The new Toronto Maple Leafs front office, led by general manager John Chayka and senior executive of hockey operations Mats Sundin, already has a massive to-do list after dismissing head coach Craig Berube.
Finding the right coaching replacement is the immediate priority, but equally vital is ensuring that franchise center Auston Matthews remains fully bought into management's long-term vision.
Once those franchise-altering decisions are finalized, the incoming bench boss will face a daunting cultural challenge: getting the team's core stars to completely buy into his system. That task will be particularly urgent when it comes to star winger William Nylander, whose questionable practice habits were recently highlighted in a telling late-season anecdote shared by Sportsnet's Leafs reporter Luke Fox.
Nylander's practice drama a warning sign to Maple Leafs new head coach
Appearing as a guest on Kyper and Bourne, Fox was asked by host Nick Kypreos about his overall thoughts on Berube's dismissal. Fox explained he was not surprised by the firing. Co-host Justin Bourne asked, "What didn't work?" regarding Berube.
Fox responded that many players didn't "buy in" to Berube's style of play, noting there wasn't alignment by the type of players on the roster and the way the coach wanted them to play. He also said Berube failed to adjust his methods throughout the season, the players eventually "tuned him out" since they wanted to play a possession game.
Kypreos then asked Fox specifically about the relationship between Nylander and Berube. The Leafs reporter felt they had a "generational gap." He then shared a story about a practice near the end of the season when things went sideways for the Maple Leafs and Matthews was sidelined with his season-ending injury.
Fox explained that Nylander was coasting through a power play drill, wasn't moving the puck with purpose, and wasn't shooting it. Berube yelled for Nylander to shoot the puck. When the drill was restarted, the star winger immediately shot the puck without a single pass. Fox stated that Berube chastised Nylander, somewhat in jest, but that the winger never took him seriously, as the coach was trying hard to get a point across.
With Matthews out, Fox noted that Nylander was the team's highest-scoring, best offensive player, made the most money, and that his coach wanted him to be a leader and do the drill properly to lead by example. Instead, Nylander had a laissez-faire, "the season is over" attitude and had "checked out." Fox commented that it wasn't a bad exchange, but it was bad for the team's culture and indicative of the disconnect between Nylander and Berube.
That display of petulance lacked professionalism and was not a first for Nylander. He gained unwanted attention for himself and the team earlier in the season while sitting out with an injury. While sitting in the players' box, he chose to flip the middle finger to a camera in a display he thought would be humorous during a losing streak.
For a player who is ten years into his career, these immature moments should not be happening. It presents a major challenge to the Maple Leafs new coaching hire. The new bench boss will also need to convince Matthews that he has a plan to return the three-time Rocket Richard winner to his previous sixty-goal form.
The Leafs have spent the entire Matthews-Nylander era cycling through radically different coaching philosophies behind the bench. They have tried everything from the heavy-handed, taskmaster approach of Mike Babcock to the highly player-friendly style of Sheldon Keefe, and most recently back to the strict accountability of Berube.
If Chayka and Sundin plan to rebuild with the suddenly aging, set-in-their-ways stars, they cannot afford another tactical mismatch. The new regime's success hinges on finding a unique communicator, a bench boss who can firmly command respect while expertly navigating the delicate sensitivities of the modern-day NHL player.
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