Maple Leafs Cut Ties With President As Cup Drought Nears Six Decades

The Maple Leafs, the NHL’s most valuable franchise and essentially the Yankees or Cowboys of Canadian pro sports, are once more searching for answers after another early playoff exit has led to the dismissal of team president and alternate governor Brendan Shanahan. 

The team, worth an estimated $3.8 billion, said Thursday it would not renew Shanahan’s contract after 11 years at the helm. During that run, the Toronto native and former Red Wings star led the Maple Leafs to nine playoff appearances as he implemented a broad-based reorganization dubbed the “Shanaplan.”

The team, however, under his leadership, never advanced beyond the second round of the postseason. That continued this year as the Maple Leafs, after winning a “Battle of Ontario” against the Senators, fell to the defending champion Panthers in seven games in the second round. 

The continued lack of deep runs added to a Stanley Cup drought now at 58 years and counting, representing one of the longest title droughts in North American pro sports. 

“Our responsibility and driving motivation is to add a new chapter to the Maple Leafs’ championship history,” the club’s parent company, Maple Leaf Sports & Entertainment, said in announcing the departure from Shanahan. “It was determined that a new voice was required to take the team to the next level in the years ahead.”

Already operating in hockey-mad Toronto as an Original Six NHL franchise and looking to live up to the team’s 13 Stanley Cups won between 1918 and 1967, the Maple Leafs will soon have an extra level of scrutiny. Rogers Communications, one of the dominant entities in sports, is looking to complete a $3.46 billion deal in the coming weeks to assume majority control of MLSE.

Several key players, including forwards Mitch Marner and John Tavares, are also set to become free agents this summer. 

“There’s been a lot of talk around here about pressure … but pressure is a privilege,” MLSE CEO Keith Pelley said Friday in a news conference. “Good simply isn’t good enough.”

Shanahan, for his part, said he understood the need for MLSE to make a move.

“While I am proud of the rebuild that we embarked on starting in 2014, ultimately, I came here to help win the Stanley Cup and we did not,” he said. “My biggest regret is that we could not finish the job.”

His position will not be filled, and instead, Pelley will lean further on current GM Brad Treliving and head coach Craig Berube.