16 Head Coaches for the Toronto Maple Leafs to Consider Hiring

Craig Berube

Craig Berube is the leading candidate to be the Leafs next head coach.

He recently was the coach of the St. Louis Blues, but was fired after they missed the playoffs two seasons in a row.

He did, however win a Stanley Cup as coach in 2019 when Jordan Binnington came out of nowhere to go on a legendary run.

Berube is known to be a bit of a hard-ass and will be a complete .180 from Sheldon "Sorry I Criticized You Mitch" Keefe.

Berube is a vetern of over 1000 NHL games, 40 of them with the Toronto Maple Leafs. While that's only a half season, it should give him some good insight into how hard it is to play here, and that will only help him.

Berube is having a moment, and he's the most sought after coach available. This would be a high-profile hire, and I think most people would be pretty happy with it.

An interesting fact about Berube that I got off Wikipedia is that he is the least productive player to ever play over 1000 games. He was a enforcer and I honestly hope this doesn't mean that the Leafs are going to play Ryan Reaves again next season.

The addition of Berube would be a mistake. He's a coach who is going to preach "playoff hockey" and fit in with the kind of culture that just brought Joel Edmundson and Ryan Reaves to the team. This is not what the Leafs need.

They need to lean into their offensive abilities. The years long process of turning this team into a boring, safe, prototypical "playoff" team have been the main cause of their losing. Every year the Leafs are a high-flying, well-oiled machine....until the trade deadline where they suddenly try to morph into what they think they should be.

This is the wrong direction. This doesn't work. I don't doubt that Berube is the Leafs first choice, but it's a bad one.

Berube would not be my choice. My choice would be....