Getting to Know Maple Leaf Sports & Entertainment CEO Keith Pelley

Following a four-year tenure running the CTV Olympic broadcast media consortium for the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver, Pelley became particularly acquainted with the NHL as president of Rogers Media. It was with Rogers, the current majority owner of MLSE, that he negotiated a $5.232 billion TV rights contract between the league and Sportsnet.

Turning his attention overseas, Pelley resigned his Rogers Media post in 2015 to become the CEO and commissioner of the PGA European Tour (now known as the DP World Tour). He played a significant role in strengthening the tour’s relationship with the PGA, thus reaping considerable benefits in terms of financial growth, especially with regards to prize money.

In January 2024, Pelley was hired by MLSE to help navigate through the complexities of a multi-billion-dollar corporation that owns and operates numerous sports and entertainment properties, including the Maple Leafs. To date, that has meant involvement in the sale to Rogers, in the major ongoing Scotiabank Arena renovations and an active hand in the rebuild project being undertaken by Toronto FC.

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Pelley’s Role with the Maple Leafs

Pelley has now been on the job with MLSE for almost a year and a half, but while he is no longer new to the company, he hasn’t had a hands-on role with the Maple Leafs on account of Shanahan’s presence. That role is poised to change now. No, it won’t necessarily include player moves or day-to-day decisions. To hear him describe it, he intends to serve as more of a sounding board for Treliving, Berube and the hockey people who will be making calls on those matters.

“I look (at) it as a holistic leader that can provide support and guidance from a leadership perspective, from a culture side,” Pelley suggested in speaking to the press on Friday. “But I’m not going to be deciding who we draft and what free agents we’re going to sign. That will be decided by the hockey operations group.”

Who will ultimately comprise that hockey operations group? Well, that may be something that Pelley does ultimately have some say in. Pelley recently met with Treliving to discuss how the Maple Leafs’ hockey operations staff were being deployed and if their allocation can be executed in a more effective manner. But if any decisions were made, the GM wasn’t prepared to divulge anything during his own time with the press on Wednesday.

While Treliving and Berube seem to be safe, Shanahan may not be the only member of the front office to feel the effects of Toronto’s Game 7 second round loss (and I’m not talking about associate coach Lane Lambert, who was hired as the Seattle Kraken’s head coach on Thursday). As for what the new structure and make-up of decision-makers will look like, Pelley suddenly seems to hold the cards.

Few know the Toronto sports market in the same way as Pelley does, so he is well aware of the pressure he’s under amidst what is a Stanley Cup-or-bust period for the organization. For everything that the 61-year-old has achieved in his nearly 40 years of working in sports, helping bring a Cup to Toronto might be his most formidable and rewarding challenge.