The Toronto Maple Leafs are not backing off their AI push. In fact, they appear ready to lean in even harder.
That’s the takeaway after GM John Chayka made it clear the franchise is prepared to keep using MLSE Labs and its generative AI tools to support the front office. It comes after a few months of criticism surrounding Keith Pelley and the club’s AI-heavy trade deadline approach, a move that drew plenty of attention when The Athletic reported that AI-generated trade ideas had made their way into the decision-making process.
The backlash was immediate, and both Pelley and the Maple Leafs took heat for it. But the noise faded quickly once the offseason took over the headlines. Now the topic is back, and Toronto’s direction is looking even more defined.
Via Chris Johnston of The Athletic, Chayka laid out why the organization sees value in the setup:
“With Humza [Teherany] and his team integrating into the Leafs we think it's a real advantage, it allows us to deploy a lot more resources than you would otherwise be capable of.
There's things that different sports are doing that you can learn from or use best practices or leverage or understand the logic and try to apply it in your way. I think it'll be a great partnership between the groups, and it becomes just one entity basically.”
Teherany, MLSE’s Chief Strategy and Innovation Officer, has already been involved in helping guide Pelley’s AI focus since about a year ago. Chayka also said his own analytics company, Stathletes, is not set to be involved right now, though he didn’t shut the door completely.
What Toronto actually does with these tools day to day remains the big unknown. The club hasn’t spelled out exactly how AI will be used inside hockey operations, and that’s where the conversation gets interesting.
In theory, there’s a clear upside. AI can help dig deeper into analytics, process information faster, and offer player-by-player solutions that might sharpen the front office’s work. That kind of support could absolutely have value.
But there’s another side to it, and that’s where the concern comes in. If MLSE starts treating AI like a decision-maker instead of a tool, the risks start to pile up. Pelley has already shown he’s willing to use it to generate trade ideas, which naturally raises the question of how far that thinking could go - contract advice, free-agent lists, all of it.
Those are jobs that already belong to people with experience, judgment, and years in the business. AI can only work with what it has been fed, and it’s tough to cram decades of real-world know-how into a system and expect it to replace the humans who do this for a living.
So the Maple Leafs are moving forward with this as part of a broader shift in philosophy at MLSE. Chayka is clearly in favor of the direction. The backlash, though, is probably coming with it.
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