Top 5 Worst Coaches in Toronto Maple Leafs Team History

The Toronto Maple Leafs have been blessed with good coaching for the last few years, but that’s not always been the case.

With 40 total coaches in Toronto Maple Leafs history, there have been plenty of different personalities behind the bench.

Criticize Mike Babcock all you want (and I have), if we were to reverse this list, he’s probably in the top-five for best coaches in Toronto history.

However, he’s definitely had his flaws and there’s a reason why he was fired last November.

Babcock was stubborn and thought that because he’s been successful before, he would continue to be successful again by keeping his old ways.

There were a number of positives with Babcock, though. For one, he took the worst team in the league and lead them to the playoffs one year later. When the Leafs tanked and started the rebuild, many expected it to be at least three years until the team was relevant again, and fans had accepted that.

However, with Babcock behind the bench, the team went to the playoffs three consecutive seasons and continue to be a contender again this year. Maybe it wasn’t all due to coaching, but you have to give props to him for speeding up the development process.

Regardless of the good things that Babcock did, there were plenty of coaches before him that weren’t as revered.

In professional hockey, coaching comes down to one thing: winning.

If your team doesn’t win when you’re behind the bench, you’re not going to have a job for that long. Although that’s unfair at times, that’s just the way it is.

Let’s look at the top-five worst coaches in Leafs history.