Hayley Wickenheiser will play significant role in Leafs make-or-break season

Dr. Hayley Wickenheiser has been promoted to Maple Leafs Assistant General Manager and will now play a pivotal role as Toronto prepares for a critical NHL season.

Video Transcript

TICTACTOMAR: Hey, everyone. Welcome back to another episode of "In the Mentions." I'm TicTacTOmar, and it's an amazing day in the NHL, not specifically for the Leafs, but league round. We'll talk about a lot of things.

But one of the first things that happened did involve the Leafs, and Haley Wickenheiser, Dr. Haley Wickenheiser, along with others, being promoted to assistant GM. This has been a growing trend that we've seen all around the NHL-- Emilie Castonguay, [? Kamie ?] Granado, Megan Hunter in Chicago also joined doing the [? Lions. ?]

But Dr. Haley Wickenheiser being part of the Leafs organization as a whole was already sick. We've already seen her work with prospects on the ice, working with Nick Robertson last summer. But now being an assistant GM just further hypes up the excitement, the significance. Just, it's-- honestly, it's mind numbing, breaking, exciting, however you want to call it, just knowing that Haley Wickenheiser is going to play a significant role, an even more significant role, within the organization.

And considering how huge this off season is going to be, it's actually great to know that her along with other people who've been promoted are going to be key aspects or key players in whatever happens with the team over the offseason. Now another thing that took place is that the Leafs hired a goalie coach. That was something that we kind of needed to figure out considering we don't know who's going to play goal next year, which is a very concerning question considering the dire straits of next year.

But anyway, the fact that now the Leafs have someone I think is actually pretty significant. Now this is a person who has had a whole bunch of experience, worked with Vancouver, played some roles in prepping up some goaltenders, actually has a pretty decent perspective when it comes to prepping goaltenders and kind of getting them in the right mindset. But when it comes down to goalie performances, the goalie coach plays a big role in that.

And I think we saw-- again, making reference to that infamous [INAUDIBLE] documentary, we saw how there can be some tension between, you know, the actual head coach and the goalie coach, especially if the goaltender isn't performing well. So hopefully, this could be a great step into, one, bringing in a new person, making sure that they can exceed and excel, and also making sure that they're not a liability next year because I think we've seen many times how goaltending can really, really, really bring a team down. And for a team like the Leafs, definitely don't need that happening. But as far as the news goes and as far as the offseason going, I think this is a great way to start.