Which Toronto Maple Leafs Coaches Should be in the Hot Seat?
Whose coaching job could be on the line for the Leafs if things aren’t turned around soon enough?
For the 2023-24 NHL season thus far, the Toronto Maple Leafs have had their fair share of ups and downs. They were met with adversity right from the start when they ran into injury troubles to their defense.
However, led by the Toronto Maple Leafs core four, especially with the surprising breakout season by William Nylander, their offence helped them overcome many of those issues and kept them afloat in terms of their playoff aspirations.
Then came the troubles with their goaltending with rookie standout Joseph Woll going down to a high-ankle sprain back in early December, along with first-string netminder Ilya Samsonov struggling to find his game for most of the season. Somehow, third-string goalie Martin Jones has stepped in and gave the Leafs the chance to stay in the thick of things for a short little while.
However, a recent rough stretch of mediocre play in January has left the Leafs barely hanging on to a playoff spot as we passed the midway mark of the 2023-24 season. With such inconsistency in their play on full display in recent weeks, who should be held responsible for such performances?
Which Toronto Maple Leafs Coaches Should be in the Hot Seat?
As much as the onus is on the players to perform to their abilities, the strategical coaching and the implementation of their supposedly workable systems involved bears quite some weight as well. As a result, the Leafs coaching staff can play quite a significant role in the team’s success and failures in the long run.
Here, we take a look at three Toronto Maple Leafs coaches that could be in the hot seat if the team’s current performance issues aren’t rectified soon enough.
Assistant Coach Mike Van Ryn (Main Responsibility: Defense)
This past offseason, Mike Van Ryn was one of the new assistant coaches added to the team’s coaching staff to help out with the team’s defensive structure and game plan.
In retrospect, the Leafs defense hasn’t been all that bad the past few years, but to get to the next level, something needed to be done to take that giant leap forward.
As a former first-round draft pick and solid defender, the Leafs were looking forward to Van Ryn bringing in his expertise in the area to help augment their defensive zone play for the current season and beyond.
However, it appears as though the Leafs have actually taken a step back compared to last season with respect to their defensive game. Last year, the Leafs gave up an average of 2.68 goals per game and 29.51 shots per game, whereas this season, those marks have risen to 3.27 and 30.56 respectively.
More worrisome has been the team’s overall 5-on-5 defensive zone play this season, as they currently rank seventh-last in the league in high danger shots against with 105, fifth-last in the league in giveaways with 339, and fourth-last in defensive zone giveaways with 208 prior to Wednesday’s game.
If this trend is prolonged for the rest of the season, it will certainly turn out to be a recipe for disaster when they face higher-tiered teams.
The Leafs no longer have a Jake Muzzin or a Luke Schenn that they can lean towards for heavy defensive minutes, so it will be up to Van Ryn to get the most out of his current players to work cohesively as a team to defend properly and effectively. Otherwise, not only will the Leafs’ chances of making the playoffs be gone this year, Van Ryn’s coaching job could be on thin ice as well.
Assistant Coach Dean Chynoweth (Main Responsibility: Penalty Kill)
For assistant coach Dean Chynoweth, the Leafs brought him over from Carolina during the 2021 offseason following his successful years in managing the Hurricanes’ defense.
With Carolina being well-known for their stifling defensive acumen, bringing in the head honcho behind all of it makes total sense for the offensively-minded yet somewhat defensively-challenged Leafs to help make them a more well-balanced team.
With the hiring of Van Ryn this past summer, Chynoweth remains associated with the Leafs defense, but with his focus now shifted mainly towards the team’s penalty kill duties. In recent years, there have been the departure of many key special team players such as Alex Kerfoot, Pierre Engvall, Sam Lafferty, Ilya Mikheyev, and Justin Holl, leaving quite a few holes to fill.
Therefore, it was up to Chynoweth to revamp their penalty kill system with the infusion of new players on the roster, to go along with the penalty kill veterans Mitch Marner, David Kampf, T.J. Brodie and Mark Giordano.
However, now more than halfway through the 2023-24 season, the Leafs penalty kill has been among the worst in the NHL, currently ranked sixth-last in the league with a success rate hovering around just 76%.
More significantly, it had really weighed down the Leafs in recent games as in their past eight games, opponents have scored seven power play goals in just 19 chances for a 37% success rate (meaning only a 63% PK for the Leafs, prior to Wednesday’s game). Sometimes, it became so prominent that it made the difference in the game as seen from their match against the Vancouver Canucks last Saturday.
After making a huge comeback from down 3-0 in the game, the Leafs would ultimately succumb to the Canucks as they gave up two power play goals in short order in the third period to lose 6-4 in the hard-fought game. (All stats from moneypuck.com and NHL.com)
If the proper adjustments aren’t made soon, it can severely affect the play of the Leafs going forward, as they won’t be able to play aggressively if they keep fearing a penalty will end up hurting them all the time. As a result, it will be up to Chynoweth to right the ship soon before it’s too late. Otherwise, his job could quickly be in jeopardy if the Leafs continue to flounder with a man short.
Head Coach Sheldon Keefe (Main Responsibility: Entire Team)
For everything that happens for the product that the Toronto Maple Leafs put on the ice for each game, a large part of it can be attributed to the hands of the head coach.
For Sheldon Keefe, he has been at the helm of the current Leafs core since the 2019-20 season when he took over from the legendary Mike Babcock. Now into his fifth season with the team, he should have a firm grasp of what the team’s strengths and weaknesses are, as well as having a good idea on how to find the right chemistry among the players to form an effective core.
In doing so, Keefe had been pretty successful in leading the Leafs to five consecutive winning seasons thus far in his tenure.
However, there have been two important issues that constantly remain the Achilles’ heel for both Keefe and the team overall. One was their lack of success in the playoffs despite strong regular season performances, and the other was their penchant for a lack of killer instinct in putting their opponents away which often ended up backfiring in their faces.
This year, the latter point has become quite prominent, especially in recent weeks. During a brutal four-game stretch in mid-January, the Leafs managed to blow four games in which they had the lead, including some with multi-goal leads.
Very often, the Leafs were seen taking their foot off the pedal and lazing back as their opponents took advantage to mount their comebacks. To be successful in the long run, the proper focus and determination must always be present in their game and it is up to the head coach to constantly reiterate to the players its importance throughout the game.
Keefe has already seen this happen too many times in the past few seasons, as the apparent growing issue is beginning to spiral out of control. If Keefe cannot find a way to control the room and significantly alter the current players’ focus and mentality for each competitive game to reach another level, his time with the Leafs may be running out pretty soon.
manual
That’s because if things remain stagnant, growing frustrations of the Leafs’ faithful may begin to mount as a result of unexpected, heartbreaking losses, along with the prolonged failure in the playoffs.