How Will Craig Berube Compare to Other Coaches of the Toronto Maple Leafs?
Will Berube be the one to lead the Maple Leafs to the promised land?
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.
Ron Wilson (2008 – 2012)
Career Record: 648-561-91 with 101 ties; Leafs Record: 130-135-45
Perhaps one of the least successful coaches in shaping the Leafs in the past two decades, Ron Wilson was one of rare ones to sport a losing record during his tenure with the blue and white on this side of the century.
After guiding the Washington Capitals and San Jose Sharks to a plethora of success from 1997 to 2008 including seven playoff appearances and a Stanley Cup berth in 1997-98, his Leafs-led teams never finished higher than fourth in their division nor reached then playoffs.
As a result, he was ultimately fired during the 2011-12 season. Unfortunately for Wilson, that would also be the last time he would be seen as a head coach in the NHL, as his failure with the Leafs probably led to his demise.
Randy Carlyle (2012 – 2015)
Career Record: 475-334-115; Leafs Record: 91-78-19
Randy Carlyle with his Stanley Cup winning pedigree would take over the reigns for the Leafs after the Wilson firing to finish off the 2011-12 season.
The Leafs would finally find a way to briefly flourish under Carlyle’s system, leading to their first playoff appearance in over nine years during the 2012-13 season.
There was a chance that the Leafs could have prospered and gone on to bigger and better things, but we all know what happened in that fateful game 7 against the Boston Bruins after taking a 4-1 lead into the third period.
That would also remain the only year Carlyle was able to lead the Leafs into the postseason, as after another couple mediocre seasons, he was fired in-season during the 2014-15 campaign. Carlyle would actually have his greatest success coaching his only other team to date in the Anaheim Ducks. They made seven playoff appearances over his ten seasons with the club, including capturing the Cup in 2006-07.
Peter Horachek (2015)
Career Record: 35-64-9; Leafs Record: 9-28-5
Peter Horachek just took over as the interim head coach for the Leafs following the dismissal of Carlyle.
For a lost season, there wasn’t really much Horachek could do but to just help the team play out the rest of the season and hope for a better tomorrow in the new year.
With his limited experience, along with the Leafs going big-name hunting for a new coach, Horachek was relieved of his duties at the end of the season. Together with his 66-game coaching experience with the Florida Panthers in his previous season in 2013-24, that essentially concluded his NHL coaching career.
Mike Babcock (2015 – 2019)
Career Record: 700-418-164 with 19 ties; Leafs Record: 173-133-45
Perhaps one of the most decorated coaches to lead the Leafs during this part of the century, Mike Babcock certainly made his mark in bringing the Leafs back to prominence during his time here.
For someone that has always had his teams make the playoffs every season except for two, he was the perfect example of a true winner that the Leafs desperately needed.
Some of his methods that he implemented may have ended up crossing the line and created some controversy throughout his coaching career, but he did end up producing a winning product on the ice for Toronto starting from the 2016-17 season.
The Leafs would make the playoffs for three consecutive seasons, which hadn’t happened since the early 2000s. However, a sub-par start to the 2019-20 season and an old-school style that is completely unacceptable in today's game would lead to his firing in November of 2019.
Nevertheless, with one Stanley Cup, an Olympic gold medal, a World Cup and World Hockey Championship all under his belt, he will always remain one of the best to ever coach in history of the game.
Sheldon Keefe (2019 – 2024)
Career and Leafs Record: 212-97-40
Believe it or not, Sheldon Keefe was actually the winningest Leafs coach on this list by a wide margin. It was just too bad that he couldn’t translate his success during the regular season into the games that mattered most.
Having never finished lower than third in the division along with two 50+ win seasons, Keefe certainly had the most success with the Leafs’ core compared to his counterparts after taking over for Babcock.
His teams made the playoffs every season and even managed to finally get past the first round for the first time in almost two decades last season. Unfortunately, the trend of great regular season but subsequent playoff failure would seem to repeat each year, ultimately leading to his relief of his duties at the conclusion of the 2023-24 season. (All stats from hockey-reference.com)
Craig Berube (2024 – present)
Career Record: 281-190-72; Leafs Record: ?
Newly-hired Craig Berube has produced a great coaching track record during his tenures with the Philadelphia Flyers and St. Louis Blues.
He has only missed the playoffs twice for teams he has led from start to finish. His crowning moment came when he led a stumbling Blues team in 2018-19 from worst all the way to the Stanley Cup title within the same year.
In doing so, it helped end over a 50+-year drought for the Blues as they captured their first championship since coming into existence in 1967.
Speaking of 1967, perhaps Berube can work his magic once again with the Leafs now and help guide them to their first title since that very date as well. But one thing is for sure, there will be no free rides for any of the Leafs player going forward as they will all need to be all in on Berube’s system to be successful.
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With that in mind, our prediction is that Berube will be the right man to take this Leafs team finally to the next level.