Toronto Maple Leafs: Risk of Key Powerplay Piece Leaving has Dropped

The risk of the Toronto Maple Leafs losing a key part of their successful powerplay seems to have diminished for now.

It was widely speculated that with coaching vacancies opening across the league, Toronto Maple Leafs assistant coach Spencer Carbery might’ve departed.

Thankfully for the team, given how impressive their powerplay was last season, for now it seems that Carbery is staying put.

As such, it’s only a new goaltending coach that the team need to focus on recruiting ahead of the new season.

Toronto Maple Leafs Are Lucky to Have Carbery

The Toronto Maple Leafs operated at a league-leading 27.3% for their powerplay in the regular season and this is certainly in part courtesy of Carbery’s coaching. (ESPN.com)

After all, the core of the leading powerplay unit remained much the same to the previous couple of seasons.

Of course, you have to take the previous two campaigns with a slight grain of salt given they were full 82-game campaigns, but by comparison the Leafs were a greatly improved powerplay team last year.

The previous two campaigns were 20% and 23.1% respectively, shining light on just how significant of an improvement Spencer Carbery oversaw.

The result was that his name suddenly was linked to the head coaching vacancies that opened across the league this summer.

Carbery, despite his relative youth in coaching circles and despite having limited high-level head coach experience, with his career being forged in the ECHL, OHL and AHL, was seen as a smart option by more than a few teams.

Certainly, the rumours suggested that the Philadelphia Flyers and Boston Bruins showed some level of interest, while there’s little doubt the Winnipeg Jets and Detroit Red Wings also did some scouting on him.

Thankfully with all of those listed making their coaching decisions, there remains just one vacant head coaching spot in the league; the San Jose Sharks.

Now if they decided to come in for Spencer Carbery, you have to imagine the Toronto Maple Leafs wouldn’t stand in the way of him interviewing for the role.

However, the impact that such a departure might have on the powerplay is considerable. You only need look at the improvement of a largely like-for-like group under Carbery’s coaching, after all.

The fact that the aforementioned four teams have all made their choices diminishes the concern that he may be a one-season man behind the Toronto Maple Leafs bench.

Frankly, if he can oversee the same level of powerplay success next year, it wouldn’t be surprising if the fear of him leaving is still there next summer.