Lightning deny Maple Leafs permission to speak with Julien BriseBois
The Toronto Maple Leafs took a swing at Tampa Bay's front office, and the Lightning shut the door before the conversation could even start.
Sportsnet's Elliotte Friedman reported Friday morning that Toronto was denied permission to interview Lightning general manager Julien BriseBois for its hockey ops vacancy.
Brendan Shanahan's old chair has been empty since the end of March, when the Leafs fired Brad Treliving. The search has dragged into a second month.
And the Leafs aren't exactly approaching Tampa from a position of strength. Toronto sits 28th overall at 32-36-14, with a -46 goal differential and a 2-7-1 mark in their last 10.
A seven-game losing streak ended their year. The last result on the books is a 1-3 loss in Ottawa. That's the table the Leafs were asking BriseBois to come sit at.
Why would the Lightning even entertain it? BriseBois has run that franchise since 2018, qualified for the playoffs every season, and won back-to-back Cups in 2020 and 2021. Saying no was the easy part.
Mats Sundin and John Chayka emerge as the real plan
Friedman has also reported the Leafs are working toward contracts with Mats Sundin and John Chayka to lead hockey operations. That tandem now becomes the actual path forward.
Sundin is a franchise icon who has never run a front office. Chayka is a former Coyotes GM whose last NHL stint ended in controversy. It's an odd-couple pairing, like hiring a poet and an accountant to co-run a deli.
Craig Berube is still behind the bench, but his roster handed him a -46 differential and 299 goals against. Whoever lands in the GM chair inherits that scoreboard.
Toronto wanted a proven Cup-winning architect. They got told no, and now they're building the org chart with the names that picked up the phone.
The Lightning, meanwhile, are locked in their own series. Worry about Toronto's chair was never going to be on the agenda in Tampa.
So the Leafs move on. Or do they? Front offices have memories, and "denied permission" is the kind of phrase that tends to come up again the next time these two clubs do business.
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MAY 1, 2026
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| Rasmus Dahlin | - | 2 | 2 | |
| Tage Thompson | - | 2 | 2 | |
| Zach Benson | 1 | - | 1 | |
| Gage Goncalves | 1 | - | 1 | |
| Josh Norris | 1 | - | 1 | |
| David Pastrnak | 1 | - | 1 | |
| Mattias Samuelsson | 1 | - | 1 | |
| Alex Tuch | 1 | - | 1 | |
| Josh Doan | - | 1 | 1 | |
| Brandon Hagel | - | 1 | 1 | |
| Dominic James | - | 1 | 1 | |
| Peyton Krebs | - | 1 | 1 | |
| Hampus Lindholm | - | 1 | 1 | |
| Pavel Zacha | - | 1 | 1 | |
| Josh Anderson | - | - | - | |
| Rasmus Andersson | - | - | - | |
| Jonathan Aspirot | - | - | - | |
| Ivan Barbashev | - | - | - | |
| Oliver Bjorkstrand | - | - | - | |
| Zachary Bolduc | - | - | - | |
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