{"id":708244,"date":"2026-06-16T21:49:08","date_gmt":"2026-06-16T21:49:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/708244\/"},"modified":"2026-06-16T21:49:08","modified_gmt":"2026-06-16T21:49:08","slug":"maple-leafs-in-final-phases-of-hiring-coach-gm-says","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/708244\/","title":{"rendered":"Maple Leafs in &#8216;final phases&#8217; of hiring coach, GM says"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>&#8220;Mats and I have been working pretty hard now for the last several weeks coming up with what we think is a pretty comprehensive offseason plan, and this is a move we feel that is a part of that,\u201d Chayka said. &#8220;There&#8217;s lots of work to be done with the roster.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;What we liked about this opportunity is that it allowed us to create some flexibility. I think flexibility and optionality are assets to any great organization, and certainly this allows us to be in a better spot as we think about the entire offseason plan.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Chayka did not confirm if the Maple Leafs would extend a qualifying offer to Ersson. Goalies <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nhl.com\/player\/anthony-stolarz-8476932\" title=\"Anthony Stolarz\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Anthony Stolarz<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nhl.com\/player\/dennis-hildeby-8483710\" title=\"Dennis Hildeby\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Dennis Hildeby<\/a>\u00a0would each require waivers next season to be reassigned to the American Hockey League, as would Ersson.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;We&#8217;re going to make some decisions as to what (our goalie pipeline) looks like,\u201d Chayka said. &#8220;(Ersson&#8217;s) a good young goaltender; he&#8217;s someone we identified with upside and someone our staff could work with, so we will get together with (director, goaltending development and scouting) <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nhl.com\/player\/curtis-mcelhinney-8470147\" title=\"Curtis McElhinney\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Curtis McElhinney<\/a>\u00a0and make that decision.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>The Maple Leafs struggled this season, but they do have the No. 1 pick at the 2026 Upper Deck NHL Draft on June 26 at KeyBank Center in Buffalo (7 p.m. ET; ESPN, ESPN+, SN, TVAS). Penn State forward Gavin McKenna is the consensus No. 1 pick, but Chayka has not shared publicly who Toronto will select.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>And the American Hockey League affiliate, the Toronto Marlies, are two wins away from a championship. They have a 2-0 lead on the Chicago Wolves in the best-of-7 Calder Cup Finals heading into Game 3 on Tuesday (7 p.m. ET; NHLN). Chayka said watching their success has been encouraging.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Any time as a manager you get some wins you have nothing to do with, that&#8217;s always a good thing,&#8221; Chayka said. &#8220;I think winning is the best development, and historically the teams that have won have been able to move players up at a higher rate. So, the fact that they are sitting where they are at is a good sign for the organization.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"&#8220;Mats and I have been working pretty hard now for the last several weeks coming up with what&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":708245,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[66],"tags":[385,99],"class_list":["post-708244","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\/708244","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=708244"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/708244\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/708245"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=708244"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=708244"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=708244"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}