The Florida Panthers have granted the Toronto Maple Leafs and the New Jersey Devils permission to speak to assistant GM Sunny Mehta, according to The Athletic’s Pierre LeBrun.
The Florida Panthers could very easily lose a pair of their assistant GMs this off-season, and that process is already beginning.
On Thursday, the Panthers granted the Toronto Maple Leafs and the New Jersey Devils permission to speak to assistant GM Sunny Mehta, according to The Athletic’s Pierre LeBrun.
On Saturday, Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman reported that Mehta would be a major factor in the Maple Leafs’ GM search, given his background and current involvement in the Panthers’ analytics department.
MLSE CEO Keith Pelley felt the Maple Leafs were underutilizing their resources. With Mehta’s success with analytics, he could likely be considered a favorite to land the Maple Leafs job.
But in came the Devils, who fired their GM, Tom Fitzgerald, on Monday. Mehta received his first NHL gig with the Devils, where he worked as an analyst for four years, from 2014-18.
In addition to Mehta, Lebrun mentions Brett Peterson, who has been involved in interviews for the Nashville Predators vacancy. LeBrun wonders whether the Maple Leafs and Devils will approach Peterson as part of their process, but at the moment, they haven’t.
With the Panthers’ recent success, it’s no surprise that teams around the NHL want to pry the Panthers’ management group away.
If the Panthers lose both Mehta and Peterson, they’ll need to look for assistant GMs to join Bill Zito and Gregory Campbell’s staff.
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