The Toronto Maple Leafs have done the obvious, and fired head coach Sheldon Keefe.
The Toronto Maple Leafs lost in the first round of the NHL Playoffs again this year, and there is nothing in the history of the NHL that was more predictable than the Leafs changing coaches at this point.
All of their core players have no movement clause.
The President and GM are scheduled to speak WITH the new guy who runs the corporation that owns the team, which is a strong indication that both are coming back.
Letting Brad Treliving - one of the most generic, un-creative GMs in the NHL - waste the rest of Auston Matthews Prime is the most on-brand thing the Toronto Maple Leafs have ever done. #Leafsforever
— Editor in Leaf (@EditorinLeaf) May 9, 2024
This is a mistake of epic proportions that will haunt the team for years, and likely waste the rest of Auston Matthews' prime years, but what can you do?
The Toronto Maple Leafs Fire Sheldon Keefe
The Leafs have fired Keefe and it's about time. I have advocated for many months that the Leafs should change coaches.
They should have done it last summer, and they proberly were going to do it in November when they were down 4-1 to Tampa in what would have been the 5th straight loss, only the team performed a miracle comeback.
Same thing happend when they were down (I think) 5-0 to Columbus and came back and won.
Keefe always seemed to win just when he looked like he was going down. He almost pulled it off again, and might have if Joseph Woll hadn't gotten injured.
In the end, Keefe will go down as a great regular season coach who couldn't get it done in the playoffs. He'll be hired by another team and go on to have a great career.
The Leafs now need a new coach, and that new coach should be Bruce Boudreau, but since it's Brad Treliving it will likely be Craig Berube.
Brad Treliving is the most generic NHL GM there is, and he's a guy who goes for the name-brands and the obvious "hockey guy" moves.
— Editor in Leaf (@EditorinLeaf) May 9, 2024
Therefore, Craig Berube - 2 straight years out of the playoffs, but won a cup who cares if it was fluky - is the likely hire bc its trendy.
In my opinion, a team like the Leafs should be more than capable of finding the next big thing in coaching instead of going after one of the recycled names that other teams have fired two, three or four times.
But since they are almost certainly to go with a name, I'd rather they went with Boudreau because he is a guy who is known to get the most out of the offensive players at his disposal.
Boudreau is also extremely likeable and exactly what the market needs right now. Berube - fair or not - is known as a guy who will coach you to tight checking 2-1 victories. I don't think that's what the Leafs need. The Leafs should be embracing their offense and need to stop trying to become a defense-first team full of grinders.
The new coach should be someone who will let Mitch Marner and Auston Matthews fly.