Why coaching the Maple Leafs keeps going wrong

While the Toronto Maple Leafs are still searching for their next bench boss, it's not hard to deny that the short-lived tenure of Craig Berube had it's moments, but was rough this season.

Including the disappointment that was the 2025-26 season, the Leafs virtually haven't succeeded with any coach, especially during the playoffs when it mattered.

With the team now looking for their fourth coach this decade, here's a look at what went wrong with Berube, Sheldon Keefe and Mike Babcock during their tenures in Toronto.

How the short-lived Berube era played out

The Leafs brought in the 2019 Stanley Cup-winning coach with the St. Louis Blues to take charge before the 2024-25 season. His first year behind the bench in Toronto helped them win the Atlantic Division with a 52-win, 108-point season.

While everything looked to be all better with a promising future, their playoff demons quickly caught up to them in round two against the Florida Panthers, losing that series in seven games.

This past season, coming off that great first year for Berube in town, some could say the optimism was there once again -- given how the team did in his first year behind the bench, of course.

Well, that was quickly diminished. The Leafs started this year decently, staying within the top five in the Atlantic for the first month of the season. However, once November hit, they found themselves as basically bottom feeders in the division.

The losses kept piling up, the scoring was basically gone out the window, and they eventually found themselves out of the playoffs for the first time in a decade. What was once some new hope for the future resulted in a place the organization hasn't seen in a while -- the first overall pick. Although they can now get a top prospect, the era of Berube was a miss.

How the Sheldon Keefe era played out

The Leafs promoted Keefe, who was the successor to Mike Babcock in the 2019-20 season. He had been in the organization for years, serving as the head coach for the AHL affiliate Toronto Marlies.

The team closed out that season with a playoff qualifier loss to the Columbus Blue Jackets, due to the COVID-19 pandemic at the time. While that could be known as a write-off, the Leafs would end up making the playoffs every year for the rest of Keefe's time in Toronto, though only moving on to the second round once in that span.

The Leafs looked to be good after that, as they recorded 115 points in 2021-22 and 111 points in 2022-23. In Keefe's era, the Leafs ranked fourth in goals scored from 2020-21 to 2023-24 with 1,074. Not to mention, Auston Matthews had two of the best seasons in his career so far, scoring 60 goals in 2021-22 and 69 goals in 2023-24.

However, their playoff struggles would once again live with the Leafs, as they still couldn't get over the hump, especially with Matthews having two seasons that were phenomenal.

How the Mike Babcock era played out

The hiring of Babcock was monumental, considering what was coming in Toronto. The first year for the 2007-08 Stanley Cup-winning coach with the Leafs was horrible; they placed near the bottom of the league.

However, a new future was ahead as they selected Matthews first overall in 2016, now building a young core to hopefully bring success for the Leafs in the years to come.

With the young core including Matthews, Mitch Marner and William Nylander, all Babcock had to do was to just win and win it all. His era was successful, as they basically made the playoffs, but the postseason was the finisher for them.

The first year or two were mainly for the developmnt of the new, young Leafs. After that, everything was just routine as they couldn't find a way to win when it mattered with the young core.

In reality, the Leafs have been successful for the majority of the decade, though only in the regular season. The eras of coaches could be summarized as this: Babcock was there to help develop Matthews, Marner, Nylander and company, Keefe was there to win with a peak Leafs roster who looked to win it all, Berube was a defensive-minded coach to help toughen up the roster and allow less goals.

Bottom line, they all failed, and now the Leafs are left with an important offseason that could determine whether they are really serious about contending for a Cup or headed for an even deeper demise.

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