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About an hour before the puck was to be dropped for Game 5 of the OHL final between the visiting Erie McDavids and the host Generals in Oshawa last May, a veteran western conference scout spotted a Toronto-based hockey columnist and made a beeline for him.

“I just wanted to come over and tell you that Mark Hunter is the best damn hiring the Maple Leafs organization has made in the past 10 years,” he said.

Hunter, by the way, was also at the General Motors Centre that night. So what else is new? You might not be sure which country he’s in, but it’s a good bet that whichever one he’s visiting, he’ll be inside a hockey arena there.

On Monday, for example, a Maple Leafs official was asked if Hunter was around.

“I’m not sure he’s even in North America but I do know he’s scouting somewhere,” was the response.

Of course he is. That’s what Mark Hunter does. That’s where he thrives. Not in the front office board room wearing a suit and a tie but in a rink near you, scribbling reports and making mental notes in search of the future core of the Toronto Maple Leafs.

In his second season as the Leafs director of player personnel, Hunter is the man who, among other duties, runs the Maple Leafs draft table, a role he used to pluck uber-skilled London Knights forward Mitch Marner fourth overall at last June’s NHL entry draft. While there was a school of thought among some within the organization that defenceman Noah Hanifin might be a better building block — Leafs officials even hosted Hanifin and his family just one day before the first round — Hunter had the final call, using it to take a talented playmaker in Marner who played for him in London during Hunter’s stint as the Knights GM.