NEW YORK — Keith Pelley has had four months now to get a closer glimpse of the day-to-day operations of the Toronto Maple Leafs via close interactions with general manager Brad Treliving and head coach Craig Berube.

The president and CEO of Maple Leaf Sports & Entertainment began taking a more day-to-day approach with the Leafs after the decision was made to let go of Brendan Shanahan as team president.

What has Pelley learned in those four months?

“It’s been very enjoyable working with Brad and Chief,” Pelley told The Athletic at the NHL Board of Governors meeting on Wednesday. “The way they work together is really, really good. The vibe around the team is positive. The new players that they brought in seem to have created a good chemistry.

“There’s a lot of optimism. After last night’s win, in the coach’s room, talking to Chief, we’re pretty optimistic. But it’s pretty early. The last four months have been incredibly enjoyable. Brad is meticulous in his decision-making process and his analysis, and Chief is one of the most straightforward, strong-willed, passionate hockey guys you can meet.”

As for life after Mitch Marner, it’s clear the Leafs have moved on.

“I guess the story has to be over sometime soon in terms of people asking questions about Mitch,” Pelley said. “Mitch is a prolific scorer. He was a great Toronto Maple Leaf player for so many years. We didn’t win the Cup. We move on. And every change provides a great opportunity. So we wish Mitch all the best in Las Vegas. There’s still lots of conversation about Mitch with the media and potentially with some fans, but there’s no conversation about Mitch inside the Toronto Maple Leafs locker room or inside the Toronto Maple Leafs organization.”

The flip side to Marner’s exit is that the Leafs have cap flexibility and intend to take a swing with it.

“I think the combination of the cap going up at the exact time,” Pelley said. “There’s no question we didn’t have as much cap room last year at the playoff (trade) deadline, that perhaps we needed to make a move that might have even taken us further. But we’re really conscious of cap room. We definitely have flexibility. And it’s go time now for us.

“You know the age of this team. It’s go time. And I think we have two leaders, in Brad and Chief, to hopefully take us to the promised land.”

Jackson on McDavid deal

Relieved? Um, yeah. The man atop the Edmonton Oilers’ front office insists, though, that he always believed Connor McDavid would sign.

“I mean, you’re always relieved when things that are that important are done,” Jeff Jackson, CEO of hockey operations for the Oilers, told The Athletic. “But I also was very confident we would get it done. It wasn’t just empty thoughts of getting it done. I really believed it was just a matter of him working through it. He came to the conclusion he came to.”

And then there was the sweet kicker: No. 97 didn’t even want a raise.

“Which was actually a surprise to us,” Jackson said of McDavid sticking with $12.5 million as his salary. “But that’s so on-brand for Connor.”

On the flip side, the common refrain in the moments after McDavid’s extension was announced Oct. 6 was that the Oilers were now on the clock.

“I think you’re always on the clock,” Jackson said. “That’s the way it is. That’s natural for that conclusion to be drawn. When I took the job two years ago, I said we have to be a very competitive team, with an opportunity to compete for the Cup, to make sure that we keep Connor and Leon (Draisaitl) and the core. So it’s no different.

“The number that Connor took for his cap hit — really, like, what were the options over one or two years? He’s not taking $12.5 million for an extended period of time. So it’s a decision he made in the short term so that we have three years at $12.5 million, and yeah, our goal is to continue to be a good team and be there at the end. His deal doesn’t change that. I don’t feel like we’re on the clock any more than we were on the clock two years ago, to be honest.”

Did any NHL teams have the audacity to call Edmonton this summer while McDavid took his time deciding and ask about presenting a trade offer?

“No. I mean, I think there were lots of teams that were maybe looking at it and wondering, ‘What’s going to happen there?’ But ultimately, there was no trade offer, and we weren’t thinking that at all,” Jackson said with emphasis.

Kings-Kempe talks

Now that many other big stars around the league have signed extensions, there’s an increasing spotlight on the Los Angeles Kings and their effort to extend pending unrestricted free agent forward Adrian Kempe — and how they’ll find a deal that makes sense in the NHL’s new salary-cap landscape.

“I know (GM) Kenny (Holland) is talking to Adrian and J.P. Barry, his agent,” Kings president Luc Robitaille told The Athletic. “It’s still ongoing. It’s just finding the number that works for us and works for him. He’s a priority for us. Kenny told me the same and said they’re going to keep talking until they get it done.”

As I wrote last week, an AAV in the $11 million to $12 million range probably makes sense here on a long-term deal.

The urgency to extend Kempe is magnified by the reality of losing the great Anze Kopitar after this season. The Kings, however, were not taken by surprise by their captain’s announcement before the season that 2025-26 would be it.

“It’s going to be a big hole, but we’ve known it,” Robitaille said. “We’ve been talking as an organization for three years. I remember when he signed for two more years, he kind of gave us a heads-up that would be it. So we’ve known, and we drafted (Quinton) Byfield. Turc (Alex Turcotte) is finally healthy. Just like every team, we’re going to have a big hole to fill. It happens to every one of us. It’s something we’ve been preparing for, and we’re going to keep our eyes open to how we’re going to fill that hole.”

Filling that hole would have been more alluring had dreamlike options like Connor McDavid and Jack Eichel decided to hit the market.

“I think we were all expecting all these guys to sign,” Robitaille said. “Great players will always find a way. Teams understand how it is. One guy took a lot less (McDavid), but everyone else seemed to sign to what their value is, their production. Maybe Jack Eichel took a little less. But that’s the way our game is.

“Sometimes you look at the AAV and you look at what he’s worth and so forth. But sometimes the player will say, ‘I’m getting $75 million or $90 million. That’s a lot of money.’ So I think guys are looking at it that way. They’ve earned it. It’s good for the game that these guys are signing, and it’s good for the fans. And I think it’s going to happen more and more as we move forward.”

Olympic concerns

It wasn’t a newsy Board of Governors meeting, which is the norm for this quick, three-hour session at the start of the season. The meatier owners meeting comes in December — this year, for two days in Colorado Springs.

The biggest headline Wednesday was commissioner Gary Bettman reacting to a report from the Associated Press about the continued delays in getting the main arena ready. A test event scheduled there for December, ahead of play opening Feb. 5, is being relocated because of the delays.

I asked Bettman what the contingency plan was if the main arena couldn’t be built, and he responded by saying to ask the IOC because that’s an IOC responsibility.

On Thursday, the IOC told The Athletic that the arena is scheduled to be ready in mid-December and that the test event is now planned for early January.

Behind the scenes, I believe the IOC and/or Milan organizers have told the NHL there is no Plan B. They need this rink built. Period.

And it’s not like the NHL can just come to the rescue, either. Or at least not easily. Its 32 NHL arenas are all booked with events and concerts during that February Olympic break.

In the end, I think the arena gets built just in time, although we might still smell sawdust and fresh paint when we arrive in Milan. (Can’t wait.)

Inside the board room, the NHL updated owners on its Olympic agreement for Milan and detailed all that comes with that.

World Cup of Hockey process

NHL deputy commissioner Bill Daly said the NHL continues its bid city process for the 2028 World Cup of Hockey.

“On course. Expecting 18 bids in North America and 10 bids in Europe,” Daly said. “We expect to be in position to evaluate those bids at the end of this year and beginning of next year and make decisions in February.”

You may remember that when the NHL and NHL Players’ Association first announced plans for the February 2028 World Cup of Hockey, it came without IIHF involvement. The IIHF took issue with the timing of the event, February, which is midseason for its European leagues. But the NHL said it would move ahead with its World Cup with or without IIHF involvement.

Since then, there have been talks to smooth things over, and it sounds like IIHF involvement is likely.

“We’ve had constructive conversations with the IIHF recently,” Daly said. “Expect to continue those discussions.”

Expansion silence

There was no expansion update from the NHL to governors in Wednesday’s meeting.

“Nothing. No updates,” said Bettman. “We didn’t even discuss it today. There is, and continues to be, interest from lots of places. But none of it has reached the level that we need to focus on at this point.”

Traditionally, expansion announcements come at the main December owners meeting. I asked Bettman if a door to expansion might happen then.

“It’s not a door that we open,” he responded. “If somebody knocks on the door, we’ll peek around to see who’s knocking and then decide what to do with it.”

Quick hits

• Bettman was asked about fan backlash in NHL markets linked to potential interest in the five 2018 World Juniors players who were found not guilty on sexual assault charges in July.

“Each team is going to have to make its own decision,” Bettman said. “They know the rules. And it’s up to them to decide whether or not, subject to those rules, they want to move forward.”

• The deadline for countries to submit the rest of their Olympic men’s hockey rosters is Dec. 31, but the NHL is working with the federations on a rollout for team announcements. So it’s possible those announcements will be staggered over a few days and not all announced Dec. 31.

• One governor said before the meeting that he was bullish on continued international expansion: playing games in Europe and elsewhere. His hope? A game in Mexico City.

• And of course I asked Bettman — somewhat tongue in cheek by this point because I keep asking him — about his future as commissioner.

“I’m here, and I’m not planning on going anywhere for a while. And I don’t know what a while is,” he said.