Toronto Maple Leafs: Coaching Departure Should Shake Things Up

With the Toronto Maple Leafs announcement that they’re moving on from their goalie coach of the past seven years, Steve Briere; you have to wonder if it changes anything more.

This isn’t to speculate that the Toronto Maple Leafs suddenly become more appealing for a Jack Campbell contract renewal or any such thought, but it could affect the goaltending style at the very least.

After all, you have to imagine that the goalies under the auspices of Steve Briere eventually tend towards the style that he’s pushing upon them in his coaching sessions.

It’s not a crazy thought to think that the goaltending style of the Toronto Maple Leafs group of goalies might end up changing, even if we’re talking relatively minor and slight differences.

The Future of Toronto Maple Leafs Goalie Coaching

First and foremost, you might wonder if a change of goalie coach might lead to less injuries among the cohort that tend the Toronto Maple Leafs net.

In the past few seasons, we’ve seen the team missing goalies for not insignificant spells due to injury issues. Perhaps this was resulting from Briere’s style. Equally, it could simply have been down to frail goalies in general.

However, it is certainly worth looking at once a new person is settled into that role with the organisation.

You have to wonder whether we might actually see a decline in the team’s overall goaltending. Right now, it’s anyone’s guess who ends up as the new goalie coach and who ends up between the pipes for the Leafs.

However, Steve Briere has to absolutely be given some credit given he saw two of his goaltenders in Frederick Andersen and Jack Campbell called up to the All-Star Game.

Any new goaltenders or indeed any continuation with the current group is certainly going to find itself impacted, whether positively or negatively, by Briere’s departure.

There’s also the perspective that the Toronto Maple Leafs may be pushing for a complete refresh between the pipes with the possibility of the coach’s departure being a prelude to the goalies themselves departing.

After all, Jack Campbell signing a new contract is starting to feel a lot less likely and there’s definitely options to pursue with Petr Mrazek with his cost against the salary cap. Should those two move on as well, suddenly the Toronto Maple Leafs will be looking completely different in the position.

Only Joseph Woll and Erik Kallgren, in terms of goalies that played for the Toronto Maple Leafs last campaign, seem to be continuing on and both are young enough to hopefully see some growth on the back of the coaching change.

This move certainly doesn’t look to be part of a bigger shake-up of coaching staff, but certainly reflects the thinking that maybe goaltending in general should be a big focus for the team.