According to Sportsnet's Mark Spector, the Leafs have fired one of their two scouting directors, starting with Steve Kasper, the team's longtime pro scouting head.
And according to Chris Johnston, the team has also let go Director of Player Development Jim Hughes, who manages the young talent and runs various prospect camps and tournaments.
Other reports have surfaced claiming up to 18 scouts have been let go from the organization, including the team's Western pro scout Rob Cowie.
This season, the Leafs had three pro scouts, five European scouts and 14 amateur scouts, plus Director of Amateur Scouting Dave Morrison.
Kasper would have played a major role in scouting and evaluating players like David Clarkson and Dave Bolland, key anchors in the Leafs recent struggles.
The European scouts are likely not to change, as they've done a good job targeting players such as Andreas Johnson, Viktor Loov, Tom Nilsson, William Nylander, Anton Stralman, and Carl Gunnarsson in years past. This team is led by Thommie Bergman, one of the team's Sweden-based scouts.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-partner="tweetdeck"><p>Changes are in addition to others made with some of club’s full and part-time scouts in its pro, amateur and player evaluation departments.</p>— Leafs PR (@LeafsPR) <a href="https://twitter.com/LeafsPR/status/587320892318945284">April 12, 2015</a></blockquote>
The club has announced Brendan Shanahan will hold his year-end press conference at 2 p.m. on Monday, following player availability at noon.
Comment Markdown
Inline Styles
Bold: **Text**
Italics: *Text*
Both: ***Text***
Strikethrough: ~~Text~~
Code: `Text` used as sarcasm font at PPP
Spoiler: !!Text!!