- The Toronto Maple Leafs fired head coach Sheldon Keefe after a first-round exit to the Boston Bruins.
- Craig Berube is the betting favorite to be named the next head coach of the Toronto Maple Leafs.
- Berube won a Stanley Cup with the St. Louis Blues in 2019 but was fired after a slow start to the 2023-24 season.
Have the Toronto Maple Leafs found their guy? According to BetOnline, Craig Berube (+100) is the most likely next head coach in Toronto. As the favorite, he has an implied probability of 50% to lead the Maple Leafs for the 2024-25 season.
Todd McLellan’s (+200) is currently second in the odds. The former Los Angeles Kings head coach has +200 odds of being hired by the Maple Leafs, which equals a 33.3% chance of McLellan getting the job.
Following Berube and McLellan, there is a significant jump to the next likeliest candidate. Gerard Gallant (+700) and Bruce Boudreau (+1000) have the next best price to be the next Maple Leafs head coach. Fans who wanted Rod Brind’Amour will be disappointed.
He is a long shot at +1400 to go to the Maple Leafs. The Carolina Hurricanes likely ink Brind’Amour to a lucrative extension, leaving him off the market. Even embattled unemployed coach Joel Quenneville, who resigned from the Florida Panthers in 2021, has better odds at +1200.
Due to Quenneville’s role in failing to act in the Brad Aldrich sexual assault incident in 2011, he stepped down after a 7-0-0 start with the Panthers three years ago. The Maple Leafs reportedly inquired about his availability, though he is still ineligible to coach in the NHL.
Berube – A Stanley Cup-Winning Coach
Berube is responsible for leading the Blues to the Stanley Cup in the 2018-19 season. After a league-worst record of 15-18-4 on January 2, 2019, the Blues went on an unforgettable run to win the Stanley Cup.
In the next two full seasons, the Blues went 42-19-10 and 49-22-11. However, Berube didn’t have nearly as much success in the ensuing seasons. The Blues finished 37-38-7 in 2022-23 and then fired him after a 13-14-1 start this past year.
He is a hard-nosed coach and might be what the Maple Leafs need. Berube leans towards an old-school coaching style similar to what Quenneville employs. The Mike Babcock experiment didn’t go according to plan, but there is a difference between being hard-nosed and not being liked as a person.
In any event, it won’t be like Keefe, who didn’t have much of a mean streak in him. The former Toronto coach released a classy video thanking everyone for his time after getting fired. Keefe also acknowledged that he didn’t get it done in the playoffs. The Maple Leafs won one game in five attempts in the postseason during his tenure.
Keefe started his career in the Maple Leafs organization in 2015-16. He won the Calder Cup in 2017-18 with the AHL’s Toronto Marlies. Following Babcock’s dismissal, he was promoted to head coach in 2019-20. The Maple Leafs will have their sixth different head coach since 2008.
After Paul Maurice was fired in 2008, Ron Wilson, Randy Carlyle, Mike Babcock, and Keefe followed.
Tough Decisions For Management
This will not be an easy offseason for the Maple Leafs’ front office. Is the organization interested in running Brandon Shanahan’s “Shanaplan” for another year?
Should the franchise keep Auston Matthews, William Nylander, Mitch Marner, and Morgan Rielly in Toronto> Fans would like to see Marner gone after another below-average postseason, but his no-trade clause complicates the process.
The Maple Leafs can run it back with this core, tweak their roster, or blow most of their roster up and build around Matthews and Nylander.
Matthews will not be interested in going through a rebuild on a losing team, so it will have to be a fine balance. GM Brad Treliving has plenty of work on his table, and the first step is hiring a new coach. If BetOnline’s next Maple Leafs head coach odds are correct, expect it to be Berube.
