The elusive Brendan Shanahan.



We in the media see the Maple Leafs president around the team a lot, even on the road, but he hasn’t spoken publicly a whole lot over the last few years. Even an issue as big as whether or not he was staying with the team was something he passed on commenting on this season multiple times. Believe me, I tried.



We now have an answer.



On Tuesday, Shanahan re-signed for six more years, which could keep him in the fold until the end of the 2024-25 season. The only Leafs player signed that long is John Tavares, who started a seven-year contract last July.



If Shanahan stays for the life of the deal, he will have spent 11 seasons with the Leafs, two more than he ever played for a single team during his Hall of Fame career. (He put in nine in Detroit between 1996 and 2006, not including the lockout year.)



For the first time in a long while, Shanahan and I connected for an in-depth, on-the-record conversation on...