It's been almost three months since the Toronto Maple Leafs announced the hiring of GM John Chayka and senior executive advisor Mats Sundin. Since then, there's been a lot of turnover within the organization from the roster, coaching staff and front office.

Ahead of former Maple Leaf Zach Hyman's celebrity golf tournament on Monday, Neil Glasberg, the president and CEO of PBI Sports, joined TSN's First Up morning show. Glasberg led the search firm that MLSE president and CEO Keith Pelley hired for the process of hiring a new GM.

With that, Glasberg explained the search process in detail and how the Maple Leafs landed on the decision to hire Chayka.

"It was an incredible exercise that we went through… we exhausted the universe of candidates," Glasberg said. 

Many people reached out to Glasberg regarding the highly sought-after role, and even Maple Leafs alumni wanted to be part of Toronto's search for a new leader of hockey operations.

"Very high-profile job, lots of alumni interest," he said. "I was amazed with the number of Leafs alumni that reached out that said they wanted to be a part of the process."

In the end, there were already enough minds working together on the search, and just to fill one role. Glasberg also made it clear that the process wasn't just between him and Pelley, as there was a search committee, made up of three unnamed individuals, that worked together.

In terms of the number of candidates that were considered and heard from, Glasberg said there were more than 25 people whom he spoke to. Some were just casual conversations before he narrowed the list down to 25 formal interviews and continued from there.

With all those different candidates, how were Glasberg and his team able to evaluate the best fit for the job?

He said it's circumstantial and depends on the field of available candidates. Another factor is the type of organization that is hiring, and the Maple Leafs organization isn't like any other in the sports world, especially within the NHL.

"It really comes down to looking at the universe of candidates and understanding who's got the best skillset, who's the best fit," Glasberg said. "A lot of people have the competency, but the fit might not be there."

With the stature of the Maple Leafs and the franchise, there was a clear attribute that the search committee yearned for, among other qualities.

"It's a tough market to be in, as everyone knows, Galesburg said. "The media is diligent, and there's a lot of answering to the media."

That certainly wasn't the end-all, be-all of the search criteria to be hired as the Maple Leafs GM. However, Glasberg admitted that Chayka was a great fit in that sense.

"That's the one thing about John," he said. "John is very smart and very good with the media, and he tells it like it is. I think that was a huge selling factor in terms of the proper fit."

Glasberg did not have a say in the final hiring decision, as that was left to the Maple Leafs' organization.

It was also revealed that Glasberg was included in Toronto's head coaching search, to a small degree. But it was made clear that his involvement in hiring Jim Hiller as the Leafs' next head coach was fairly minimal.

"On the head coaching search, I was more behind the scenes, and it was really John and Mats that were going through the interviews," he said.

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