With yesterday’s report from Billy Stefan that the Oilers are expected to name Mark Hunter as the team’s new General Manager, it’s worth looking at his history as an executive to see what kind of GM the Oilers might be hiring.
Hunter is perhaps best known as the longtime part-owner and GM of the OHL’s London Knights. Together with his brother, fellow former NHLer Dale, the Hunters have turned the Knights into one of the most successful teams in the CHL, winning five OHL championships and two Memorial Cups since 2004-05.
When Dale left the Knights’ bench in 2011-12 to coach the Washington Capitals, Mark took over as head coach, leading the team to a 29-13-0 record, culminating in the first of two consecutive OHL championships.
Mark Hunter took over the GM position in 2001 for London. 5/7 seasons before Hunter, London finished 15th or worse. After Hunter, 22/22 seasons finishing top 15 including 11 1st place finishes (5 straight to date) and 5 championships.
He’s won the Memorial Cup twice. https://t.co/GeRuJuqXoU
— Mathew Panchyshyn (@mathewjdp) July 20, 2024
With Hunter as General Manager and Vice President of Hockey Operations, the Knights have become a reliable source of future NHL stars, such as Patrick Kane, John Carlson, Nazem Kadri, Bo Horvat, Mitch Marner, and Matthew Tkachuk. As well as current and recent Oilers Corey Perry, Sam Gagner, and Evan Bouchard.
If he is in fact Jeff Jackson’s choice as the next Oilers GM, it won’t be Hunter’s first foray into an NHL front office. From 2014 to 2018, he was with the Toronto Maple Leafs, first as Director of Player Personnel and later as Assistant GM.
Hunter was a big part of Toronto’s pro and amateur scouting departments. At his first draft in 2015, he pushed hard for the Leafs to pick Mitch Marner, who he knew well from London, with the 4th pick over Noah Hanifin. Of course, that pick looks great in hindsight, with Marner becoming a star almost immediately.
All in all, Hunter was with the Leafs for three drafts, from 2015 to 2017. He was of course present when they selected Auston Matthews first overall in 2016, but you can’t credit him for that any more than you can credit Peter Chiarelli for picking Connor McDavid the year before.
Tom Szczerbowski-USA TODAY Sports
Of the 27 picks the Leafs made with Hunter in the room, only six have gone on to become full-time NHL players, with only three (defenceman Travis Dermott, forward Carl Grundstrom, and goalie Joseph Woll) being picked outside of the first round. Undrafted free agent Trevor Moore, signed by the Leafs in 2016, rounds out their list of amateur scouting successes during that time.
It’s more difficult to gauge Hunter’s effectiveness as a pro scout in Toronto, but a few 2015 trades can show us a little. The most consequential was a minor deal in which the Leafs sent depth forward Greg McKegg to Florida for a little-known college player named Zach Hyman. Of course, Hyman went on to become a key contributor in Toronto before coming to Edmonton as a free agent in 2021.
Before Mitch and Auston were brought in you can argue that a key piece in the Toronto rebuild was trading for @ZachHyman in the spring of 2015. All this guy does is empty his lunch pail every night ! 5th in NHL at plus 11, scores, hits, and creates space. #leafsforever pic.twitter.com/17VVCvXkmq
— Paul Hendrick (@HennyTweets) February 13, 2021
While the Hyman trade was an unqualified success, it was perhaps outweighed by the underwhelming return the Leafs got in the Phil Kessel blockbuster. Kasperi Kapanen was the biggest piece coming back to the Leafs. They also traded five prospects, including future star Carter Verhaeghe, to the New York Islanders in exchange for an over-the-hill Michael Grabner. Grabner collected 18 points in 80 games in his only season in Toronto.
Of course, it is important to remember that Hunter did not act alone in Toronto. He was one of three key decision makers, working under GM Lou Lamoriello alongside co-Assistant GM Kyle Dubas.
Hunter left Toronto in 2018 when Dubas was named General Manager after the departure of Lamoriello. Hunter returned to his old post in London, where he had remained VP of Hockey Operations during his tenure in Toronto. His Knights won their fifth OHL championship this past season, losing to Saginaw in the Memorial Cup Final.
While his NHL experience went better than his brother Dale’s disastrous stint as head coach in Washington, it’s hard to say how much he contributed to the Leafs’ recent run of success. Pushing for Mitch Marner obviously turned out, but was that a seasoned scout seeing a star in the making, or simply sticking with a player he knew? Would he have pushed so hard if Marner wasn’t a London Knight?
CEO Jeff Jackson has identified a barren farm system as one of the Oilers’ biggest weaknesses, and an amateur scouting department that can find NHL contributors in the later rounds of the draft is the best path to solving that weakness. While Hunter has shown an eye for talent in the OHL, his NHL draft history is spotty. If the rumours are true and he is in fact the next General Manager of the Edmonton Oilers, Jackson should hope that the Marner and Hyman acquisitions show Hunter’s true ability as a talent evaluator.
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