No. 5: Hiring Sheldon Keefe.
In the first 23 games of the 2019-20 season, former head coach Mike Babcock led the Toronto Maple Leafs to an abysmal 9-10-4 start. In a move that many considered inevitable, Dubas promoted Keefe, his long-time running mate, from the Marlies to take over the big club.
Keefe began his head coaching career with the Pembroke Lumber Kings of the CCHL and enjoyed nothing short of success. His .742 winning percentage with the franchise ranks number one in the league’s history. His five straight league championships also rank first in league history. By the time he left the Kings, Keefe had racked up a 265-76-20 record.
When Keefe was hired as head coach of the Marlies by Kyle Dubas, he managed to register a .668 winning percentage in four seasons with the AHL franchise capped off with a Calder Cup victory in 2018. Keefe’s long history of winning with every franchise he has been with is all Dubas needed to know he is the man to take over as Toronto Maple Leafs head coach.
It is hard not to like the job Sheldon Keefe has done in his limited stint with the Leafs. In his 47 games with the team, the Leafs finished with .628 points percentage, 8th in the league, despite Jake Muzzin missing 16 games and Morgan Rielly missing 23 games. Furthermore, Keefe was able to tremendously improve the Leafs’ defensive play. With Mike Babcock, the Leafs were 24th in goals-against/game at 3.43 and 25th in shots-against/game at 33.3. With Keefe, Toronto finished 17th in goals-against/game at 3.04 and 17th in shots-against/game at 31.2.
Safe to say with a little bit more health and Frederik Andersen not having a .897 save percentage and a 3.16 goals-against average at 5v5 from January 1st until the end of the season (stats; naturalstattrick.com), the Leafs would have finished a lot higher in the standings. Impressive for a club who was on a 103-point pace in a full 82 game season under Keefe.