Keith Pelley built his reputation running winning teams. Now he's the one reportedly on the way out at Maple Leaf Sports and Entertainment.
Steve Simmons reported Sunday that Blue Jays president Mark Shapiro will take over atop MLSE, with Pelley shifting into a broadcast and media role instead.
That's a significant fall for an executive who once ran the Toronto Argonauts to a Grey Cup title and later became a genuine innovator in Canadian broadcasting.
Pelley negotiated the NHL's first mega-rights deal back in 2013, a 12-year, $5,232,000,000 agreement, and ran the broadcast consortium for the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver.
None of that history seems to matter much right now. Pelley has taken most of the criticism for Toronto's decline, even though he didn't hire former Leafs executives Brad Treliving or former head coach Craig Berube. Those were Brendan Shanahan's decisions.
Pelley did bring in GM John Chayka and head coach Jim Hiller, both still early in their tenures with the Maple Leafs organization.
Toronto finished 32-36-14 last season, 28th overall, a rough year that's clearly shaping the pressure now landing on the front office above the roster itself.
Why Shapiro's promotion raises its own questions
Shapiro's Blue Jays surged out of nowhere last season to dominate the American League and nearly win the World Series, generating real buzz and capacity crowds.
But that same team has reverted to a middling posture this season, with its big offseason addition badly underperforming expectations.
That raises a fair question. Does one surprise Blue Jays season really justify leapfrogging Pelley atop the entire organization?
Whether this is really about Pelley's performance, or simply about capitalizing on Shapiro's recent momentum, remains unclear from the outside.
Pelley often served as the public face fielding tough questions on behalf of a notoriously private ownership group, a role that never seemed to fit him comfortably.
At his core, Pelley is a broadcasting executive first, and a genuinely accomplished one. Whether this move actually fixes anything on the ice, or simply shuffles the blame upward, is the real question Leafs fans should be asking.
Is it fair to blame Keith Pelley for the Maple Leafs' recent struggles?
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