A 102 Year History of Toronto Maple Leafs Head Coaches
LAVAL, QC – DECEMBER 22: Head coach of the Toronto Marlies Sheldon Keefe looks on after a victory against the Laval Rocket during the AHL game at Place Bell on December 22, 2018 in Laval, Quebec, Canada. The Toronto Marlies defeated the Laval Rocket 2-0. (Photo by Minas Panagiotakis/Getty Images)
The changes behind the bench of the Toronto Maple Leafs have been a crucial part in the history of the team.
In the 102 season history of the Toronto Maple Leafs organization, there have been 40 men to honor the title of head coach for the team; some well respected and liked players, peers and fans-others not so much.
Award winning coaches and former players of the team have all been at the helm at one point or another for varying lengths of time, some longer than others.
Like most Toronto Maple Leafs history, the run down of all those who have been ‘Boss of the Bench’ runs deep.
1917-1919: The Toronto Arenas
The franchises first NHL head coach of the Toronto Arenas was Dick Carroll. Carroll coached the Arena’s through their three inaugural seasons, winning the first Stanley Cup Championship in 1918 against the PCHA’s Vancouver Millionaires. After their win the team struggled and in the 1919-1920 season Carroll is replaced.
Note: information is sourced from Hockeydb, Toronto Maple Leafs Wiki & respective wiki’s for each coach.
1919-1927 : The Toronto St Patricks
The 1919 -1920 season brought more than a change of coaches, the team is sold and renamed to the Toronto St Patricks. It was the third season the NHL and at the time there were four teams that played in a 24 game total split schedule format.
Frank Heffernan coached the team for first 12 games, and Harvey Sproule coached the last half.
The team goes through a variety of coaches in several years, Frank Carroll who had served as a trainer when his brother Dick Carroll worked as head coach for The Arenas, coached the 1920-21 season, the team lost in the NHL finals but had finished 1st in the regular season.
1921-’23 brought in George O’Donohuge who coached the team to the franchise’s second Stanley Cup win against the Vancouver Millionaires. Despite the win, O’Donohuge is fired the following season.
Charles Querrie steps into the position, Querrie was also the first general manager in team history as well as an owner, he coached the team from the 1922-1923 season until 1927 before he resigned and sold his majority take of the team to Conn Smythe.
1927- Present :The Toronto Maple Leafs
The team switches hands once more in February 1927 and is renamed to the Toronto Maple Leafs mid-season by new primary owner Smythe.
Smythe became the acting general manager and appointed Alex Romeril head coach for the remainder of that season.
Come the following season, Smythe becomes the acting coach through to 1930 and Art Duncan worked as a player coach for the 1930-31 season.
Dick Irvin succeeds Duncan in the role.
Irvin had been one of the greatest players at the time but went into coaching after several injuries.
Irvin had been released by the Chicago Blackhawk’s organization after losing in the 1931 playoff , the following November, Irvin came into work with the Leafs after the team had a 5 game losing streak.
He was the first to coach the team in the newly built Maple Leaf Gardens and lead the team to their third Stanley Cup.
Irvin coached the team for 9 seasons and took the team to the finals 6 more times after their win with no avail and he was released from his duties in 1940 but continued his coaching career with the Montreal Canadiens.
1940-1958
Enter Clarence Henry Day also known simply as Hap Day, another player to coach. Day was a career long member of the Toronto Maple Leafs, spending 13 years playing for the organization, 11 as captain, before retiring from play and transitioning into a job refereeing in the minor leagues.
Smythe gave the head coaching role to Day in his return to the NHL in . Day excelled in the position behind the bench and guided the team through the 40’s with major success.
The Toronto Maple Leafs won five Stanley Cups under Day in 1942 against after losing in the first round the year previous, again in 1945 against the Detroit Red Wings and then in three back to back years in 1947 to 1949. Day was then promoted to an assistant general manager position but stepped down in 1950 after the team missed the playoffs.
Following Day, Joe Primeau entered the coaching position and lead the team to the Stanley Cup his first year in the role, winning the teams ninth championship but only held the job between 1950-1953.
Francis ‘King’ Clancy, one of the top scoring defensemen in NHL history acted as head coach of the Toronto Maple Leafs through 1953 to 1956.
Clancy had played for the Toronto Maple Leafs in the later half of his career and returned to the team after his retirement. The team continued to struggle more and more under Clancy and he was appointed to an assistant general manager position and stayed in the teams front office for the rest of his life.
The Toronto Maple Leafs struggled for much of the rest of the 50’s and the succeeding head coaches, Howie Meeker and Billy Reay were both fired after the team finished 6th and 5th over all and repeatedly missed playoffs.
1958 brought in one of the more controversial faces in Toronto Maple Leafs history, George ‘Punch’ Imlach. Imlach was originally brought into the teamasa an assistant general manager but after Conn Smythe had stepped down in 1955 the team did not have a general manager and Imluch took over the position as well as fired Reay and took over the coaching position in 1958.
Toronto Maple Leafs – Punch Imlach (Photo by Harold Whyte/Toronto Star via Getty Images)
Punch Imlach was known to rule with an iron first.
Although his domineering methods clashed with younger players on the team he was well appreciated by many of the teams veterans and was able to take the team in a hat trick of championships in back to back wins between 1962-1965 as well as took the team to a the Stanley Cup finals once again in 1967.
The success the team had found under him was soon lost when the league expanded from six team to 12 in the 1967-68 season and Imlach was asked to step down but refused, many players were tired of his strict attitude and some even walked out on the team.
Imlach, ultimately was fired after a playoffs eliminations loss to the Boston Bruin. Imlach’s rein as coach was the longest in Leafs history, at 12 years in total.
1969-1980
John McLellan became the coach for four seasons between 1969-1973 and despite being a mediocre coach, McLellan received the NHL coach of the year in 1971 after continuing to do his job while suffering from a duodenal ulcer and missed 15 games due to medical reasons related to it.
Red Kelly
After McLellan stepped down from the position and took an assistant GM role, and Red Kelly, who had played 8 season with the team and won four Stanley Cups with them, stepped up to a four-year tenure in the position between 1973-1977.
The team had a playoff run in all four years of Kelly as head coach but never made it past the quarterfinals and he was let go at the end of the 1976-77 season by the general manager at the time, Harold Ballard.
Ballard then hired Roger Nielson in 1977, only to then fire him in 1979 and due to general outrage from media, fans and even players, rehire him; Nielson left the team .
Despite a short time with the Leafs, Nielson is known for his legacy in innovation to the game, his most known idea was the use of watching tape to analyze other teams play. Nielson also introduced the idea of pulling the goaltender for an extra attacker, the idea was seen as radical but was a prime example of his innovation.
Floyd Smith succeeded Nielson for a year, with guest appearances made by old coach, Punch Imlach for 10 games, after self appointing himself but due to his less than amicable reputation amongst players, his time was short-lived.
1980s
The 80’s to early 90’s saw the Toronto Maple Leafs in and out of playoffs and cycling through coaches , starting with Joe Crozier in 1980, then Mike Nykoluk in 1981.
The team missed or was disqualified first round from playoffs each of the four seasons he coached. There was Dan Maloney, famed for his right hand punch and considered to most hockey fans of the day to be a legendary fighter, Maloney was given an assistant coaching position when he retired in 1982 with the Toronto Maple Leafs and was then promoted in 84 to head coach for two seasons.
Following him was John Brophy from 1984-1988 , who was fired mid-season after an embarrassing start and unfavorable results in previous seasons.
George Armstrong, a center who had played 21 seasons for the Leafs and captained the team for 13 seasons, was part of four Stanley Cup championship teams and was inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame in 1975. Armstrong had been approached to coach after the firing of Red Kelly but he rejected only to return to the Leafs organization in a dual role of assistant GM and scout.
When Brophy was fired, Armstrong took the role for the 1988 season and the team ended their season with 17 wins in the 47 games he coached and he is replaced with Doug Carpenter for 1989-1990 season.
Things were getting bleak for the Toronto Maple Leafs until 1990 saw the passing of Ballard, and new management being brought in.
Toronto Maple Leafs – Pat Burns (Photo by Denis Brodeur/NHLI via Getty Images)The 1990s began with Tom Watt as the head coach.
But soon, Cliff Fletcher took over at the helm and began a rebuild that would include acquiring icon Doug Gilmore and replacing the head coach, Tom Watt (1990-1992) with Pat Burns in 1992.
Burns brought a hope to the dying light of the Leafs, and immediately turned them around, leading the team straight into their best playoff run since 1967.
Burns took the Toronto Maple Leafs to the conference finals against the LA Kings before infamously losing due to a uncalled high sticking penalty between Wayne Gretzky and Doug Gilmour.
Burns skill and ability to nurse the Leafs back into something great is what won him the Jack Adams Award, an award given to the coach who has most contributed to the success of the team. Burn was the first time a coach with the Leafs organization had been given the honor.
The Toronto Maple Leafs continued to have decent success under Burns and they saw the return to conference finals in ’94 against the Vancouver Canucks but were eliminated.
They returned to playoffs again in 1995 but after a tough losing streak in 1996, Burns was dismissed.
Nick Beverly, and then Mike Murphy would be named head coach between 1996-1998; Beverly worked as interim head coach for 17 games before Murphy was promoted from assistant coach to head coach but was let go shortly after taking the team to their second 6th place finish in their division back to back.
The Leafs end up once again rejuvenated by a head coach that went by Pat.
Toronto Maple Leafs – Pat Quinn (Photo By Dave Sandford/Getty Images)
Pat Quinn
The Leafs improved drastically under Pat Quinn’s lead and looked unrecognizable to the team before.
Hired after the 1997-98 season, Pat Quinn found immediate success with the Leafs.
The team made their first playoffs appearance in three years and fought through to the conference finals but unfortunately lost to the Buffalo Sabres. Quinn was a finalist for the Jack Adams Award that year but did not receive it.
After the season, he was named GM and stayed on as coach.
Once again the team was finding success with Quinn as their guide, finishing in the top three in their division, with back to back appearances in the playoffs until the NHL lockout in 2004-2005 season.
Quinn came back after the lockout with he Leafs expected to compete, but they didn’t even make the playoffs and Quinn was fired.
Despite never advancing past the conference finals, Quinn had kept the team afloat, recording three 100-point seasons as well as making the playoffs every season up to last.
2006-2015
Paul Maurice took over the head coach role after Quinn was let go.
Maurice coached the team through the 2006 season to 2008. He lead the team to finish 9th in the Eastern Conference and missed a playoff position in 2007 and in 2008 the team missed playoffs once again and in May that year, Maurice was fired.
Next came Ron Wilson.
The team flopped under Ron Wilson through 2008-2012 until he was fired and replaced with Randy Carlyle. Another former player filling the head coach role, he guided the now rebuilding team through the remainder of the 2011-2012 season, failing to reach the playoffs.
Due to the 2012-2013 NHL lockout and the revised schedule reduced the season from 82 to 48 games, the season started on January 19th 2013, the Leafs finished with a 26-17-5 record and qualified for playoffs for the first time.
This marked a playoffs match up that all Leafs fans would remember for years to come when they lost in Game 7 of the first round to the Boston Bruins.
The following 2014-2015 season started promising and it was clear the team was set to have a playoffs spot, until they bombed the rest of the season and missed playoffs.
That January, Carlyle was fired and the team finished the season with coached by Peter Horachek, the previous assistant coach.
Horachek was also fired, one day after the regular season ended, as well as the teams general manager and all coaches.
Mike Babcock
On May 8th 2015 the Toronto Maple Leafs hired their 39th coach, Mike Babcock, the former Red Wings coach with pedigree.
Babcocks storied career included guiding Team Canada to gold medals in the 1997 world junior championships, the 2004 IIHF world hockey championships, two Olympics wins in 2010 and 2014, a Stanley Cup win in 2008 with the Red Wings and a World Cup of Hockey win in 2016.
Babcock received a hefty contract in exchange for his loaded resume and carried on to be the highest paid coach in NHL history, with 50 million over 8 years (an AAV of 6.25 million dollars).
In his first year as coach the Leafs finished last overall but all clouds have a silver lining and for a team in the midst of a rebuild it earned them a chance into the Draft Lottery and ultimately Auston Matthews- a wonderful addition to the teams continuous rebuild.
Matthews would join young faces like William Nylander, Mitch Marner and Morgan Rielly on the team through the 2016-2017 season.
The young talent paired with newly acquired Frederik Andersen got the team a qualifying spot for the playoffs. Toronto faced the Washington Capitals in the first round and defied odds when they pushed the series to 6 games before being eliminated.
Overall, Babcock did a lot of wonderful things for the Toronto Maple Leafs, he came into a mess and salvaged a great team and deserves praise but ultimately his own stubbornness and frigid play-making ended in three back to back first round playoff exits and suspected tension between management.
The 2019-2020 season started full of hope, with the team set as Stanley Cup contenders, but that quickly dissolved as the Leafs went 9-10-4 and were immediately projected out of the playoffs. A six game losing streak ultimately ended Babcocks job with the organization.
Present Day
In November 2019, after a six game losing streak, the Toronto Maple Leafs fired Mike Babcock and hired Sheldon Keefe.
Sheldon Keefe, the previous successful head coach of the Leafs AHL affiliate the Toronto Marlies , was named the 40th head coach of the Toronto Maple Leafs on November 20th.
Naming Keefe was no surprise to anyone, as this is the third team that general manager Kyle Dubas has hired Keefe to coach.
The following day the Leafs won their first game after losing six games in a row, against the Arizona Coyotes. The NHL coaching debut of Shledon Keefe was a rousing success, and hopefully a sign of great things to come.
Keefe signed to a three year deal with the Leafs.
Keefe has had a hand in developing 13 players currently on the roster. With a team like the Leafs, desperate for a younger coach on the bench, the straightforward answer was in Keefe.
Next. The Leafs Top 10 Prospects. dark
The rest of the 2019- 2020 season is an exciting new chapter in Toronto Maple Leafs history and I for one am excited to see where it leads.