Shanahan out as Maple Leafs president after more post-season misery

Host of Hot Take Hockey John Viveiros weighs in after the Toronto Maple Leafs did not renew Brendan Shanahan’s contract as president.

Brendan Shanahan needs a new plan. The same goes for the Toronto Maple Leafs.

The club’s parent company announced Thursday it would not renew Shanahan’s contract as president and alternate governor after more than a decade on the job and just two post-season series victories — despite an embarrassment of high-priced offensive talent.

The 56-year-old was let go following the Original Six franchise’s elimination in the second round of this spring’s playoffs by the defending Stanley Cup champion Florida Panthers in an Atlantic Division matchup that included a blown 2-0 lead and consecutive 6-1 home losses to seal Toronto’s fate.

Maple Leaf Sports & Entertainment president and CEO Keith Pelley called Shanahan “one of the most respected leaders in the game” in a statement.

“Our responsibility and driving motivation, however, is to add a new chapter to the Maple Leafs’ championship history,” continued Pelley, who will speak with reporters at Scotiabank Arena on Friday afternoon. “It was determined that a new voice was required to take the team to the next level in the years ahead. The franchise will be forever grateful for Brendan’s contributions.”

Shanahan thanked the organization, players and fans in a statement of his own released via the team.

“Being a part of this historic franchise will always be one of the greatest honours of my life,” Shanahan said. “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.”

The Leafs had plenty of regular-season success with an arsenal of stars — the so-called “Core Four” of Auston Matthews, Mitch Marner, John Tavares and William Nylander — under Shanahan, but went just 2-9 in playoff series with a top-heavy salary structure.

Toronto also lost seven straight winner-take-all contests, scoring a solitary goal in five straight Game 7s. The Leafs’ title drought stretched to 58 years by the end of Shanahan’s tenure that spanned 11 seasons.

Shanahan took over in April 2014 after being poached from the NHL offices by then-MLSE boss Tim Leiweke. The three-time Cup winner as a player tore Toronto’s roster down to the studs following his first 12 months in the role.

He hired head coach Mike Babcock in 2015 before the club bottomed out for the right to select Matthews first overall at the 2016 draft as part of the “Shanaplan” aimed at getting the Leafs on track after years of mismanagement.

The 2013 Hockey Hall of Fame inductee brought in Lou Lamoriello, who selected Shanahan second overall in 1987, as general manager, but then pushed his former mentor aside in 2018 to make way for the up-and-coming Kyle Dubas.

After signing Matthews, Marner, Tavares and Nylander to long-term, big-money deals, the Leafs finally broke through in the playoffs in 2023 after plenty of heartbreak when they defeated the Tampa Bay Lightning to advance for the first time since 2004 before tepidly bowing out to the Panthers.

Shanahan fired Dubas to end a bizarre power struggle and tabbed Brad Treliving as his third full-time GM. Toronto finished third in the Atlantic in 2023-24 — the fifth straight time the club cracked 100 points in a full campaign — but the Leafs fell to the Boston Bruins in the first round in seven games.

Head coach Sheldon Keefe was fired by Toronto after five seasons in charge and that solitary 2023 series win.

Pelley, whose resume included running both TSN and Rogers Media, took over in April 2024 as president and CEO of MLSE, the Leafs’ billion-dollar overlords with a sports portfolio that also includes the NBA’s Raptors.

The NHL’s discipline czar before joining the Leafs, Shanahan was flanked by Pelley and Treliving at an end-of-season press conference the following month — the first time he wasn’t the most powerful person in the organization in front of the cameras at a media debrief.

The Toronto native previously backed his nucleus of star players at every turn, but that tune changed just over a year ago.

“There’s a time where the right answer is patience,” Shanahan said in May 2024. “And then there comes a time where you have to say that you have new information … the information has evolved, and you have to adjust your way of thinking.”

Toronto hired Craig Berube last May as Keefe’s replacement, and the 2019 Cup winner with the St. Louis Blues guided his new team to another 100-point season and the organization’s first division title in an 82-game season since 1999-00.

The Leafs opened the 2025 playoffs by topping the Ottawa Senators 4-2 and took the first two contests against Florida in the second round. They were then up 3-1 in Game 3 before allowing the Panthers off the mat with three straight losses, including a stunning 6-1 setback in Game 5.

Toronto picked up a hard-fought 2-0 decision facing elimination on the road to force Game 7 at home, but were again flat in suffering another 6-1 embarrassment at Scotiabank Arena as boos — and some jerseys — rained down on the ice from a disappointed fan base.

“I don’t question their dedication,” Shanahan said of the Leafs’ core players at what would be his last media availability as team president some 12 months ago. “But I do question just our ability as a group to get it done in those difficult times.”

That ultimately cost him his job.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published May 22, 2025.