The Toronto Maple Leafs made two huge moves in the past week.
No, no, they didn’t land a trade with the Ottawa Senators for the heavily coveted Erik Karlsson. In fact, the moves were off the ice and in the front office and the scouting department.
The 31-year-old Kyle Dubas, only in Toronto’s general manager position for a hot minute has shaken the roots of Hockey’s Old Boy’s club and made the club the league’s most-forward looking and possibly smartest franchise.
One of hockey’s great is now the assistant director of player development for the most well-known franchise of the sport. That’s not a headline, though. What makes it one is who that great is and it is no other than Hayley Wickenheiser.
Joining the amateur scouting department is Noelle Needham, formerly a women’s college player at Minnesota State. Needham’s hiring is a lot more interesting and an achievement but I will get to that in a minute.
Of course, many of the people of the old world would question these hirings, particularly Wickenheiser’s hiring due to the more in-your-face role she will be taking and her name carries more weight than Needham (no offence to her), and for that matter, most of the Leafs’ staff.
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She will be watched like a hawk by media and naysayers who question if her hiring was anything more than diverse hire. It’s not, she was simply one of the best, if not the best person for the job.
She has a wealth of knowledge of the game, securing several gold medals in both the world championships and Olympics, played on a few mins teams and is celebrated as one of the best sportspeople this country ever has had to offer.
For nine years, Needham ran a training program and co-founded a minor hockey club, now she is the new Mid-West amateur scout for the Leafs. Unlike Wickenheiser, Dubas wasn’t actively pursuing her for the position and made the application process for the position anonymous.
Prospective candidates were asked to file scouting reports online using a system masking their identity. Needham was flagged as the most qualified of the people who filed the reports.
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What makes it even interesting is she has never been in an official scouting position.
Prior to the two hirings, only four women have a position full-time with an NHL team in the player ops department. Two of them are in player info roles (Kate Madigan and Rachel Doerrie-both for the New Jersey Devils), another is an analyst for the Minnesota Wild (Alexandra Mandryky) and a skating coach for the Arizona Coyotes (Dawn Bird).
Six women may not seem like a lot, but barriers are being brought down. So parents, if you have a daughter who wants to be the general manager of the Vancouver Canucks someday don’t tell her she can’t, encourage the hell out of her. Who knows, maybe she’ll be more popular than Jim Benning.
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