Today, the Arizona Coyotes have announced that Lindsay Hofford, who is still listed on the Leafs website as their Director of Eastern Scouting at time of writing, has been named as an AGM to John Chayka. The Coyotes already list Steve Sullivan as an AGM; he took that post, an internal promotion, last year.

… the Coyotes have signed Lindsay Hofford to a multi-year contract to serve as the club’s Assistant General Manager-Director of Scouting.

”I believe the most important part of my role is to recruit talented people,” said Chayka. “Lindsay is a best in class talent evaluator that will be an asset to our entire organization and complement the existing infrastructure we have in place.”

Hofford joined the Leafs in 2015 after the great purge. He is a former head coach of the London Knights (owned by Mark Hunter) and was also Director of Scouting for the OHL team. He is listed in the Coyotes hiring announcement as still being a consultant to the Knights, but he’ll be doing that from the desert now.

Hofford was in the news for an incident in the summer of 2017 where he was charged with DWI in connection with an accident involving a golf cart at the Darien Lake campground in New York State. That case was resolved last month, with Hofford paying some fines for lesser chargers, while the serious charges were dismissed. At that time, the Maple Leafs did not respond to the Buffalo News to confirm Hofford’s employment status with the team.

As of now, they have made no formal announcement that he has left.

The Leafs have been reorganizing their scouting and player personnel departments in the wake of the resignation of Mark Hunter in the spring. Hunter’s contract ended on July 15, and he is now free to work wherever he likes.

Maple Leafs rearrange the scouting and player personnel departments
Rick Olczyk and Blair MacKasey hired as pro scouts by the Maple Leafs
Leafs promote from within, naming John Lilley Director of Amateur Scouting

Update:

There is a tweet of a Facebook post going around that contains some misleading and erroneous information about other Leafs front-office moves.

Sometime between the last official hiring, that of Olczyk and MacKasey, linked above, the Leafs have reorganized their website where staff is listed. Some administrative positions are now listed with senior management, and some new names have appeared.

However, to clarify the information being circulated, Jim Paliafito has gone from Director of Player Evaluation to Sr. Director of Player Evaluation. There are no other directors currently listed, so this looks like recognition more than promotion to a new role.

Jack Han, whose former role was Analyst per Elite Prospects, is now the Assistant, Hockey Operations, and is not listed as part of the Hockey Research and Development Staff, but is with the management section.

One new name in the research department is Lauren Moriyama, an NCAA hockey player at Yale and a former member of the Toronto Aeros, who are part of the Provincial Women’s Hockey League. Her exact role with the Leafs is unknown, but she’s a defender, so that’s a very good skillset to have in the Leafs research department.