Toronto Maple Leafs General Manager John Chayka and newly installed head coach Jim Hiller met with the media over Zoom on Wednesday. Chayka explained that the organization took its time, casting a "very wide net" and speaking with over 25 coaching candidates before establishing absolute conviction that Hiller was the right person for the job. The decision came down to several distinct factors:

Jim Hiller's Coaching Style and Philosophy

Hiller detailed a philosophy focused heavily on the human element, structural foundational habits, and collaborative communication:

CHAYKA: First, I'd like to welcome Jim, his wife, and their family back to Toronto. This is a city that cares deeply about hockey, but more importantly, I think it cares deeply about the people who represent it. Last night, I was at the Marlies game. What stood out to me wasn't just the quality of play. It was the connection, the investment, the pride. I thought you could feel the love that people have for this organization at every level. So I'd like to thank our fans. Our expectations are high because their commitment is high, and we never lose sight of the responsibility that comes with representing this crest.

To our players, this decision was made with you in mind. We didn't hire to satisfy a narrative or check a box. We hired based on what we believed would be best to support your growth, both individually and collectively. We hired someone who can create an environment where people are challenged, where accountability and trust can coexist, and where players have the opportunity to maximize their abilities. And ultimately, our success will be determined by your development, your cohesion, your willingness to pursue something larger than yourselves. And we truly believe Jim is the best person to do that. When we think about Jim's fit with our organization, I think it starts with alignment. Alignment about standards, alignment around development, and alignment around the daily habits that ultimately will determine whether a team reaches its potential. Jim understands that sustainable success isn't built through anything he says. It's built through consistency. It's built through clarity. It's built through relationships. His values, his approach, his vision for how a team should function, fit naturally with what we are trying to build here. Toda's an important step, but only a step.The work begins now, and we're excited to move forward together. So welcome, Jim, and happy to pass it off to Jim.

HILLER: Oh, great. Thanks for that, John. Well, first of all, from my perspective, I'd like to thank John, . Mats (Sundin), Keith Pelley at MLSE, and ownership for giving me what is, you know, an opportunity of a lifetime. It really is. I'm a BC boy. I'm not an Ontario boy. I'm a BC boy. I grew up sitting on the couch with my dad, with my greatest memories of hockey, watching the Leafs, watching the Canadiens clear across Canada, hockey night in Canada, the greatest memories that you could take forward. And so someday being able to sit in this chair and represent this organization, I can't tell you how much pride I have in that. Now, before I go too far, there's so many connections with the Leafs and the Leafs history, and I have many of them. But there's one that really jumped out at me, and that's Cliff Fletcher. When I first joined the Maple Leafs as an assistant coach  we went to Halifax for our first training camp. And myself and DJ Smith, who's an assistant coach, we got sitting with Cliff one night, and we ended up spending a little more time after dinner. And DJ and I, over the years, have referenced that as one of the greatest nights in hockey. Just listening to Cliff share himself with us, tell stories, get to see the person, the humility, and the caring and the pride he had in the Leafs, is a night, again, we reference and we'll never forget. So I know there's been a little bit of time passed, but it just brings a huge smile to my face and warms my heart to think about Cliff Fletcher and the Toronto Maple Leafs. So I just wanted to mention that because I think he really embodies what we're all trying to do and be here with the Leafs. So on the next topic, I'm sure this is going to get brought up, And so I want to just talk a little bit about my philosophy on the team, on coaching. And where I believe the biggest impact the coach can have is guiding the spirit of the team. I think it's the most important, most important foundation of any team is how the spirit strengthens and grows during a season. And to me, everybody who's involved and can touch the team in certain ways has some input and some influence on how that grows. The players, of course, have the greatest influence, but we outside that have to support that and understand that as that grows, the team grows. And so that's where a lot of our emphasis will be in just recreating, reigniting and growing and strengthening the spirit of the hockey team. And I think that when you leave the dressing room with that, that translates directly onto the ice. And what does that look like? We could go into a thousand different areas of the game that that might look like. But for me, the simplest one is skating because I believe skating is the first chain in competing. And so when you get on the ice and you're skating, and when I say skating, it's up, it's back, it's there, it's quick, it's stop. It's as quick and hard as you can do things. That's how you start to know that your hockey team and the spirit of your team is starting to grow so never mind the offensive structure the defensive structure that all those will be in place they're a byproduct of the spirit then and then skating of your hockey club. So we can talk more about that in more detail as time goes by but I just wanted to make sure that I was really clear on that's the emphasis of where I see the challenge of the coach. And finally, when John called me quite a while ago, I got off the phone and my wife said, who was that? I said, it's John Chayka, the general manager of the Toronto Maple Leafs. And she went, 'oh no, the media'. And I said to her, no, I know those people. I've been there. Those are all really nice people. So with that, I will open it up for questions.

Q: Thanks for that, Jim. Questions for John. It was a long process. It was an exhaustive process. What stood out the most to you about Jim? What convinced you he was the right man for the job more than anything?

CHAYKA: Yeah, I think exactly what you said is we took our time. We cast a very wide net. We ended up spending time with over 25 coaches when it was all said and done. Everyone from proven Stanley Cup winners that have been in the league for a long time and been with multiple organizations to, you know, players that recently retired to European candidates, major junior college and everything in between. And I think what was really clarifying through that process is when we got down to it, just the layers of Jim's knowledge, the layers of his experiences, you know, his experience in the market, his knowledge of some of the players in the organization and what makes it tick. And I think just when we got through that process, it just created a lot of conviction that he was the right person at the right time with the right group, hopefully. And, you know, again, I think we think about it. We want an extension of our front office. You know, we want no space between the coaches and the front office. And we think Jim gives us the best chance to do that. I think Jim's, you know, breadth of experiences to leverage the resources we have here to get the most out of the group, I think, is another, you know, defining feature that really shone through. And then he was just very precise and specific with his plan and how he saw this team getting to the next level. So I think the culmination of all those things gave us a lot of conviction on Jim.

Q: Jim. You talked about growing the spirit of the team and how you consider that to be such an important part of having success. And establishing a standard. The best teams tend to be the ones that that have that standard and and play to it but easier said than done how do you go about um trying to establish a standard and trying to get the buy-in um for the way in which you feel the team needs to play  through how you I guess conduct your business on a day-to-day basis. How difficult is that?

HILLER:  It's what the job is in my mind you know there's many facets to it so you know how do you get that accomplished it doesn't just happen. Well, I shouldn't say that there'll be a certain spirit every year there's a certain level of spirit but how do you try to grow it those are the coaching tools that you have it's the communication it's the relationships it's defining very clearly for everybody what the standards are. It's when people reach milestones in their game, whether it's offensively or defensively within a game, it's celebrating those milestones. There's a whole bunch that goes into it. There's not one, two, or three, or four things. But really, it's making sure that that is very clear, and it's also celebrated. It has to be celebrated. The game has to be fun. And I think when you do start to do things, you stack them on top of each other. And once you start feeling success, when everybody's doing it together in certain ways, whether that's out of your comfort zone from what you're used to a little bit or not, I just start to think the spirit just naturally starts to grow. And everybody feels it. Everybody who's been on a winning team, everybody who's had maybe more success than teams or people might thought they have, they feel that. They know it. They know that feeling of this was special for some reason. And this year maybe wasn't as special for some reason. It could be a lot of times the same group of players, but it changes year to year. So the job is set it, celebrate it, and help it grow.

Q:  A lot has been made about tactics, And there's been a lot of curiosity about the 1-3-1 you employed in Los Angeles. I'm just curious, maybe what your tactical style is like for those who don't know, and how much do you think your tactics differ from Craig Berube's?

HILLER: Well, I think, you know, there are, I would call them relatively subtle, different tactics or systems throughout the league, but they're mostly pretty subtle. I think there's a pretty standard template across the league that, you know, all coaches play with. And I don't believe in the end, you know, that necessarily that one is better than the other. I think really, and I'll draw it right back to the spirit of the team and the commitment. Anybody does everything together and feels good about it. I think there's room to play different styles within that. That's not the job one. Job one is to be able to get the team to play and thrive and to be excited about playing whatever style and system there is. So you know I've done a bunch of different things i've coached with with coaches who've tried things just a little bit differently and we'll experiment with all that. But I  don't think I could tell you exactly you know what this system we're going to play in this system at this point we're early we're going to have lots of discussions um that we'll have a style of play I think that the players will be excited to play and i think that's the most important

Q:  I've heard you talk in the past about the mental and emotional component of the game. I'm wondering how you feel that will serve you going into this time around as a head coach in a more pressurized hockey market.

HILLER:  I think having been in Toronto already, I think will help for sure. Now, I wasn't, you know, the guy who had to talk to the media every day, but I certainly paid attention and watched and learned and met a lot of you folks along the way. So that experience, you know, already having been there, I think will really help. And I just think, and I said this to my wife, and I'm not trying to oversimplify, but when you're a coach in the NHL, before the game and after the game you talk to the media there's a microphone and whether there's three microphones or there's 15 microphones three cameras or 15 cameras you know you've got to answer the same questions so it's bigger there's more volume of media there's no question but I think how you approach it your honesty your your relationships with with you folks that doesn't change. I know it's a big job and it's a big market but but it's not something that I think  i'm gonna personally have to change much to deal with.

Q:  This team has a couple superstars in their prime in Auston (Matthews) and Willie (Nylander) and i'm just wondering how much if any conversation either you or John had with them  about this fire during the process immediately after and jim how you expect to maximize those guys offense. 

HILLER: Well I'll go first. I haven't talked to them at all. I think as you guys know this has been a you know a relatively um  tight process and i think we've kept that very very tight as far as you know, talking to just keeping it between a very small group of people. I look forward to talking to them. There's no question. You know, you guys know that I spent a lot of time with those guys when they were breaking into the league as young players. I have great, great respect for them. I love to see how they've matured and evolved and everything they've accomplished in the game so far since I've left them. And I'm sure I'll be getting to them very, very soon.

CHAYKA: Yeah, I would just add, you know, more broadly, every candidate we had, we spoke to as many people as we could be as we could. So, you know, between current players, if the coach was currently coaching, former players, equipment managers, massage therapists, basically anyone that would return a call, we called to get a background on the candidate. And Jim was no different. And again, you know, what separated Jim was clear that, you know, the players that had been around him, really valued who he is as a person. They really felt like they could trust that he had their back. They felt like he was committed to making the best versions of themselves and that he was a coach that was going to be player-centric, but also coach to coach. He pushed, he wanted the best set of people, and he was creating an environment that brought that out. Again, that wasn't just specific to Jim in terms of the diligence, but with Jim as well, it was a similar approach.

Q: Your Kings in the three years you were there  really good defensive numbers. Not so much how do you apply that to the Leafs now, but to what degree does that, that the blue line specifically have to be reshaped, if you will, so you can get the most out of the group? Are you anticipating that these types of changes will come before you can apply what you want to do properly in camp?

HILLER: Well, you know, it's relatively early here, I think, in the process for me. What I would say is, you know, Leafs take this season, just go back a season. You know, they played some really good hockey. And I think a lot of the same players that played on that team are currently on the roster. And they played extremely well. I remember playing them. We had great games against them. So I just think it's really early. And I think, you know, we have to take just a little step back and say there's some really good hockey players in that locker room. You mentioned Auston and Willie. you know, a couple of stars in the league, there's no question. But you can go up and down and see some tremendous players in there, guys who've played a lot of years, a lot of blood, sweat, and tears. There's leadership and who've accomplished a lot as individuals in the game so far. So, you know, it'll run its course and there'll be conversations and John will explain to me what he can and can't do. But, you know, I'm not here to tear up the roster. There's good players there and they've shown that in the league.

Q:  What's the status of the returning or under contract still assistant coaches And the longer question for Jim, how do you use data? I know you're a data guy. How do you integrate that into coaching or to tactics or whatever that might be?

HILLER: Yeah, sure. As far as the status of the and coaches currently, I've got to talk to everybody. And John and I have been talking about that. I've got to get numbers, and I'll work on that as soon as we get through today. That'll be part of my next step. And we'll just see where everything goes. As far as using data, information, analytics, I don't know what the right word for any of that is. I am very open to it. I've long thought that as difficult of a game that we play to try and measure and try to understand a little bit better than maybe we have in the past is a challenge, but a worthy challenge. So I'm always looking and open to trying to find ways that we can find more information just to really inform us and to test and back test and think about in the coach's room or the coaches in the management room, ultimately just to make a better bet on how, whether it's play style or player acquisition, whatever it might be, those really help to inform. And my experience is they just help you have better discussions and point you in better directions. And I look forward to that because I believe that's also a strength of mine because I've had such an interest and I know that John has with his background also. And I think that's something that's really easier for us to communicate about.

Q: John, I was just wondering if you spoke to or attempted to speak to Bruce Cassidy during this process?

CHAKYA: I would say, I don't want to comment on every candidate, but certainly we were exhaustive in pursuing everybody. And through that process, as I said, it became very clear that Jim, through his preparation, through his planning, through his knowledge of the market, we just felt like he was the best candidate amongst all of them.

Q: Hi Jim. I just wondered if I could ask you  about the possibility or  the probability you're going to inherit the  first overall pick  in a few days U just wondered  whoever it is  how you feel about starting  with such a big advantage there and  your experience with some younger players  younger stars such as Matthews Nylander and Marner and  how that may help you in the coming experience with the  the new roster

HILLER: Well you know first of all I have to tell you and I was you know at arm's length but I was really excited um when the leafs won the draft lottery because U take it back to my time there and i know what the odds are and you know we were fortunate enough then to land Auston I think it was 25 only at that time this was significantly less. What an exciting moment that was. It made me relive the draft lottery when Auston was the number one pick. It's extremely exciting, not only for me and I'm sure not only for John, but I think all of us who are part of and love the Leafs. It's hard to get the generational talent players on your roster, and anytime you're picking out one, you've got a great chance of doing that. Yeah, and obviously, you know, I look at Auston as a shining example of that and what he's done so far, and I'm sure he'll be there to support whoever gets picked.

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