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Toronto Star
11 hours ago
- Business
- Toronto Star
Rogers gets all necessary league approvals to buy Bell's MLSE stake
TORONTO - Rogers Communications has received all necessary league approvals to buy out rival Bell's 37.5 per cent stake in Maple Leaf Sports & Entertainment, the telecommunications company said Wednesday. Rogers announced Sept. 18 that it was buying Bell's stake in Toronto-based MLSE, which includes the NHL's Maple Leafs, NBA's Raptors, CFL's Argonauts, Major League Soccer's Toronto FC and the American Hockey League's Marlies, for $4.7 billion.
Yahoo
28-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Can Coach Craig Berube's Role Within Maple Leafs Change? And If So, How?
When Maple Leaf Sports & Entertainment CEO Keith Pelley answered questions following the departure of Toronto Maple Leafs president Brendan Shanahan, he acknowledged that head coach Craig Berube should have a more prominent role within the club. More than just the X's and O's, and potentially more than just the daily roster decisions. Berube's experience is constant when it comes to hockey. The 59-year-old spent sixteen years as an NHL player, racking up 3,149 penalty minutes through 1054 games before spending nine years as a head coach in the league. The most memorable year of his coaching career was his Stanley Cup-winning season with the St. Louis Blues in 2019. That said, Berube is arguably one of hockey's top minds. And Pelley, who's spent nearly nine years working with the DP World Tour (better known as the PGA European Tour), has experience working overseas, viewing how European football clubs run their teams. "I'm a firm believer that the coach has to be involved more than just on the day of the game and in the dressing room," Pelley said on Friday. "We have a wonderful asset in Craig, and we have a wonderful asset in Brad (Treliving)." 'The Coach Has To Be Involved More': Why MLSE CEO Keith Pelley Wants Maple Leafs Coach Craig Berube To Have More Say In Key Decisions Hours after Toronto Maple Leafs president Brendan Shanahan's dismissal, Maple Leaf Sports & Entertainment president and CEO Keith Pelley had dinner with head coach Craig Berube. But what does it mean for Berube to be more involved than he already is? An NHL coach's role usually doesn't go beyond the day-to-day roster formation. Some coaches throughout the league might have more of a say, but for the most part, if they want a specific player to round out their roster, say at the trade deadline, it's up to the general manager to go out and get that player. The coach manages the team's play, and the GM focuses on additions to improve the team. In European football, a club might have a manager who deals with the day-to-day team activities and the club's long-term outlook. They wield more power, and usually, if they want a player who can help their team, the club will go out and acquire them. Maple Leafs' Craig Berube Would '100 Percent' Like To Retain Pending Unrestricted Free Agents Mitch Marner, John Tavares Just two days after a season-ending 6-1 loss to the Florida Panthers in Game 7 of the second-round series in the 2025 Stanley Cup Playoffs, the Toronto Maple Leafs held their end-of-season media availability. For example, in the Maple Leafs' case, Berube could signal to Treliving that, to improve the team, they need Blues forward Brayden Schenn. Berube could cite Toronto's need for center depth (again, this is just an example), plus their history of winning a Stanley Cup together. If all parties, including Treliving and other staff, agree, Toronto would likely attempt to add that player. All of this likely occurs already, but with Shanahan not in the mix anymore, it opens the door to Berube and Treliving bouncing more ideas off each other without anyone higher saying no. Pelley's involvement will be nothing more than a sounding board for those within the organization. MLSE CEO Keith Pelley Explains Decision Not To Hire New Maple Leafs President After Brendan Shanahan's Dismissal Fans stood alongside Legends Row before Scotiabank Arena, taking photos with the Toronto Maple Leafs' icons. At the same time, Maple Leaf Sports & Entertainment president and CEO Keith Pelley sat less than 15 feet away, inside the building, discussing another early playoff exit for his hockey club. "The people that are going to make the key hockey decisions, the people that are going to make the key basketball decisions, are basketball-oriented people and are hockey-oriented people," the MLSE CEO said. "That's the way I look at it as a holistic leader that can provide support and guidance from a leadership perspective, from a culture side. But I'm not going to be deciding who we draft and what free agents we're going to sign. That will be the decision by the hockey operations group." With Shanahan gone, Berube may enter free agency with more say in organization-shifting decisions. During his end-of-season media availability, Berube said he'd "100 percent" like to see the Maple Leafs re-sign John Tavares and Mitch Marner. 'We'll See What Happens': Pelley Weighs In On Maple Leafs' Mitch Marner's Pending Free Agency Brendan Shanahan was the first domino to fall in an offseason expected to be full of change. Tavares already looks like a done deal to return, but could Toronto's head coach be behind a stronger push to re-sign Marner once he hits the open market? If you asked the Maple Leafs, I'm sure they'd like to bring the 28-year-old back, even with how Toronto went out of the playoffs. Berube said it, and I'd believe it if others agreed too. The big question is how Berube's job will differ from his first season as Maple Leafs head coach to the next season. Treliving will hopefully answer that question, and more, when he speaks on Thursday morning for the first time since Toronto's season ended. Stay updated with the most interesting Maple Leafs stories, analysis, breaking news and more! Tap the star to add us to your favorites on Google News to never miss a story.
Toronto Star
24-05-2025
- Sport
- Toronto Star
The Maple Leafs never hated to lose like Brendan Shanahan does. They needed a shot of Shanny on the ice
The four brawling Shanahan brothers grew up in Mimico raising hell, never turning the other cheek to an insult or declining an invitation to put up their fists. Brendan Shanahan once told me what advice their feisty Irish mother had imparted to her sons: Never back down from a fight. It is a wretched irony that the freshly ex-president of the Maple Leafs couldn't ever assemble a team in his own combative image. ARTICLE CONTINUES BELOW As a player Shanahan literally bled for his teams, a fearless, scrappy and pugnacious power forward who thrilled to the drop of the gloves, from teenager to wizened veteran. 'I hate to lose,'' he has said over and over again. They didn't hate it enough, these Leafs. Losing, often spectacularly in the short hairs of the playoffs, came far too easily and phlegmatically. It didn't eat at them as it did Shanahan. Which is why, after 11 years at the presidential helm, Shanahan was summoned by Maple Leaf Sports & Entertainment CEO Keith Pelley on Thursday afternoon and given his walking papers. Technically, Shanahan's expiring contract wasn't renewed. In actuality, he was cashiered. Because the can had to be affixed to somebody. What are you going to do, trade Auston Matthews? Can't. Pack off William Nylander? Can't. Part company with Morgan Rielly? Can't. For some time to come, this Leafs crew will still have Shanahan's fingerprints all over it. More accurately, the DNA injected by former general manager Kyle Dubas, the gospel to which Shanahan, tragically, was an avid convert. Fancy-pants players not like him at all. Cowering players in the crunch. Are the Leafs a better team for it today? Or when free agency kicks in on July 1 and Mitch Marner probably disappears over the horizon? Or come puck drop on the 2025-26 season? The braying masses and the keyboard warriors have been appeased. But as Harry Neale used to say: 'If you listen to the fans, you'll end up sitting with them.'' ARTICLE CONTINUES BELOW ARTICLE CONTINUES BELOW Over the last three-decades-plus, I've watched marquee hires arrive — big hockey brain people — each with the sterling bona fides to turn this franchise into a Stanley Cup champion again: Cliff Fletcher, Ken Dryden, Brian Burke and Pat Quinn, who didn't have the president title but conducted himself that way. All banged their heads against the anvil of Maple Leafs futility, though some came closer to the promised land than others, into a conference final. Shanahan never achieved even that much. And I won't reiterate the post-season goobers because you know them. Nobody wanted it more badly than Shanahan. He dreamed of a Stanley Cup parade. But this was ultimately a fight he couldn't win. In his time as Leafs supremo, Shanahan fired a whole bunch of people in search of that elixir, that culture shift, that would transform the team from beauties to beasts. He'd been ruthless with his mentor Lou Lamoriello. He'd heeded Dubas over Mark Hunter in the draft. He bought into puck possession and analytics. If there was a critical mistake in his tenure, it's that Shanahan stuck too long to individuals who actually ill-served the club, from callow Dubas to bully Mike Babcock, to the acquiescent Sheldon Keefe, who was never going to prevail over his intransigent and spoiled rotten stars. It was only stark betrayal and an attempted putsch that caused the scales to drop from Shanahan's eyes with Dubas. In retrospect — and many said so at the time — Shanahan shouldn't have stayed the course when the Leafs face-planted against the Montreal Canadiens in the opening round of that eerie 2021 post-season when games were played in pandemic-emptied arenas. Choking on a three-games-to-one lead was unforgivable. Yet Shanahan steadfastly maintained that these were cream-of-the-crop players still learning how to win, when what they really demonstrated was that they could find umpteen ways to lose. Run it back and run it back and run it back, plugging holes with budget tatters. ARTICLE CONTINUES BELOW ARTICLE CONTINUES BELOW Teams often taken on the personality of their coaches, so in Craig Berube — Shanahan's choice, in full agreement with GM Brad Treliving — there is hope for the immediate future, especially with cap space opening up; no more cheap pickings on a team where half the money has been invested in five core players. The pity is that Shanahan, always so open with reporters in his decorated playing days, increasingly ducked the gaze, sealing off his own persona, primarily to avoid eclipsing coaches and general managers. The Leafs could have used a shot of Shanny. Oh, Pelley said all the nice things in his Friday conclave with reporters: 'Yesterday was a difficult and very tough day. Brendan Shanahan is an integral part of Leafs history. In his 11 years here, he accomplished so many incredible things … He's a legend in the hockey world.'' Now get lost. Most significantly, Pelley — not a hockey guy — looks prepared to go it alone, or with whatever hockey operations hybrid Shanahan has left behind: 'I'm not looking to replace Brendan.'' Masai Ujiri remains in situ as president of the rather lousy Raptors. But, nah, the Leafs don't need a president. Perhaps it's no more complicated than ditching a salary as the leviathan that is Rogers Communications is poised to devour the Leafs. Or maybe there's nobody who can fill Shanahan's shoes. Here's looking at you, Brendan.
Winnipeg Free Press
23-05-2025
- Business
- Winnipeg Free Press
Pelley: Maple Leafs won't fill president's role after Shanahan's dismissal
TORONTO – The Maple Leafs' president's chair will remain vacant. Maple Leaf Sports & Entertainment czar Keith Pelley says the conglomerate doesn't plan to fill the hockey team's top job after announcing Thursday that Brendan Shanahan's contract won't be renewed. The Hockey Hall of Famer spent 11 seasons in Toronto and rebuilt the floundering Original Six franchise, but was unable to break through in the playoffs despite a boatload of offensive talent led by Auston Matthews and Mitch Marner. Pelley, MLSE's president and chief executive officer, spoke to reporters at Scotiabank Arena on Friday afternoon. The Leafs won just two of 11 series under Shanahan's watch with six consecutive Game 7 losses. Thursdays Keep up to date on sports with Mike McIntyre's weekly newsletter. The most recent defeat came at the hands of the defending Stanley Cup champion Florida Panthers in a second-round matchup that saw Toronto suffer 6-1 losses in its last two games on home ice to seal both the Leafs' and Shanahan's fate. This report by The Canadian Press was first published May 23, 2025.
Global News
23-05-2025
- Sport
- Global News
Pelley: Leafs won't fill president's role
See more sharing options Send this page to someone via email Share this item on Twitter Share this item via WhatsApp Share this item on Facebook TORONTO – The Maple Leafs' president's chair will remain vacant. Maple Leaf Sports & Entertainment czar Keith Pelley says the conglomerate doesn't plan to fill the hockey team's top job after announcing Thursday that Brendan Shanahan's contract won't be renewed. The Hockey Hall of Famer spent 11 seasons in Toronto and rebuilt the floundering Original Six franchise, but was unable to break through in the playoffs despite a boatload of offensive talent led by Auston Matthews and Mitch Marner. Story continues below advertisement Pelley, MLSE's president and chief executive officer, spoke to reporters at Scotiabank Arena on Friday afternoon. Get daily National news Get the day's top news, political, economic, and current affairs headlines, delivered to your inbox once a day. Sign up for daily National newsletter Sign Up By providing your email address, you have read and agree to Global News' Terms and Conditions and Privacy Policy The Leafs won just two of 11 series under Shanahan's watch with six consecutive Game 7 losses. The most recent defeat came at the hands of the defending Stanley Cup champion Florida Panthers in a second-round matchup that saw Toronto suffer 6-1 losses in its last two games on home ice to seal both the Leafs' and Shanahan's fate. This report by The Canadian Press was first published May 23, 2025.
