The Toronto Maple Leafs have had many notable coaches that had their shot in leading the team to potential glory over the past two decades. In each case, they had their own style of coaching and playing strategies to help maximize the potential effectiveness of the players in their game.
However, despite their pedigree in coaching, most of them had limited playoff success when it came to leading the Toronto Maple Leafs to the Stanley Cup. In fact, not a single one of them managed to win more than one playoff round in any given season.
Nevertheless, the bulk of them did manage to make the Leafs a winning team during the regular season so not everything was lost despite their shortcomings.
So now with newly-hired head coach Craig Berube at the helm for the Maple Leafs, how much success will he be able to bring to the squad? Will he be any different than any of his predecessors?
How Will Craig Berube Compare to the Recent Head Coaches of the Toronto Maple Leafs?
Here, we will take a look back at the work of the various Leafs’ head coaches in the past two decades following the Pat Quinn era, and how Berube might compare to them.
Paul Maurice (2006 – 2008)
Career Record: 869-736-144 with 99 ties; Leafs Record: 76-66-22
Paul Maurice had some big shoes to fill as he was replacing the legendary Pat Quinn as head coach for the Leafs for the 2006-07 season.
He had limited success with the buds as the team finished third and fifth in the Northeast Division in his two seasons with the club, missing the playoffs in both years. However, in his tenures with the Hartford Whalers, Carolina Hurricanes, Winnipeg Jets and now currently the Florida Panthers, Maurice managed to produce much better results, making the playoffs in 10 of his 21 seasons with the other clubs, including reaching all the way to the Stanley Cup Finals twice.