BY NATE MOSER
The Toronto Maple Leafs announced that Craig Berube will be their next head coach. He replaces Sheldon Keefe, who was behind the bench for the club since he came in midseason after Mike Babcock was fired during the 2019-20 NHL season. Berube was last the head coach of the St. Louis Blues, where he coached them to the franchise’s first Stanley Cup in 2019. He was fired by the Blues in December 2023. He finished his time there having coached in 382 games and producing a record of 206-132-44. He was also head coach of the Philadelphia Flyers during the 2013-14 and 2014-15 campaigns.
This is the second offseason in a row where the Leafs made a major change in their hockey department. Leafs President Brendan Shanahan parted ways with former team general manager Kyle Dubas and hired Brad Treliving as his replacement following the 2022-23 season. The Leafs followed up a season where they finally were able to get into the second round of the postseason, with yet another first round exit. The clock should be ticking now on Shanahan’s job. He has been in his role with the organization since April 2014. It is surprising already that Shanahan has been in his role so long. Don’t get me wrong, he did a fantastic job creating the foundation of this era in Leafs history. He is a well-respected hockey man, and had the tools to set the organization up well. He brought in arguably the best general manager in the history of the sport in Lou Lamoriello. He brought in Babcock, who had made a significant name for himself while being with the Detroit Red Wings. They drafted and grew some talented players in William Nylander and Mitch Marner. They won the 2016 NHL Draft lottery and landed one of the best American players in the game in Auston Matthews (I still cannot believe he almost netted 70 goals this season. He has been phenomenal on the ice). They brought him a hometown name in John Tavares and gave him the captaincy. This should be working. Unfortunately, for the team and their fanbase, it hasn’t.
The reality of the situation is there have been four general managers now under Shanahan. It started with Dave Nonis. While Shanahan did not hire him originally to the team, he did choose to keep him as general manager his first year in as president. Then it was Lamoriello for a few years. Eventually, Dubas took on that role. Now, it has been Treliving. Looking at head coaches under Shanahan’s time, it started with Randy Carlyle (and interim head coach Peter Horachek), then Babcock, then Keefe, and now Berube. At some point, someone higher up has to take the blame. I am honestly surprised Shanahan was not let go after 2022-23 when Dubas left the team. Shanahan was able to hire another general manager in Treliving and the results are the same. Obviously, some changes are going to happen with the on-ice product (and many expect Marner to be the big piece on the move), but if the Leafs cannot make some more significant progress in the 2025 postseason, I would think it would be time to move on from Shanahan. It has already been a decade with him in his role with the team. Shanahan is a great hockey mind, but it is a results business and the expectations have been raised since talents like Matthews, Marner, and Nylander came into the fold. This is already a hockey market with high expectations, and falling short in the playoffs every season is no longer acceptable. Treliving and Berube are the men responsible to help Shanahan keep his job. If they cannot get the results in a timely fashion, it may be time to tear down the whole management running this operation and start fresh. The clock is ticking.
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