NHL Rumor Mill – May 10, 2024
A look at potential coaching candidates for the Leafs, possible coaching destinations for Sheldon Keefe and the latest on the Capitals in today’s NHL Rumor Mill.
COACHING CANDIDATES FOR THE LEAFS
TORONTO SUN: Terry Koshan looked at potential coaching candidates for the Maple Leafs after they fired bench boss Sheldon Keefe on Thursday.
Former St. Louis Blues head coach Craig Berube topped Koshan’s list, followed by former Los Angeles Kings coach Todd McLellan, former New York Rangers coach Gerard Gallant, and former Edmonton Oilers coach Jay Woodcroft.
Carolina Hurricanes head coach Rod Brind’Amour and Pittsburgh Penguins bench boss Mike Sullivan also made the list, along with former NHL coach Bruce Boudreau and Leafs assistant coach Guy Boucher.
TORONTO STAR: Brind’Amour is Kevin McGran’s top choice, followed by Berube, Gallant, former Minnesota Wild coach Dean Evason, former Seattle Kraken coach Dave Hakstol, and McLellan.
Former St. Louis Blues head coach Craig Berube (NHL.com).
SPECTOR’S NOTE: Berube is the betting favorite for the role. He was reportedly “intrigued” in the Ottawa Senators job but was weighing his options, prompting the Senators to hire Travis Green instead.
Berube, McLellan, Woodcroft, Evason and Hakstol were fired during or following this season in an unusually high turnover for coaches in recent months.
Brind’Amour’s name is out there due to recent rumors of difficulties in his contract extension talks with the Hurricanes. Both sides downplayed the speculation, claiming there’s close to a new deal. However, it’ll be interesting to see what happens if the Hurricanes end up swept from the second round by the Rangers.
There’s speculation suggesting Sullivan will quit the Penguins to join the New Jersey Devils because their general manager, Tom Fitzgerald, is an old friend. Pens GM Kyle Dubas recently issued a statement claiming the Devils haven’t sought permission to speak with Sullivan.
Berube is the front-runner to become the Maple Leafs’ new coach, but that could change if Brind’Amour becomes available.
POSSIBLE DESTINATIONS FOR SHELDON KEEFE
THE ATHLETIC: Julian McKenzie looked at some landing spots for Sheldon Keefe following his dismissal as head coach of the Maple Leafs.
The New Jersey Devils are McKenzie’s top destination for Keefe, followed by the Penguins, Los Angeles Kings, Winnipeg Jets, the Kraken and the San Jose Sharks.
SPECTOR’S NOTE: Keefe is under contract with the Leafs for two more years. Any club interested in hiring him must seek permission to do so. That will be our tip-off as to which teams are interested in Keefe.
The Devils are reportedly interested in interviewing Keefe for their vacant head coaching position. They’re also believed to have spoken to Berube.
Keefe is linked to the Penguins because Dubas hired him during his tenure as Leafs GM. It’s part of the “Sullivan-to-New Jersey” theory making the rounds. The Devils’ interest in Keefe would drive a stake through that rumor.
LATEST ON THE CAPITALS
THE HOCKEY NEWS: Sammi Silber reports Washington Capitals GM Brian MacLellan isn’t commenting much on the future of Darcy Kuemper. The 34-year-old netminder struggled this season, losing his starter’s job to Charlie Lindgren.
MacLellan still believes Kuemper is a good goaltender and acknowledged his difficulties this season. The Capitals GM rejected the idea of buying out the remaining three years of Kuemper’s contract.
Despite recent trade rumors about Kuemper, MacLellan anticipates he’ll bounce back next season.
SPECTOR’S NOTE: MacLellan will listen if a team calls about Kuemper. However, that seems unlikely given his performance this season and his $5.25 million cap hit
Silber also reported that MacLellan intends to investigate this summer’s trade and free-agent markets in search of more scoring punch for the Capitals. He’s hoping to find a young top-six forward to take some of the pressure off aging captain Alex Ovechkin.
SPECTOR’S NOTE: Silber mentioned Florida’s Sam Reinhart, Carolina’s Teuvo Teravainen and Vegas center (and former Capital) Chandler Stephenson could become available in this summer’s UFA market. Reinhart will likely be re-signed by the Panthers but Teravainen and Stephenson could be free-agent options.
What, exactly, makes Berube such a hot commodity?
In 2013 he’s hired as coach of Philadelphia and in April 2015 fired by Hextall following mediocre results.
Hired by St. Louis in Nov 2017 – and after a slow start that had them dead last the following January, the team rallied and won the Cup. OK, that’s a feather in his cap and in Feb 2022 it all earned him a 3-year deal. By Dec 2023, though, his coaching has obviously deteriorated to the point where he’s sacked. Again.
Is it the one Cup that now has him as the leading candidate for ever y head coach position that crops up?
Randy Carlyle also won an unexpected cup with Anaheim in 2007, and for a few years after he was eventually fired he, too, kept leading every list of “available coaches” but never tasted success again anywhere.
Good point(s) In fact, every coach mentioned here was sacked. Unless a college or AHL/Jr. coach makes the leap. For Fitz in NJ, he has to hit this choice for coach. If he falls short, no more kicks at the can
vincois, it kind of reminds me of the hoopla that followed the signing of Babcock in Toronto – all those cup wins in Detroit (where he inherited a ready-made team consisting of, among others, perhaps one of THE greatest D to ever play the game) had hi pegged as THE sure thing to lead the Leafs to the Promised Land.
We all know that turned out then … and in stops later.
Babcock has only won 1 Stanley Cup though, not that that is nothing. He doesn’t have multiple cups, but he did coach a couple stacked Canada teams to Olympic gold medals. Coaches don’t get or win medals though.
Berube would be a good choice. So would Woodcroft or McLellan. Sullivan and Brind’amour are pipe dreams- they’re not going anywhere. I don’t see Hakstol or Evason as reasonable possibilities. Boucher hardly distinguished himself as an assistant with the Leafs. His track record is that his teams do great his first year then things go south. I’d stay away from him. I think Gallant and Boudreau are done as NHL head coaches.
It’s the cup thing. Hockey fans abuse this like no other .
“Sure he has 7 years left at 8 million. Averaging 12 points per season, but he is a Stanley cup champion for gods sake, he’ll definitely get a good return “
I agree George. What exactly makes Berube a desired coach? Is it because he won a cup about 5 yrs ago?
Just a bit of facts regarding Keefe for comparison. Since his tenure as head coach, Keefe’s teams won points in 72% of the games they played, they won around 61% of those games. That’s impressive for a coach.
He was hired after the team quit on Babs, we now see why, and inherited a stacked young team. Babs barely played the stars together nor gave them the ice time they deserved because Babs loved his vets/pros that “earned” their ice time – if you recall, Babs had to go visit Matthews in the offseason for this exact reason. Keefe did the exact opposite and ran the stars every chance he got. So one coach played the stars the other didn’t. The post season’s results were the same with both coaches.
In the Amazon series on the Leafs, Keefe saw and discussed how he didn’t like the way the team was scoring, ie not scoring “playoff like goals” but wasn’t able to fix that. That’s where Keefe’s voice wasn’t able to be heard or understood.
Lastly, the fashion in how the Leafs exited the postseasons were all the same. At some point there was an opportunity to eliminate their opponents only to fail and not show up. Whether it was when they battled back after being down in a game or series when it mattered most, the team wasn’t prepared to win. And that solely falls on Keefe.
I’m sure he’s learned a lot and would be a great asset on any team. Good luck.
Hi Ron, it’s a good point you/Keefe make with regards to how the Leafs were scoring. It’s true.
I forget who wrote the articles on SN regarding the Leafs and the average distance from the net the Leafs top offensive players were scoring from, and how it changed in the playoffs. That was before these playoffs started.
Basically Tavares and Nylander scored there goals closer to the net than Matthews and Marner. And other than Nylander, the distance from the net increased in the playoffs, which I would think is the opposite of reality on the successful playoff teams. Teams collapse and block more shots in playoffs, have to get to the blue for loose pucks, tips etc. Ugly goals.
I get Marner being far out on goals as he plays the point on the PP where a large share of goals are scored.
Where we differ is I don’t blame Keefe, I blame the players. What is he supposed to do tie a string on their fingers so they remember? Yell and scream? Bench them in the playoffs? The players are pros, they do it or they don’t.
Offensive guys and teams often take a while to really understand and learn what it takes. Leaf players still can. Not sure it will have anything to do with the new coach, or have more to do with the lessons learned from failure. Or don’t learn. Its not like they weren’t there either, these are not kids.
Look, guys, I get all that analysis stuff … in fact, I’d bet the game of hockey at the pro level is now THE most over-analyzed of all the major sports.
But, at the risk of being viewed as “too simple and irrelevant in the larger scheme of things” I’ll repeat for perhaps the fifth time since the Leafs were eliminated – when your team goes to OT in the 7th game of a series without having had your second best points producer for the opening 2 games, your best sniper for essentially the last 3 games (there is no way Matthews was anywhere near even 70% for game 7), and your third best F playing through the effects of having had a high ankle sprain shortly before the playoffs began, I’d say Keefe got the best out of what was left.
Yes, I’m aware of the old adage that “injuries are part of the game” – but where do you think the Bruins would be today if, instead, it was they that had Marchand, Pastrnak and Coyle in that situation and the Leafs had all hands on deck?
How in Hell was what transpired on the injury front the fault of Keefe? And “simplistic” or not it IS a very real fact – analytics be damned.
Maybe in Canada George. But nothing beats the nfl for over analyzed in the states.
Ray even if Keefe were to scream at them, which I wouldn’t doubt he has, I think after 5 or 6 yrs he might not have more ways to get through them. Maybe it’s the coach inability or the players not getting it but in either case, enough rope was given to both parties – coach/players to have success. Its just unfortunate because Keefe isn’t that bad coach that had his own shortcomings like I said before… he just was unable to convey his messaging to these players.
George your not wrong and of course take out that kind of quality of players any team would struggle. My point is when you look at what this team has done year after year, they seem to fall behind, either in a game or series tie it up, then not have that last something to end it. Their record for close out games, games they were a win away from winning the series, they lost but not just lose but as in the case with 4 different teams, they didn’t show up for part of the game, then they did and eventually lost in OT.
Take this last series. Down 3 games to one, they storm back and tie the series. Played well even in game seven for once. They get the go-ahead goal only to spot the bruins the equalizer minutes after. Then OT. Was Marner, Rielly and Sammy sleeping? That was a typical corner dump that Marner watched, Reilly didn’t recover the puck and Samsonov watch go right by him and then over played the shot. Series ends, again in a way Leafs fans have seen like a half dozen times.
Their special teams, although one of the better ones in the regular season, goes buh-bye come playoffs. Regularly a top goal scoring team that on average scores 3+ goals per game have yet to score 3 in any one playoff game that I can remember.
You have to question, Is it this core of players or coach?
The Leafs should, but won’t, hire Gabby. He’d be perfect imo.
Great coach.
Great person.
Marner (retain $3M) for Kuemper (retain $1.5M) and Portias.
Releaf….
Any Mitch Marnier Trade the Leafs make they need a Top 4 d/man coming back to help Fix the d…….
Or
A Starting Goaltender like Ullmark who is 30 yrs old and a Winger Morgan Geekie❓
thats id the dont bring back Starter Samsanov?
Boston jumps all over that one!
Re, Coaching merygoround
95% Coaches only have a shelf off 2-4 years
Berube, McLellan, Woodcroft, Evason and Hakstol
Names are 5 names all out there,
However 2 more names could be off the list bye Monday including Sullivan & Brind’Amour🤔
Brind’Amour, is almost signed after they are out the playoffs im sure he gets resigned as per the GM & Owner….?
Sullivan starts a new 2 year extention next season?
Dubby said nobody has asked to speak with the Pen’s coach…🤔
However the Pen’s will go into a re-build next season when the miss the Playoff Cut Again
-They are Old,
-Pen’s are Cash Straped $12M in Cap space
-No help coming from the farm
-No 1st, 3rd, & 5th picks in this up and coming Draft
time for the pen’s coach to move on….🤔
Top candids for the big jobs
➡️ Leafs Job, Berube
➡️ NJ Job could be Sullivan or Brind’Amour
Jay Woddcroft could be a dark hores in some of these up and coming 7 avalable coaching jobs
Berube is the front-runner to become the Maple Leafs’ new coach, but that could change if Brind’Amour becomes available. however i think that Ron Brind’Amour stays with the Canes….❓
So Pittsburghs going to fire a Cup winning coach and replace him with one that cant get out of the first round?
Seems very Scoobyish.
with Scoobyish.being the GM for the Pens….
it could very well happen,
I dont think Sully wants to go into a 6-8 year rebuild with the old pens❓
Most outlandish coaching change happened in Montreal, fired after winning the Stanley Cup and demoted to the AHL.
A good coach today is measure differently given the state of play.
With so many plug and play talented young players a coach needs to do more than teach , instill culture, more than be an autocrat, more than stick to a system.
Acoach needs to not only get the player to adapt, he needs to adapt. To my memory Gallant is that type of guy.
claude ruel in the early 70s? late 60s maybe?
Coaches always get the blame & rarely the credit. If “stud’ players don’t perform, coach didn’t have them prepared? If you play any sport, & need a Herb Brooks type speech before a game for motivation, I don’t want you on m6y team.
vincois, I agree with that post 100%.
What I don’t know with the Leafs, was it a prep issue? A motivation issue?
Might have simply been ran into a hot goalie and had injuries to really important players.
This time around anyway.
Your point on running into a hot goalie has more to do with what an opposing team gives up in terms of space to get good scoring opportunities. To me, a hot goalie is one that makes high danger scoring chances look routine. Most good goalies stop about 7 or 8 out of ten. If a team can limit those chances to be under that there’s a good chance that goalie looks like he’s stealing a game for them. Being “goalied” has everything to do with the team’s defensive awareness and dedication to prevent as many high danger shots than an actual goalie’s ability to steal a game. Also to your point, there’s not replacing a good goalie. I can’t help but wonder if Woll was the starter in game one, would it been a deferent result?
Surely of all the sports cliches, the truest is that it is easiest to fire a coach when teams fail.
And as has been discussed ad nauseam what other moves do the Leafs have with cap constraints and a mess of NTCs?
LJ it’s not like the Leafs struggle to make the playoffs or are devoid of elite talent. I think they’ll be fine for a while. But in the meantime….🤷🏻♂️
I honestly think this goalie graveyard and resurrection line up is yet another result of the flat cap for so many years.
GMs were all at wit’s end about what to do because all the contracts were coming back to bite them and there was nothing they could do.
I think every team decided replacing the coach was the only way to be perceived to be taking some action…
Good – valid – point!
also not sure why I typed goalie when I meant coach… however it applies to goalies too lol
Heh – I figured that when I read it … I’ve done much the same when putting together posts
Coach Berube lives in NewJersey during the offseason and his current Mrs Berube is a die hard Devils fan since a kid.
How much cash does it take for Berube to go to Toronto or stay home with a very talented Devils squad???
Hey Jeff,
I thought Berube lived just outside Edmonton Alberta 🍁….❓
So NJ could well be the Favorite landing Spot for him if thats where he lives and thats where the wife is from over Toronto…………🤔
So we should here something this weekend….?
Yep willie, the Berube clan is from the hamlet of Callahoo AB. Plenty of them out there.
If NJ want Berube, it would seem on the surface it would be a better fit for him family wise. Plus seem to have a longer runway to be a contender. Lots of younger talent on that team. TO can pay the big $ though, and they kinda need to with the spotlight and all.
Just as a fit, WPG (forgot about them Caper) does seem like a good place for Berube. Seems like a guy who does well with more vets. Wonder if Woodcroft would be a fit there? Other than a crappy start to this season, he did well in Edmonton.
According to Dreger,
1. New Jersey has been given permission to speak with Sheldon Keefe.
2. The next Leaf coach will likely be either Berube or Todd McClellan.
Sounds like the Toronto could announce the new coach within a week or so.
One of Treliving’s best lines – “We seem to be turning the other team’s goalie into the first star every night.”
Think NJ should grab Keefe fast and sign Granto the former buffalo coach as associate coach
Nj had a fantastic season with brunette on the bench
Their roster is built for that style coaching
Don’t wait for Sullivan
the Saint,
GM are giving out Huge contracts 8 yrs to players that are only going to be good for 4-5 years tops and brutal for the last 3-4 years… Just look at Huberdau in Calgary 10.5.M for 8 years he is 30 yrs old and has been mediocre in Calgary
The NHL should look to Re-duced lenth of Contracts to 6 year Max….❓
and
Re-duce the fee
( Picks ) for going after the RFA when they are avalable…❓
Lyle,
this could be an intresting topic to bring up after the cup final on a page…. it would make the RFA market more exciting & put lest stress on the UFA market contracts….🤔 just a thought…….
Wow all these outstanding coaches available and all linked to Toronto!
HEY!!!!!!!
Winnipeg needs a coach and absolutely no one is linked to Winnipeg.
Just like the rated ufa’s none linked to Winnipeg!
The Jets have a very good roster and any coach should be excited to take over that roster and bring Winnipeg to the next level.
The Jets should go after Sheldon Keefe. I really think he can be the guy to get them to the next level. His lack of playoff success isn’t a concern, the Leafs were built like the Paul Maurice Jets … too too heavy which doesn’t win in the playoffs. Four good lines, some enhancement to the defence and a very good goalie all with a coach like Keefe will get the job done.
If, over a decade, a different team wins the cup each year with no coaching repeats, there will be 22 teams coached by folks who haven’t won a cup within a decade. Is it enough to make any GM look to the college ranks, where molding players, building systems, and winning championships are skills a number of young coaches are acquiring. Yes, maybe a veteran asst. would be useful as there are some NHL specific things to learn, but constant recycling (and frequent complaints that coaches can’t reach young players) doesn’t seem to work well. Hey brilliant GM’s. 100MM plus, with a suitably priced “leader”, and a farm system, and you’ve worked hard to develop players that fit your organizational culture, and not coaches?
A number of organizations have simply promoted their AHL coaches, with results hard to differentiate (on average) from the high-priced veteran hires of supposedly cup-ready teams.
Is John Gruden not capable? Didn’t he win a Super Bowl?
Richard, I agree – and there is one salient point about college hockey that is NOT prevalent in either the pro ranks (NHL, AHL, ECHL) or Major Junior.
And that is the time college coaches have in order to teach and practice the lessons by virtue of not having 80+ game schedules (I’m not sure about the USHL – tried looking up their final standings but all I kept getting was the playoff structure).
There’s an awful big gap between lesser leagues than the NHL. If the magnitude of players have a hard time making the jump, who’s to say coaches won’t? For an example, Keefe had success and/or won championships at every level he coached. He only won one round in the NHL with a team that was 3x back to back +100pt seasons.
Next coach of TML should be walking into the following changes:
1- Tavares offered extension of 3 yrs at 1.5 million per. If refuses he needs to be stripped of captaincy.
2- Marner offered 8 yrs at 11 per. Refuses to sign? Stripped of his “A”
3- Rielly asked to waive NMC. If agrees trade him. If not strip him of his “A”.
4- Sign Lyabushkin, Edmundson,Dewar and Domi
5- Let Brodie and Bertuzzi walk out the door.
6- Trade Liljegren, Robertson, Holmberg, Reaves, Jarnkrok, Timmins.
7- Sign or trade for two mobile defensemen who can drive play and are not liabilities or creampuffs with muffin shots from the point or are afraid to hit or be hit.
8- Third line depth.