Pridham, the resident CBA and cap specialist in the Leafs front office, was hired away from the league by Brendan Shanahan in August of 2014 — the Leafs President’s second major hire a month after enlisting the help of Dubas earlier that offseason.
Shanahan had not worked closely with Pridham during their time together in the league offices, but he was aware of Pridham’s work and the reputation he had earned through his integral contributions to the creation of the NHL’s salary cap system coming out of the 2004-05 lockout as well as to the league’s central registry and central scouting departments (the latter is where Pridham started his tenure with the league as an advisor back in 1999).