Maple Leafs Meeting With Mats Sundin For Hockey Dept. Hire

With all the bad p.r. the Toronto Maple Leafs and MLSE have been getting of late, this would be a move that Leafs Nation just couldn't possibly disparage. According to insider Elliotte Friedman, on his 32 Thoughts podcast, the Leafs are interviewing legendary Leaf Mats Sundin to potentially bring him back into the fold.

I have heard that the Maple Leafs are meeting with one of the greatest players in franchise history, Mats Sundin, about bringing him back in some kind of advisory role. I don't wanna get caught up in titles here, I don't know whether he would be an advisor, or VP of hockey ops, I don't know. But he's meeting with them and I believe he's going to be meeting with ownership. I think they want to bring him in and be a part of the new management group.
I don't think he's gonna be GM, but I do think he's gonna be like a vice president or a special advisor or something like that. They brought him in to North America to meet with them and that is ongoing.

Another meeting, in Toronto, will be taking place as early as today. He's already met once with MLSE CEO Keith Pelley.

After watching one of their top GM candidates, Sunny Mehta, get scooped up by New Jersey on Thursday night, and after all the carnage of the 2025-26 season, this would certainly be a terrific p.r. move for the organization.

Of course, they still have to get a president of hockey operations and/or GM hiring right, for it all to come together.

Sundin, coming into the past season, held the team records for most regular-season goals (420), most regular-season points (987), most regular-season power-play goals (124) and the most regular-season game-winning goals (79). Current captain Auston Matthews passed Sundin this season for regular-season goals (now at 428), but the other records are safe, at least going into 2026-27.

Sundin spent 13 years with the Maple Leafs, and was a 10-time 30-goal scorer, averaging just over a point per game across 981 games.