Minnesota Wild director of amateur scouting Judd Brackett is leaving to pursue bigger opportunities, and the Toronto Maple Leafs have reportedly been given permission to speak to him regarding an assistant GM role.
A couple of weeks ago, the Toronto Maple Leafs and new GM John Chayka parted ways with assistant GMs Brandon Pridham and Derek Clancey.
With a vacant role or two in the Maple Leafs' front office, reports say that Toronto has a particular candidate in mind.
The Athletic's Michael Russo first reported that Judd Brackett was stepping away from the Minnesota Wild to pursue an elevated position with another team. Brackett was the director of amateur scouting with the Wild and was in charge of Minnesota's last five drafts.
On top of Russo's report, Sportsnet's Elliotte Friedman added that the Maple Leafs were among the teams with permission to talk to Brackett, and that this is tied to an assistant GM position.
With the emergence of those rumblings, some made the connection between Brackett and the Vancouver Canucks.
The Canucks are in a transition of a new front office themselves, and Brackett has a history with the franchise.
Brackett, 49, spent 12 years with the Canucks organization beginning in 2008-09. In the first seven years of his tenure in Vancouver, he was an amateur scout and then promoted to director of amateur scouting of the Canucks in 2015-16.
However, despite his history with Vancouver and the change going on with the Canucks' brass, The Athletic's Rick Dhaliwal reported, "He is not coming back to Vancouver."
In 2020-21, he joined the Wild and has held the same position since. Brackett has also served as a scout for Team USA's World Junior Championship team for the past three years. In those three campaigns, he won a couple of gold medals.
He also has a history in the USHL with the Indiana Ice. Brackett was the director of player personnel for six years, beginning in 2008-09. He won a pair of Clark Cups as USHL champions.
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