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Pronger on the Maple Leafs' front office future, Matthews' next steps and the impact on the team's future
01 Apr 2026
Transcript generated automatically by AI and may contain errors.
Chapter 1: What insights does Chris Pronger share about the Maple Leafs' organizational future?
Stanley Cup champ and most importantly author. Here he is, Chris Pronger, joining us on the Maple Toyota Hotline.
Is noodles in the book, Pronger? I may have left you out on purpose, noodles. Okay. I'm going to be honest with you, I can't remember. You didn't give me a hundred bucks, old dog. I don't know. He couldn't get it in the book.
That's right. That's why I would send an email to my friends. You give me a hunch, you can get a paragraph. I love that idea.
Pay for playing the book, man. That's great.
That's great.
How's this experience going for you? I mean, that's a pretty ā there it is. That's a pretty cool site, man. That's got to be really cool.
Yeah, it's been quite the process. It was a lot of fun actually writing the book and kind of picking out the stories and the life lessons I learned through the course of minor hockey, NHL, and then post-playing. But there's some cool stories, some of which you can't Google, which is nice. They're all from up here in the vault.
But, yeah, it's obviously a lot of work promoting a book, but it's a cool experience.
Awesome. Awesome. With Chris Pronger.
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Chapter 2: How does Chris Pronger view Auston Matthews' impact on the team's direction?
What would your answer to that be? Because mine is not a chance in hell.
I don't think they're that close to contending with those guys. I think you have to go to those guys first. I think first and foremost, the first call is to Judd Moldaver and Matthews. What are your intentions in two years? And if they want to leave, you have to expedite it now to get the most value out of the player. With two years of his current contract, so a team acquiring him has...
A little less of a cap hit than maybe what the expectation might be after those two years. And they're also getting the player and probably signing him right away because that's where he wants to go. So you should be able to get a pretty good haul if that is the direction that he wants to go. Ultimately, with a no move clause, the player has all the power.
Yeah, what if he doesn't give you the answer, Frank?
Just like the same with William Nylander and Morgan Rielly.
What if Matthews, what if his agent goes, oh, we don't want to leave right now, maybe next summer, maybe the year after. Like, how do you handle that?
No, no, no, it has to be now. I mean, then it gets ugly, like the last situation with Mitch Marner. You know, the issue with the no-move clause, when a player wants to leave, you know, I've been in that situation. You ask to leave, they move you. Yeah, it worked for you. But I didn't have a no-move clause. But I didn't have a no-move clause.
I just was willing to sit out and say, no, I'm not coming back. And also, let's remember, I also got fire-sailed out of three other spots. So as much as it's on the player, it's also on management and how they're building the roster and what they envision the roster looking like.
So, Prongs, I heard you mention the cap and things like that. Does this mean you're analytically driven? Data-driven.
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Chapter 3: What challenges does the Maple Leafs' front office face in the upcoming season?
Like, do they have to have a hockey background? Like, what do you make of all of this? Because what's the most important role or the next hire for Keith Pelley? Is it a president or is it a general manager or is it a combination of both, you think?
No, I think it's apparent they need to hire a president of hockey operations. That is a massive organization and somebody who can figure out what the vision is going to be and then implement it by getting the general manager and then filling out the staff, whatever holes they need to fill. I don't know the exact structure that they have.
There's obviously a bunch of names on titles on the website, but what exactly they do and how they operate and work together is above what I know about. But there has to be, I think when it has worked its best, when Shani was there, you have a president of hockey operations setting, in this case, the Shana plan.
And then executing down, getting the right GM to execute on that and be in sync together on what that looks like, the types of players you like, the type of team, the style. And then you've got to get a coach. You know, if it's not Craig Berube, then you've got to get a coach that matches the players that you're going to put into place. Because a lot of times...
We see them hire a coach and then the players you have don't fit the style that that coach likes to play. So it has to be from the top down. It's got to be a good fit. And they need to be in sync.
Mark Masters is out, obviously, with the Leafs on the West Coast, and I guess Berube just spoke with the media and said, quote, I've talked to Keith Pelley a lot in the past two years. He knows what he's doing. He knows how to build things, so we should have a lot of confidence in what he's going to be doing going forward, end quote.
Does that read like a coach who feels like he's not going to be here next year? How do you interpret that with Berube and Pelley and his future?
well only he would know what he's being told by Keith Pelley but he's got another year in his deal you're not going to walk around feeling sorry for yourself and acting like you're gone you still have to finish the season and coach he's looking to get another job somewhere if he does get fired at some point And knowing Chief, he's not a quitter.
If anything, he's a battler based on his hockey career and now his coaching career. And I don't foresee him putting in anything but his best foot forward each and every time they step on the ice and how he coaches the team.
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Chapter 4: What role does the president of hockey operations play in team strategy?
I think you need to be exhaustive on every option. You have to go to everybody that's got a no move, a no trade or a partial no trade and immediately go back and get their list from, I would hope they got it on July 1st. And if they didn't, get their list. And then at July 1, get their new list. So now you're working off a fresh copy and start making your calls.
Not only to those teams, but to others that may be interested, that maybe you can talk the player into going there. If you can get the right... Assets back, it all depends on how deep you want to go with it and how you want to reshape your team and how quickly you can.
Yeah, it's complex, man. They're not in a great spot right now.
There's a lot of tentacles going on here that all go down to one thing.
Big time. He is Chris Pronger. The book is coming out. Is it out, Prongs, or it's coming out, right? The book is called Earned. April 14th. April 14th. I love it. April 14th.
Amazon.com, Amazon.ca, or chrispronger.com.
There you go, chrispronger.com. That's where we are.
Leave some money for us. I know you've been on that website all along.
Leave some money for us. I saw O-Dog about 15 times on there.
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