Maple Leafs Front Office Changes Hint at Hockey Operations Reimagined by AI
Brandon Pridham’s departure from the Maple Leafs marks a significant shift in the organization.
The salary cap guru and collective agreement expert was one of former president Brendan Shanahan’s first and savviest hires back in 2014. That era is over, and the assistant general manager’s recent exit could mark the beginning of the vision of current MLSE president and CEO Keith Pelley, who sees artificial intelligence, technology and data-driven decisions as the backbone of the future.
“AI is massive,” Pelley said at his March 31 media availability to discuss the GM search, after the firing of Brad Treliving. “It is changing our business. The whole thing with data is, everyone now has access to data and everyone’s going to have access to AI.
“It really comes down to how you utilize it and how smart you are with it.”
Pelley landed on John Chayka, a pioneer in hockey analytics, as his new GM.
The organization that owns the Leafs, Raptors, Argonauts and TFC also has MLSE Digital Labs, billed as an innovative wing that uses technology to push the boundaries of sports and entertainment. It has been used mostly for fan engagement, business operations and marketing.
Indeed, boundaries are being pushed, and the truth of the matter is that AI can do much of what made Pridham such a valuable employee.
“If you are in a professional sport and you’re not using AI in some form, then you are behind,” says Joseph Baker, a professor of sports science at the University of Toronto.
In March 2025, the NHL turned to the SAP NHL Front Office App, issued on iPads and iPhones, as the official repository for contract information and financial data.
SAP, which designed the app, calls it an “intuitive platform” because it provides a centralized view of team, player and league data. It can help with everything from future draft picks, long-term injury designations, projected off-season cap room, free-agent status, no-move or no-trade clauses, retained salary information, detailed waiver status and performance bonus tracking.
“Front offices can make more informed, real-time decisions with greater accuracy and efficiency,” the company said in a release last year.
That’s exactly what Pelley wants the Leafs to do with the technology available. According to Baker, it’s just about finding the right ways to use it.
“First off, AI is not intelligence. AI is a pattern-recognition machine,” he says. “It takes information — all the previous games, previous performances, as much data as possible — looking for patterns. It can do it so much faster and at levels of complexity and detail that humans just aren’t able to do.”
Pridham was good with a calculator and spreadsheet and helped the Leafs navigate the sometimes mathematically frustrating world of the salary cap by interpreting the arcane language of the NHL’s collective agreement. In other words, he could find loopholes. He knew where to look since he helped write the 2012 deal.
But AI can come up with suggestions just as fast, if not faster.
“Searching though CBAs for opportunities that if you gave a human a month they could find, but AI can find it in minutes,” says Baker.
WSC Sports, an AI-powered competitor of SAP, estimates the AI sports industry is already worth $2.5 billion (U.S.). It promotes using AI in coaching because it can turn “guesswork into a predictive science.” According to its website, the company is developing a platform that can predict injuries using GPS to track players, game stats, sleeping logs and weather conditions. It can look for patterns that precede injuries and advise teams when a player enters the “danger zone of injury risk.”
As for in-game applications, AI can help with tactics, too, answering questions such as if dump-and-chase hockey is better or worse against a particular team.
Meghan Chayka, data scientist in residence at the Rotman School of Management at the University of Toronto, says technology can help teams with workflow and scouting reports.
“Hockey operations are constrained. There are only so many games you can see, there’s only so many arenas you can get to,” says Chayka. “The eye test is nuanced, always a bit of distrust with what that person is seeing: sample size, stories of players knowing when the scouts show up, scouts sometimes leave after the second period.”
Chayka and her now Leafs GM brother co-founded the groundbreaking analytics company Stathletes, which can monitor every game in North America and Europe through technology it developed.
“It sees every game, every movement. We know where the players are, where they’re skating, their interaction with the puck, and we can do it for every game they play,” says Meghan Chayka. “There’s no hiding. There’s transparency. It makes sports more fair, too. It levels the playing field.”
It also makes it a little easier to compare players from different leagues and countries by measuring speed, puck play, shot strength and the like.
Pridham did become more than a cap guru in Toronto. He went from assistant to the GM, to assistant GM to interim co-GM before deciding to part ways this month. His humanity can’t be underestimated. He’s good with people, which helped with free-agent recruitment and negotiating contracts.
And that’s something AI can’t do.
“It can give you the basic information to lay a foundation for what needs to happen at the human level,” Baker says.
The Leafs front office will have to take it from there.
This article was first reported by The Star
