Maple Leafs look to Hunter for expertise
Former NHLer has built Knights into OHL power
Mark Hunter, known to hockey fans of a certain age for his role in a chaotic on-ice melee 30 years ago — “a brawl to end all brawls,” according to Bob Cole — will be responsible for helping to shape the future of the Toronto Maple Leafs.
In a surprise announcement made Tuesday, the 51-year-old retired winger was announced as the team’s new director of player personnel. His hiring was the latest in a string of new additions to the front office, which has undergone an extensive renovation since Brendan Shanahan was named team president in April.
Hunter’s brand has also undergone certain changes in the 30 years since he brawled with the Montreal Canadiens against the Quebec Nordiques during the playoffs in 1984. With his brother Dale, Hunter helped turn the London Knights into a perennial powerhouse in junior hockey, with four Memorial Cup appearances in the last decade.
The Knights have become a factory, sending Corey Perry, Patrick Kane and John Tavares into the NHL. Nazem Kadri, David Bolland and Brandon Prust have also played there.
“I’m an Ontario boy and I grew up watching the Leafs,” Hunter said in a conference call on Tuesday. “I felt it was a great opportunity to, hopefully, show my skills.”
“We’ v e been working together for a long time,” Dale Hunter told the London Free Press. “We’re all going to miss him … but the opportunity of going to the National Hockey League is big.”
Mark Hunter will work across the development and procurement spectrum. He will work with Dave Morrison in amateur scouting, Steve Kasper in professional scouting, and with Jim Hughes in player development and evaluation.
Hunter said Shanahan and Leafs general manager Dave Nonis spoke with him a week ago without offering a job. Those preliminary discussions led to more chatting, he said, which then led to an offer. And since the last of his four children is out of the house — studying engineering at the University of Guelph — he felt free to try something new.
“It’s a good time in my life right now, just the wife and myself,” he said. “So I can be gone more, I can do more things. I can travel more. I don’t feel responsible for being part of my children’s life now. They’re on their own, they’re going to school.”
And this is not the first time the Leafs have raided the Ontario Hockey League this year, having plucked Kyle Dubas from the Sault Ste. Marie Greyhounds in July. He was hired as executives Claude Loiselle and Dave Poulin were shown the door.
Dubas has s i nce constructed an analytics department that has lifted the franchise into the centre of the advanced statistics discussion. Earlier this month, the team unveiled a new partnership with SAS, an analytics firm, to help in its quest for new information.
Hunter said the Knights used analytics — they tracked the number of scoring chances a player would generate per minute of ice time — but not to the exclusion of the oldfashioned eye test.
“You know what? I look at both,” he said on Tuesday. “Statistically, we were strong in that area in London. We always did analyze our own players, of course.”
Basil McRae, another retired NHL forward, will take over for Hunter as general manager in London. McRae is also a franchise co-owner. Hunter said he will spend the next week or so helping to ease the transition before turning his full attention to his new job with the Leafs.
“It’s something that I wanted to do,” Hunter said, “And I think it’s the right time of my life right now.”