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Change continues; Hunter leaving Leafs

May 22, 2018, 9:16 AM ET [1214 Comments]
Mike Augello
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The Toronto Maple Leafs announced on Tuesday that Assistant General Manager Mark Hunter will be leaving the club effective immediately. The 55-year-old former NHLer joined the Leafs in October, 2014 as director of player personnel and amateur scouting and was later promoted to the title of Assistant General Manager, but after the hiring of Kyle Dubas to replace Lou Lamoriello as Leafs GM, it was expected that he would not stay with the organization.

“Following extensive discussions with Mark, he and Leafs have mutually agreed to part ways,” Team President Brendan Shanahan said in a press release. “I’d like to sincerely thank Mark for everything he’s done for this organization over the last four years and I wish him nothing but the best in the future.”

Hunter had a year left on his contract with Toronto and according to various reports was willing to stay on with the Leafs through the NHL Draft in Dallas next month, but a sign of his impending departure was his absence at the Memorial Cup in Regina this week.



With his informing the club that his intention was to leave the organization, Shanahan and Dubas may have concluded that allowing him to leave before the draft was the better course of action. The responsibilities for the Draft now fall upon Dubas, Shanahan and likely former Director of Pro Scouting Dave Morrison, who served as the head of amateur scouting prior to Hunter being brought in.

The changes may not be over with in Toronto, as a sizable portion of the Leafs scouting staff were added by and loyal to Hunter, such as Jim Paliafito (Director of Player Evaluation) and Lindsay Hofford (Director of Eastern Scouting). It is unknown how long these scouts are under contract to Toronto, but if there is a changing of the guard it would likely happen at the end of June after the draft when contracts usually expire and would correspond with Dubas bringing on his staff.

TSN's Bob McKenzie reported after the announcement that while Hunter is leaving, one of the conditions of his departure is that he will not be permitted to work for another team until after Draft and the beginning of free agency period in July.

Hunter's departure cannot be seen as good news, since he has been one of the main reasons for the Leafs resurgence thanks to his talent evaluation of youngsters Mitch Marner, Travis Dermott, Jeremy Bracco and Timothy Liljegren, but it had to be expected by Shanahan based on both of Lamoriello's underlings vying for the top job.

Although it may not happen before the draft, the Hunter's exodus will likely will spur Dubas to bring in someone with league experience to provide support with two Asst. GM and the amateur scouting director positions now vacant.

In other news, Lamoriello was named President of Hockey Operations by the New York Islanders on Tuesday and will have control of all hockey operations.

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