MLSE CEO Keith Pelley: Leafs will not replace Brendan Shanahan’s president role

Keith Pelley, president and CEO of Maple Leaf Sports & Entertainment, gave a public address Friday and took questions from media following the Toronto Maple Leafs’ decision Thursday to move on from Brendan Shanahan as team president and alternate governor after 11 years at the helm. The Leafs carry the NHL’s longest active playoff berth streak at nine consecutive seasons and were largely ushered into an era of relevance under Shanahan but, as Pelley said Friday, the team could no longer justify keeping Shanahan in a “results-driven business.”

Shanahan’s tenure included the splashy hirings of Mike Babcock as head coach and Lou Lamoriello as GM in 2015; the drafting of Auston Matthews with the No. 1 overall pick in 2016; and the hiring, promotion of and eventual ousting of Kyle Dubas as GM. Shanahan was also responsible for introducing retired numbers and creating Legends Row, honoring franchise greats with statues outside Scotiabank Arena. Alas, the Leafs won two playoff series during Shanahan’s 11-year run, which ended with a thud when Toronto was pummelled 6-1 by the Florida Panthers Sunday in Game 7 of the second round, Leaf fans pelting the ice with jerseys and beer as they booed the home team’s flat showing. Pelley was in the stands with his 22-year-old son, taking in the scene, acknowledging the pressure the team faced and that, as he put it, the pressure was a privilege.

“The greatest hockey team in the world is the Toronto Maple Leafs,” Pelley told reporters Friday. “And as a result, you’ve seen the passion and the tribalism that exists. I saw it this year more than I could remember. And that tribalism reminded me of my involvement in European football and what happens in the Premier League where people are invested. They’re invested in their team. It matters so much for a lot of the people, a lot of people in Europe and a lot of people here now in Toronto, they’re as happy as the team is playing well.

“And there is nothing more evident than seeing that on Sunday. I respect, understand and appreciate their disappointment in the way that season ended. I thank them for it.”

As Pelley said when he first took the MLSE job in 2024, good isn’t good enough, and someone had to take responsibility for Toronto’s arrested development.

“This was my decision,” Pelley said. “I had the support of ownership…We made the decision to talk to Brendan at 3 p.m. eastern yesterday. He as expected acted like a true professional, the Hall of Famer that he is, understood and wanted to move very, very quickly.”

A key takeaway from Friday’s presser: it’s Shanahan only falling on the sword for now. Pelley expressed confidence in GM Brad Treliving and manner in which head coach Craig Berube changed the team’s culture this season, which saw the Leafs win their most playoff games since 2001-02. The Leafs “are not looking to replace Brendan,” Pelley said Friday, and will not install a team president going forward. Pelley will take more of a hands-on role with the team – to a point. He doesn’t intend to make the big hockey decisions. Those will come from Treliving and perhaps also Berube, who met with Pelley earlier this week and appears to have earned more organizational pull going forward.

“It’s very important to tell you is that as much as I love the game, and I love the NBA, and I love Major League Soccer, I’m the CEO of MLSE,” Pelley told reporters. “So the people that are going to make the key hockey decisions, the people that are going to make the key basketball decisions, are basketball-oriented people and are hockey-oriented people. My role is to be a sounding board. My role is to try to create a culture and the chemistry within that organization that builds a culture of winning championships. And so that’s the way I look at it. That’s the way I look at it as a holistic leader that can provide support and guidance from a leadership perspective from a culture side.

“I’m not going to be deciding who we draft and what free agents we’re going to sign. That will be the decision by the hockey operations group.”

To that point: Pelley didn’t budge when asked to comment on pending UFAs Mitch Marner and John Tavares and what changes might be necessary as the Leafs embark on the post-Shanaplan era. Pelley suggested the topic was “not a question for today,” and that it’s something he and Treliving will discuss when they meet this weekend.