Today marks the return to action of the Marlies, who play in Laval tonight at 7 pm.

Yesterday marked the start of the awards finalists announcements.

Celebrini, Kucherov, McDavid named three finalists for NHLPA’s Ted Lindsay Award
The three finalists for the National Hockey League’s Ted Lindsay Award for the 2025-26 season are Macklin Celebrini, Nikita Kucherov and Connor McDavid, the league announced on Tuesday.
TSNTSN.ca Staff

In very sad news yesterday:

Sportsnet analyst John Garrett passes away
Sportsnet.caCanadian Press

Note the date here, this is the first day after the last possible date of first-round games. Keep that in mind for any announcements from the Leafs:

Kade O’Rourke denied exceptional status to OHL
The 2026 OHL Draft will take place June 12-13 in person at the Slush Puppie Place in Kingston, Ontario.
Daily FaceoffSteven Ellis

And now the only news we really are interested in...

The three teams actively searching for new executives have all gone very quiet. That said, there was a one sentence bit from Eliotte Friedman tonight about the Leafs along with some indication that Vancouver and Nashville aren't ready to decide yet.

Latest from Friedman: If Sundin agrees to Leafs job, Chayka-Sundin will lead the new management group
There was a very brief update from Elliotte Friedman about the Leafs’ executive search on his Oilers NOW segment on Tuesday night, but it was a bit of a bombshell: “We are waiting for Mats Sundin’s decision. I believe, if he says yes, it will be a John Chayka-Mats Sundin combination.” The cynical angle on […]
Maple Leafs HotstoveMLHS Staff

I'm just going to repeat this made to be quoted statement from him as well:

"We are waiting for Mats Sundin’s decision. I believe, if he says yes, it will be a John Chayka-Mats Sundin combination."

MLHS goes into two ways to view this, one of which is that Sundin is there as covering fire for the controversial hiring of Chayka. The other needs you to buy in on the view that Brendan Shanahan was a novice when the Leafs hired him so it would be okay if Sundin were in the role of President with Chayka as the – well, guy doing all the work, I guess. I'll be blunt here, at least Shanahan had had another job, one with a high profile and in the NHL.

I'll be blunt some more. I can't write an article about Mats Sundin as an executive because there is nothing to say. I can't find any evidence of any work he's done at all since he retired from hockey that says he can translate his outstanding playing ability, and noted perseverance and dedication to the game to a managerial role in an NHL team. He did some TV at the Olympics.

If the Leafs make him President of Hockey Operations, it better be President like the President of Ireland. If that makes me the cynic in the MLHS duality of possible responses, I'm cool with that.

Now, to dial all this way back, let's look at what Eliotte Friedman is not saying. He's not saying Sundin is going to be the top guy and Chayka's going to do the work. He's not actually saying they're just doing Shanny-Dubas Electric Boogaloo Two. So the concept could be Chayka as the head of hockey operations with whatever title and Sundin as the adjunct who facilitates the interface with the sort who have been made nervous by the words evidence-based decision making.

That might be cynicism of another kind, but I've watched the scouting room scene in Moneyball and also read the relevant part of the book, and no one in the NHL is going to turn their amateur scouting inside out to that extent, but there is a natural point of conflict there as there could be with the performance staff, given Chayka's entry point into the hockey business.

Remember the bit about Keith Pelley wanting evidence for decisions and not "scout talk"?

I couldn't reconcile Chayka and White as the Leafs finalists, not really. And I said why not both. But ego and corporate structure and sports all being what they are, that isn't really likely. Therefore, is this idea, whatever it turns out to be, really a way to have a bilingual culture in hockey operations? (And I don't mean Swedish and English.) I come back to the Ray Ferraro and Darren Dreger conversation I mentioned recently. It was Ferraro who said something about an analytics guy and a hockey guy working in collaboration if you could ever put aside the egos.

I wonder how many rock bands have started out that way. Hey, let's listen again to Stewart Copeland explain how you can (or cannot) work with someone who has a different paradigm of what you're building.

We will, as the man says, see where this goes.

From The Branches