Hayley Wickenheiser is leaving the Toronto Maple Leafs
The team’s general manager, John Chayka, “envisioned a different path,” Wickenheiser announced
Hayley Wickenheiser, a four-time Olympic gold medallist who has been assistant general manager of the Toronto Maple Leafs since 2022, has announced her departure from the team.
Just days after posting to Instagram that she felt “fortunate to work with a great group of players and staff,” accompanied by a photo from the team’s 2026 development camp, Wickenheiser said yesterday that a clash in plans with general manager John Chayka prompted the exit.
“For the past eight seasons, it has been an incredible honour to work for the Toronto Maple Leafs. Over the last few days, John Chayka and I had several discussions about my role moving forward. During those conversations, my expectation was that I would be in a position to continue to have a significant impact within the organization. However, it became clear that his leadership group envisioned a different path,” wrote Wickenheiser, who was first hired as the Leafs’ assistant director of player development before being promoted.
“Since joining the club in 2018, I have been immensely proud of the work our player development team has accomplished. I want to sincerely thank the incredibly talented individuals, coaches, management, and players whom I have been fortunate enough to work alongside over the last eight years. I am deeply grateful for the opportunity, wish the team nothing but the best moving forward, and look forward to the next chapter.”
The unfortunate news comes a few weeks after the team hired Jim Hiller as its new head coach, and two months after Chayka took over as general manager.
Unrelatedly, it also comes a few weeks after Hockey Night in Canada co-host Ron MacLean made a “roofie” joke during the Stanley Cup finals. He later apologized for the remark.
Back in 2023, when Toronto Life asked Wickenheiser about how the Hockey Canada organization had handled sexual assault allegations against its players and used registration fees to pay settlements, Wickenheiser was clear about hockey requiring a significant cultural shift.
“We need to bring in people who are visionary, who understand the game and who are willing to make tough decisions,” she said. “And there has to be zero tolerance for the kind of stuff we’ve seen recently. Zero tolerance.”
Seems like a shame to lose her.
A statement issued by Chayka addressed the departure without identifying specific personnel. “As part of our ongoing evaluation of the organization, we have made the difficult decision to part ways with some valued colleagues. These decisions were not easy and are not a reflection of the commitment of the impacted people. We are sincerely grateful for everything they have contributed to this organization and wish them nothing but the very best in the future,” it said.
Related: Inside the making of the Toronto Tempo, the city’s newly assembled WNBA team
Carly Lewis is a journalist whose work has appeared in the New York Times and the New York Times Magazine, Vanity Fair, Wired, Interview Magazine, Pitchfork, Elle, and Maclean’s, where she is a contributing editor. Her work has been recognized by the National Magazine Awards and the Digital Publishing Awards. She reports on city life, culture—including what people do online—politics, art and crime. She received the Dave Greber Freelance Writers Award for “The Murder of Ashley Wadsworth,” an investigative feature about a Canadian teenager who was killed by a man she met on social media, published by Maclean’s.
