Mark Hunter served as the Maple Leafs Director of Player Personnel as well as the Assistant GM, so with his departure, that second role still needed to be filled.
The @MapleLeafs announced today that Dave Morrison has been promoted to Director of Player Personnel, Troy Bodie has been promoted to Director of Pro Scouting and Wes Clark has been hired as Assistant Director of Player Personnel. #TMLtalk
— Leafs PR (@LeafsPR) June 28, 2018
Dave Morrison and Troy Brodie are internal promotions, Morrison was the former Director of Pro Scouting and Brodie was one of his scouts. Wes Clark is a former member of the Leafs scouting staff who moved to the Florida Panthers a few years ago. He has worked with Leafs GM Kyle Dubas in the past on the Soo Greyhounds, and returns to Toronto at a time when player scouting and development needs to take centre stage as the days of top-10 draft picks are in the past.
Earlier today the Leafs confirmed reports that three scouts, including both Russian scouts, had left the organization.
Maple Leafs have made some staff changes. Jacques Lemaire, Jacques Caron, Nikolai Ladygin, Evgeny Namestnikov and Tommy Albelin have all left the organization.
— James Mirtle (@mirtle) June 28, 2018
First two were special assignment coaches with ties to Lamoriello. Other three in scouting department.
Tommy Albelin was a former New Jersey Devil’s assistant coach hired by Lou Lamoriello.
And then, with guest coach Hayley Wichenheiser on hand today coaching the development camp scrimmage, this bit of news made the rounds:
Hayley Wickenheiser, guest coach at Leaf camp and behind the bench of Team White today, says she's spoken to Kyle Dubas in general about a possible future role in TML player development.
— Lance Hornby (@sunhornby) June 28, 2018
It seems likely that the Leafs are not finished adding to their front office staff or expanding the scouting department, now under the new leadership. At the very least, we should expect those Russian scouts to be replaced.