Toronto Maple Leafs introduce Sundin, Chayka

TORONTO – Mats Sundin took his spot on stage.

A franchise icon of his stature returning to the Maple Leafs after more than 15 years away from the NHL would normally hoover up most of the room’s oxygen.

The focus Monday, however, was instead largely centred on the person sitting two seats to the former captain’s right.

Along with introducing Sundin as Toronto’s senior executive adviser of hockey operations, the Original Six club also unveiled newly-hired general manager John Chayka.

And the questions would soon come in rapid-fire succession during an at-times pointed and uncomfortable press conference that also included Maple Leaf Sports & Entertainment president and CEO Keith Pelley.

Less than 24 hours after making Chayka and Sundin’s hires official, the former’s previous work in the league — his analytics-focused, cost-conscious, volatile Arizona Coyotes were docked two draft picks for broken rules before he was suspended by commissioner Gary Bettman for seeking employment from other teams while still signed — was under an intense microscope.

“I’ve made decisions I’m proud of, and I’ve also made mistakes that I’ve learned from,” Chayka, out of the league since 2020, said in his opening remarks. “I’m human. I own all of it, and I’m better because of it.”

With his wife and three young children in attendance for the media availability at a bar across the street from Scotiabank Arena, Chayka also deftly dodged any Coyotes query like a politician on Parliament Hill in question period.

“Arizona was a really complicated situation,” said the 36-year-old, who was the league’s youngest-ever GM when he was hired there a decade ago. “It was the biggest challenge I ever took on in my life, and it was honestly the hardest thing I ever did, and also in a lot of ways the most rewarding.”

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Pelley was then challenged on Chayka’s resume before another reporter asked why the Arizona indiscretions didn’t raise red flags in what was described as a “comprehensive” search.

“It was deep due diligence,” Pelley said. “I’m quite happy with where we landed.”

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Chayka, who started a hockey analytics company before Arizona and has a number of business interests, was asked following the formal presser why he’s viewed so negatively in some league circles.

“Maybe I didn’t value relationships as much as I should have in the human connection,” he said. “That was (age) 26, and now I’m 36. I have three kids, married.

“Life evolves and changes … so do I.”

Sundin, meanwhile, played 13 of his 18 NHL seasons with Toronto, including 10 wearing the ‘C’ stitched on his chest. The 55-year-old Swede, who retired in 2009 and was a 2012 Hockey Hall of Fame inductee, has never previously held a management role in the sport.

The Maple Leafs’ all-time points leader had a complicated Toronto exit before a brief stint with the Vancouver Canucks, but remains a darling in the sport’s biggest media market.

Pelley said Chayka will run the hockey operations, but big decisions will be a collaborative process that will include Sundin.

“This is the hockey capital of the world,” Sundin said. “We gotta do everything we can to get a winning team there and make (fans) proud.”

The pair takes over at a time when the Maple Leafs sit at a crossroads after missing the playoffs for the first time since 2016. The disastrous season cost GM Brad Treliving his job, while former president Brendan Shanahan was shown the door in the spring of 2025 and not replaced.

Chayka said he briefly spoke with head coach Craig Berube.

The Stanley Cup winner with the St. Louis Blues helped Toronto make the second round of the 2025 playoffs, but appeared to run out of ideas as this season spiralled for a group dragged down by a slow, aging defence that allowed the league’s second-most goals.

“Respected leader,” said Chayka, who added later that he’s open to having Berube behind the bench. “Tremendous coach.”

Toronto will also have to decide on a path forward — Chayka wouldn’t commit one way or another on a potential rebuild — with captain and star centre Auston Matthews signed for two more seasons.

“It is our job to sell him on what we’re capable of and reaching the ultimate goal,” said Chayka, who has known Sundin since 2012 when he was still in university. “I know that that’s what’s most important to him.”

The Maple Leafs don’t have a ton of high-end prospects following numerous trade-deadline swings, and will be watching Tuesday’s draft lottery closely after finishing with the league’s fifth-worst record.

Should a team behind Toronto have the ping-pong balls fall in its favour, the club would fall out of the top-5 and surrender its pick to the Boston Bruins.

Sundin was asked about locker-room culture after that thread morphed into a key 2025-26 storyline when Matthews was taken out by a knee-on-knee hit, and none of his teammates did anything about it.

“Everybody talks about a good locker room, but they don’t really know it until they’re in one that is actually a winning one,” he said. “Any team that is winning and having success, you have a very strong locker room where there’s a buy-in on a bigger mission.”

Sundin, who had fellow fan favourites Wendel Clark, Doug Gilmour and Darcy Tucker in attendance, wants to bridge the gap between the past and present, along with helping the entire organization learn from mistakes.

“I don’t think players understand really what it means to be a Maple Leaf until you actually wear the jersey,” he said. “It’s a super unique environment.”

One that is now his and Chayka’s to navigate as Toronto turns another page in hopes of ending a title drought now sitting at 58 agonizing years.

“I know what this team means to people,” Chayka said. “The city’s been waiting a long time for its 14th championship. Our responsibility is to build something worthy of that patience.

“Toronto, I say this with every ounce of conviction in my heart: It’s time. Let’s get to work.”

This report by The Canadian Press was first published May 4, 2026.