Maple Leaf Sports and Entertainment (MLSE) will certainly face an uphill battle in attempting to find their next president.

President of MLSE Tim Leiweke announced on August 21 that he, afterall, would be leaving the job by June 2015. A day before this announcement, Elliotte Friedman of CBC and presumably SportsNet, tweeted out and broke the news through social media. It caused a frenzy and heavy speculation with many wondering why the president of one of the most recongnized sports organizations would be stepping down after only a year into the job.

Leiweke brashly denied the report saying there was absolutely zero truth to it. Friedman, who is considered to know a thing or two about hockey news, reiterated that something was going to happen. Only a day later, MLSE released a statement announcing the departure of Leiweke and that the search for a new president would begin immediately. Leiweke meanwhile, will stay in the president's role until June, but many insiders around the industry believe he will leave much earlier than that, with December being a more likely date.

Leiweke was brought in as president on June 30 2013, and voiced his opinion on what needed to be done to fix the Toronto Maple Leafs, Toronto FC and Toronto Raptors. He quickly turned the Raptors fortunes around by bringing in general manager Masai Ujiri from Denver, who helped Toronto reach 47 wins while clinching their second division title. Many believe the Raptors are a team headed in the right direction and a lot of that has to do with Leiweke's decision to bring in Ujiri, and hiring Drake as global ambassador. 

In other moves made by Leiweke during his tenure as president, he hired Tim Bezbatchenko to be the general manager of Toronto FC, and lured international soccer stars Jermain Defoe and Michael Bradley to sign with the club. Toronto FC is  now on pace to make the playoffs for the first time in team history.

Finally, his latest move has helped change the direction of the Toronto Maple Leafs, off the ice anyways. He hired former NHL player and hall of famer Brendan Shanahan to be the team's president. Under Shanahan the team has brought in a handful of fresh new minds, specifically 28-year-old Kyle Dubas to be the team's new assistant general manager. They also drafted highly touted Swedish prospect William Nylander eighth overall in June's draft.

In conclusion, Leiweke's time in Toronto has been fairly well received. However, it's admittedly tough to grade how well he's done considering his departure is certainly early and quite surprising. Whether it affects MLSE moving forward remains to be seen, but one thing is certain, they may never have a personality quite like his. 

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About the author
Lucas Casaletto
Journalism Print graduate and current Journalism Broadcast. Sports is my passion. Twitter: @LucasCasaletto