job except for mascot.<\/p>\n

The 58-year-old native of Ormstown, Que., bounced around pro hockey\u2019s minor leagues in the early 1990s as a defenceman for seven teams in the ECHL, IHL and AHL. Upon retiring as a player, he immediately began assistant coaching for his alma mater, Michigan Tech, and worked his way up to head coach of the ECHL\u2019s Columbia Inferno in the early 2000s.<\/p>\n

A member of the Stars organization since 2005, White has paid his dues, literally working his way up as an executive from the minors. He has been a fixture in Dallas\u2019s front office for 11 seasons, guided the 2014 Texas Stars to a Calder Cup, and was tapped by Hockey Canada to manage the country\u2019s Spengler Cup squad that same year.<\/p>\n

White is a climber, and his next step would be NHL general manager.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

Like White, New York Rangers associate general manager Martin serves as GM for his organization\u2019s AHL affiliate, the Hartford Wolf Pack, which has qualified for the playoffs twice since Martin took helm in 2021.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Martin is seen as next in line to Chris Drury, whose Rangers have preferred short-term retools over long-term rebuilds. That strategy would align with Pelley\u2019s suggestion that Toronto\u2019s \u201cfoundational pieces\u201d are already in place.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Martin also reportedly interviewed for the Nashville Predators\u2019 GM vacancy and has Drury\u2019s blessing to seek a promotion elsewhere.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The Connecticut native brings 20-plus seasons of scouting and front office experience and has been involved in player personnel for USA Hockey\u2019s improving national junior program.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Martin got his NHL start working with the Grand Rapids Griffins as part of Ken Holland\u2019s group in Detroit and guided them to a Calder Cup in 2017. Prior to that job, he worked as both a lawyer and as a player agent with KO Sports.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

Are the Maple Leafs tired of the Boston Bruins taking from them? Do they want to swipe something back?\u00a0<\/p>\n

Gold, who earned both his law and MBA degrees at the University of Toronto, is a candidate to return to his hometown of Toronto after serving 11 seasons in the front office of the Maple Leafs\u2019 bitter rival.<\/p>\n

Another AGM hungry for promotion, Gold also serves as the Bruins\u2019 director of legal affairs and, yep, runs their AHL farm team in Providence.<\/p>\n

Gold, 46, serves as Boston GM Don Sweeney\u2019s advisor in day-to-day hockey operations and comes with experience in pro scouting, arbitration cases, roster planning, contract negotiations and cap compliance. Prior to joining the B\u2019s in 2015, Gold cut his teeth for eight-plus seasons with the Washington Capitals operations \u2014 a job he earned through an internship. His hockey journey began with \u201clicking envelopes.\u201d Gold had an opportunity to work with the NBA’s Washington Wizards instead but chose the Caps because of his hockey fandom.<\/p>\n

Easily the most familiar name on Friedman\u2019s reported short list, Chayka is the only one here with GM experience at the NHL level.<\/p>\n

The 36-year-old Ontario native became the youngest GM in league history when the Arizona Coyotes gave him the keys in 2016 as a 26-year-old, partly due to his analytics expertise. The Coyotes went 131-147-38 under the first-timer\u2019s guidance and clinched a playoff spot in the last of his four seasons at the helm.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Chayka abruptly resigned in July 2020, terminating his contract early. He got into hot water with NHL commissioner Gary Bettman for pursing job opportunities with other teams without permission from Arizona and was running the club when it hosted a private scouting combine for draft prospects. As punishment, Bettman forced the Coyotes to forfeit their second-round pick in 2020 and their first-round pick in 2021.<\/p>\n

The data-centric Chayka has kept a relatively low profile in hockey since, running\u00a0a dozen Wendy\u2019s franchises<\/a> alongside wife Kathryn, but appears intrigued by a return.<\/p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"TORONTO \u2014 MLSE president Keith Pelley seems to have\u00a0a type\u00a0he is targeting for the coveted title of Toronto…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":600248,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[66],"tags":[385,99],"class_list":["post-600247","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nhl","tag-nhl","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/600247","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=600247"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/600247\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/600248"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=600247"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=600247"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=600247"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}