The Toronto Maple Leafs made three front office additions on Wednesday as GM John Chayka continues to reshape the organizational structure.
Toronto announced on Wednesday afternoon that they had hired Dan Palango as Director of Amateur Scouting, Brad Rossen as VP of Research and Development, and JP Perpich as Director of U.S. Amateur Scouting, adding a trio of names who are well connected to both Chayka and assistant GM Judd Brackett.
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Palango's role will centre on the draft board and comes with experience from time spent in both Vancouver and Minnesota, where he and Brackett have worked together for over a decade.
Rossen comes from Chayka's old club, the Arizona Coyotes (He spent four years as Director of Analytics with the Coyotes during Chayka's tenure as GM and transitioned to scouting post-Arizona.
Perpich is a former scout with the Wild who has familiarity with Brackett as well and will take over as the new leader of the U.S. Scouting team in Toronto.
Toronto places new leadership over their scouting operations
Palango's hiring comes after the Maple Leafs terminated former Director of Amateur Scouting Mark Leach and along with Perpich will try and help build the future of the team. Historically, the Canucks and Wild have drafted pretty well with Palango and since Brackett is also in tow, it's another voice who can vouch for his credentials.
Perpich has a very important job considering how much raw talent there is in the United States and trying to find those diamonds in the rough are going to be crucial to improving the prospect pipeline.
We've already seen players like Matthew Knies (US-born) and Jacob Quillan, and Luke Haymes (NCAA players) all come up recently from the US market in some capacity and there's a few more in the AHL as well. Toronto has decided the U.S. is a market for talent in the USHL, NCAA and beyond so they want to make sure they have someone who is ingrained in the system.
There's a clear shift in the mentality of the Maple Leafs front office with Chayka and Brackett preferring people they trust over perhaps more experienced names and it could come at a great benefit.
Brad Rossen strengthens Toronto's analytics side
Taking over as VP of R&D, Rossen's knowledge of analytics and deep underlying stats is going to be critical in forming how the team builds itself.
If there are trends that he notices are picking up ahead of other teams, then Toronto can be the first to implement new strategies or philosophies that others aren't prepared for.
It's not just finding the best underrated players or who has wild possession numbers that may be overlooked, but it's about crafting an environment that is consistent and uses creative and alternative methods to winning. Toronto's slowly started to do that with who they signed and acquired this offseason, and Rossen's task will be ensuring that stays on track.
These moves aren't about making Toronto better now, but about building the foundation for a consistently competitive team and their future draft, trade, and free agent hopes all rest on three new faces. It's clear the team wants a mix of hard-data analytics mixed with experienced amateur scouts.
John Chayka's now fully taken over the Maple Leafs and installed what he feels is the best plan for Toronto - which will define his time here for better or for worse.
Did John Chayka do a good job in reshaping the Maple Leafs this past summer?
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