Keith Pelley fires back at Steve Simmons over Chayka in just seven words
Keith Pelley walked into Toronto's introductory presser this week ready to sell John Chayka as the next GM of the Maple Leafs. Steve Simmons walked in ready to torch the entire process.
The Toronto Sun columnist did exactly that. He told Pelley he had personally called 20 NHL people in the past few days about the hire. One backed it. Nineteen called it a sham.
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The words Simmons said were thrown back at him by his own sources are not subtle. Clown artist. Liar. Salesman. He asked Pelley how the CEO arrived at a wildly different conclusion in the same window of time.
Pelley's answer was seven words. "We must have talked to different people." That was it. No names, no process detail, no rebuttal of the language being used by people inside the league.
Simmons pushed back instantly and said the hockey world was astounded. Pelley retreated to corporate script and told the room he conducted deep due diligence and was confident in his decision. The press conference essentially ended there.
Read the room around the franchise right now and the timing is brutal. Toronto closed the year 32-36-14, dead last in the Atlantic at 8th, ranked 28th overall, and limped out on a seven-game losing streak.
A 46-goal hole and a hire the league is laughing at
The goal differential tells the rest. Minus 46. A team that bled 299 goals against on a 3.6 per game pace is now handing the keys to a GM the rest of the league reportedly doesn't take seriously.
Senior NHL reporter Rob Simpson said he made his own calls to four agent and management types and got laughter and disbelief in return. He flagged the Arizona years as the reason. The reaction is not coming from one bitter columnist.
And there's the optics problem nobody at MLSE wants to address. Chayka's first reported instinct involves bringing in the son of the executive who ran the search that landed him the job. Try selling that as a clean process.
Craig Berube is the head coach inheriting all of it. A roster that just collapsed down the stretch, a fan base out of patience, and a front-office hire the league is openly mocking before the new GM has signed a single contract.
Pelley wanted the story to die in that room. It didn't. The seven-word brush-off is now the headline, and the gap between the CEO's confidence and the league's reaction is what every Leafs fan wakes up to next.
The next move is the one that matters. Chayka has to make a hire, a trade, or a draft call that changes the temperature. Until then, the 19 voices Simmons quoted are running the narrative.
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YESTERDAY
MAY 3, 2026
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| G | A | PTS | ||
| Devon Toews | 1 | 3 | 4 | |
| Cale Makar | 2 | 1 | 3 | |
| Quinn Hughes | 1 | 2 | 3 | |
| Nathan MacKinnon | 1 | 2 | 3 | |
| Martin Necas | - | 3 | 3 | |
| Artturi Lehkonen | 1 | 1 | 2 | |
| Sam Malinski | 1 | 1 | 2 | |
| Kaiden Guhle | - | 2 | 2 | |
| Valeri Nichushkin | - | 2 | 2 | |
| Nick Blankenburg | 1 | - | 1 | |
| Jack Drury | 1 | - | 1 | |
| Marcus Foligno | 1 | - | 1 | |
| Ryan Hartman | 1 | - | 1 | |
| Dominic James | 1 | - | 1 | |
| Marcus Johansson | 1 | - | 1 | |
| Nazem Kadri | 1 | - | 1 | |
| Alex Newhook | 1 | - | 1 | |
| Nick Suzuki | 1 | - | 1 | |
| Vladimir Tarasenko | 1 | - | 1 | |
| Mats Zuccarello | 1 | - | 1 | |
| COMPLETE STATS | ||||