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Former Maple Leafs President Won't Join Islanders

A former Toronto Maple Leafs executive will keep searching for his next job.

Jon Alfano

Toronto Maple Leafs president Brendan Shanahan speaks at a media conference to introduce new general manager Brad Treliving.
Toronto Maple Leafs president Brendan Shanahan speaks at a media conference to introduce new general manager Brad Treliving. / Dan Hamilton-Imagn Images
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Former Toronto Maple Leafs president Brendan Shanahan will have to wait a bit longer to find his next job.

According to TSN's Pierre LeBrun, Shanahan will not join the New York Islanders' front office despite some initial interest. With new Islanders general manager Mathieu Darche also holding the title of executive vice president, there wasn't a need for a president role like Shanahan had with the Maple Leafs.

"Just to close the loop on the Islanders and Brendan Shanahan, they did talk this week. But there isn’t a fit at this point," LeBrun wrote. "Believe it was a good conversation but there won’t be a hire there. Mathieu Darche has both GM and EVP of Hockey titles. That second title is noteworthy. It’s basically president of hockey level."

"Shanahan is well respected among owners, he will re-surface somewhere at some point for sure."

Shanahan, 56, spent the last 11 years leading the Maple Leafs' front office, despite not being the team's general manager. He did a good job early in his tenure of bringing Toronto back to relevance, drafting William Nylander, Mitch Marner and Auston Matthews while adding John Tavares in free agency.

However, the playoff success did not follow. The Leafs, despite boasting the longest active postseason appearance streak in the league at nine seasons, went 2-9 in playoff series under Shanahan's leadership. They also infamously lost seven straight winner-take-all games, with Sunday's 6-1 loss in Game 7 against the Florida Panthers being the latest and possibly most painful.

That proved to be the end of Shanahan's time in Toronto, as MLSE, the Leafs' parent company, opted not to renew his contract.

"Being a part of this historic franchise will always be one of the greatest honours of my life," Shanahan said in a statement on Thursday. "While I am proud of the rebuild we embarked on starting in 2014, ultimately, I came here to help win the Stanley Cup, and we did not. 

"There is nothing more I wanted to deliver to our fans, and my biggest regret is that we could not finish the job."

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Jon Alfano
JON ALFANO

Jon is a lead writer for Baltimore Ravens On SI and contributes to other sites around the network as well. The Tampa native previously worked with sites such as ClutchPoints and GiveMeSport and earned his journalism degree at the University of Central Florida.

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