- After parting ways with Vancouver yesterday, veteran coach Mike Yeo might not be out of a job for long. Postmedia’s Bruce Garrioch reports that the Senators have interviewed Yeo for an assistant’s job on Travis Green’s bench while suggesting that he could be on the Maple Leafs’ radar as well having worked with Craig Berube before. Yeo spent the last couple of years in that role with Vancouver and also has head coaching experience with Minnesota, St. Louis, and Philadelphia.
Maple Leafs Rumors
No Numbers Exchanged Yet Between Maple Leafs And Domi
- While there is believed to be mutual interest in an extension for Maple Leafs forward Max Domi, Pierre LeBrun of TSN and The Athletic reports (subscription link) that no numbers have been exchanged yet which suggests that talks haven’t really begun yet. The 29-year-old managed just nine goals this season after putting up 20 in 2022-23 but he did record 37 assists, the second-highest total of his career. Having played for six teams in the last five years, it seems safe to suggest that Domi will be looking for a multi-year after playing on one-year, $3MM contracts the last two seasons.
Atlantic Notes: Maple Leafs, Senators, Kane
Chris Johnston reported on his show today that former NHLer Marc Savard could be headed to the Toronto Maple Leafs to join their coaching staff just a few days after mutually agreeing to part ways with the Calgary Flames. Savard returned to the NHL this past year as an assistant coach with Calgary but previously worked with Toronto’s new head coach Craig Berube in St. Louis during the 2019-20 season. After his run with the Blues, Savard spent two seasons as the head coach of the Windsor Spitfires of the Ontario Hockey League guiding the team to an 88-35-8-4 record during that time (.695 winning percentage).
The 46-year-old ran the Flames power play this past season, which was seventh worst in the NHL. However, when Savard ran the Blues power play under Berube, St. Louis had the third-best power play in the NHL at 24.3%.
In other Atlantic Division notes:
- Postmedia’s Bruce Garrioch is reporting that the Ottawa Senators are likely to pursue Boston Bruins netminder Linus Ullmark prior to the NHL entry draft next month. The Bruins have received some of the best goaltending in the league over the last two seasons and are in a predicament as they want to sign Jeremy Swayman to a long-term deal but will have Ullmark’s $5MM on their salary cap for one more season. The Senators were reportedly among the teams that tried to acquire Ullmark prior to the NHL trade deadline but were unable to complete a deal. Ottawa received some of the worst goaltending in the NHL last season despite inking free agent Joonas Korpisalo to a five-year $20MM deal last summer. The goaltender position has been a revolving door for the Senators since veteran Craig Anderson left town as a free agent back in 2020.
- Pierre LeBrun of The Athletic is reporting that it seems likelier than not that Detroit Red Wings forward Patrick Kane will go to free agency on July 1st, but he believes that Kane’s agent Pat Brisson will talk to the Red Wings in the next couple of weeks. Kane took a one-year deal for $2.75MM this past season and will be looking for more term on his next contract after posting solid numbers coming off hip resurfacing surgery. Kane dressed in 50 games for Detroit this season, tallying 20 goals and 27 assists while averaging a career-low in ice time at just 18:23 per game.
Canucks Name Manny Malhotra AHL Head Coach
The Vancouver Canucks have named Toronto Maple Leafs assistant coach Manny Malhotra as the next head coach of the AHL’s Abbotsford Canucks. Malhotra replaces Jeremy Colliton, who served in two seasons with Abbotsford, leading the team to two identical seasons – two 40-25-7 records and first-round exits. Abbotsford associate coach Gary Agnew will also be stepping away from the club after three seasons (Twitter link).
Malhotra’s experience in the NHL kicked off with his seventh-overall selection by the New York Rangers in the 1998 NHL Draft – a part of a top 15 that also featured Vincent Lecavalier, David Legwand, and Alex Tanguay. Malhotra would go on to play in 991 career games across 18 seasons and seven teams. He spent three-or-more seasons with four different teams, including the Vancouver Canucks, who he appeared in 159 games with between 2010 and 2013. Malhotra was never a strong scorer, with a measly career-high of 35 points posted in the 2008-09 campaign, but his intangibles are what made him distinct. He was a defensive specialist and boasted a dazzling 59.7 percent on faceoffs in the final eight years of his career – dating back to when the stat was first tracked.
Teams were eager to bring those traits behind the bench when Malhotra announced his retirement in the 2015-16 season. He didn’t wait long to kick off his coaching career as a result, joining Vancouver as an assistant coach in the 2017-18 season. He’d stay in Vancouver until 2020 when he moved east to join Toronto. Malhotra will now assume an Abbotsford lineup full of potential, largely thanks to the trio of top prospects Jonathan Lekkerimaki, Aatu Raty, and Danila Klimovich. Vancouver has made it clear that they want to offer the chance for prospects to crack the NHL lineup next season, though it will be Malhotra in charge of developing the ones who don’t make it.
Meanwhile, former Chicago Blackhawks head coach Colliton is back on the market after a pair of seasons in the minor leagues. Colliton became the youngest head coach since 1995 when he took over the Blackhawks in 2018, at the precise age of 33 years and 299 days. He was highly praised at the time, but quickly lost steam after totaling a 86-83-24 record over three seasons in Chicago. He hasn’t returned to an NHL role since, though that could be poised to change soon, with San Jose reportedly already engaging the AHL bench-leader. He becomes one of many coaches looking for new roles – joining a list of free agents now headlined by Todd McLellan, Dean Evason, and Jay Woodcroft.
Sheldon Keefe's Extension In Toronto Voided As Part Of Devils Hiring
- With Sheldon Keefe signing a four-year deal to become the next head coach of the Devils, his previous two-year extension with the Maple Leafs is no longer intact, Pierre LeBrun of TSN reports. As part of Toronto granting permission for him to speak with New Jersey, the Devils canceled his extension and are paying him more money annually on his new deal than he would’ve made on his extension with the Leafs. Thus, Toronto no longer owes Keefe the balance of his extension.
Afternoon Notes: Stars, Ovchinikov, ECHL
Dallas Stars head coach Pete DeBoer has designated both Roope Hintz and Jani Hakanpaa as day-to-day with injuries ahead of the Western Conference Finals, per Lia Assimakopoulous of the Dallas Morning News (Twitter link). Hintz suffered an upper-body injury during Game 4 of the Second Round, since missing Dallas’ last two games, while Hakanpaa has missed the team’s last 26 games with a lower-body injury.
Dallas managed to pull past the Colorado Avalanche in Hintz’s absence, though there’s no doubt that he’s sorely missed. Hintz has managed six points in 11 postseason appearances while commanding a strong line of Jason Robertson and Wyatt Johnston. Hintz hit the 30-goal mark for the third consecutive season this year, posting 30 goals and 65 points through 80 games. He’s emerged as a core pillar of the Stars lineup over the last three seasons, and could be a pivotal piece of Dallas’ push to the Stanley Cup Finals.
Hintz’s injury has made space for Radek Faksa, while Hakanpaa has opened a spot for Nils Lundkvist and Alexander Petrovic to compete for a role. Hintz will slot immediately into the lineup when he’s ready to return, while Hakanpaa’s status could be more up in the air after such a long absence.
Other notes from around the NHL:
- Minnesota Wild prospect Dmitry Ovchinikov has signed a one-year deal with the KHL’s Sibir Novosibirsk, per Kyle Cush,am of The Score (Twitter link). Ovchinikov has spent parts of the last three seasons with the AHL’s Toronto Marlies, though each season has been limited – totaling 12 points across 32 career games in the AHL. He’ll now return to the KHL, where he played he’s already appeared in 103 career games and scored 17 points. Ovchinikov was part of a Trade Deadline swap that sent Connor Dewar to the Toronto Maple Leafs, but stayed loaned to the Marlies for the remainder of the season.
- The ECHL has announced that Senior Vice President of Hockey Operations Joe Ernst will depart from the league at the end of the postseason. The news will end Ernst’s storied career in the ECHL, stretching across 33 of the league’s 36 years of existence. He originally served in 16 seasons as a referee before being promoted to Vice President of Hockey Operations in 2011 and to his current role in 2018. Ernst’s role in the league runs so deep that he is not only in the ECHL Hall of Fame – inducted in 2011 – but also serves on the ECHL Hall of Fame Committee. He is stepping away to take on a senior management role with Zawyer Sports and Entertainment, who own and operate four different ECHL clubs – the Jacksonville Icemen, Savannah Ghost Pirates, upcoming Tahoe Knight Monsters, and Allen Americans.
Liljegren Reportedly In Early Trade Chatter, Berube Likely To Bring Some Assistants From Blues
After being eliminated in the first round, there has been plenty of speculation about the Maple Leafs shaking up their core forwards. However, a move there almost certainly won’t be the only change this summer. To that end, David Pagnotta of The Fourth Period reports (Twitter link) that there is some early chatter that defenseman Timothy Liljegren is coming up in trade talks. The 25-year-old matched his career high in points this season with 23 despite missing 27 games while also setting new personal bests in blocks (116) and average ice time (19:20) which puts him in good shape as he reaches restricted free agency with arbitration eligibility this summer. If GM Brad Treliving doesn’t want to pay a raise that will likely push past the $2MM mark or if he’s looking to add more grit on the back end, Liljegren could be an intriguing trade target, one that should draw a lot of attention should Toronto opt to formally put him on the block.
- Still with Toronto, the Maple Leafs named Craig Berube as their new head coach yesterday, signing him to a four-year contract. Berube, of course, last worked in St. Louis and it appears that Berube won’t be the only one joining Toronto from the Blues. James Mirtle of The Athletic reports (Twitter link) that Berube will be bringing some of the staff from St. Louis with him. Steve Ott, Mike Weber, David Alexander, and Michael Babcock are the current assistants on Drew Bannister’s staff. As it is, Berube will be reunited with one of his former assistants as Mike Van Ryn was on his staff in St. Louis before being hired by Toronto last offseason.
Toronto Maple Leafs Officially Name Craig Berube Head Coach
The Toronto Maple Leafs have named Craig Berube the 41st head coach in franchise history (Twitter link). He will begin a four-year contract with the team next season, shares Pierre LeBrun of The Athletic (Twitter link). The team will hold a press conference on Tuesday to officially introduce Berube.
This news caps off a head coaching pursuit that quickly developed into a saga. The Leafs dismissed Sheldon Keefe on May 9th, following the fourth First Round exit of his five-year tenure with the team. Toronto has since engaged multiple candidates, including former Los Angeles Kings coach Todd McLellan and even acting Carolina Hurricanes coach Rod Brind’Amour. But in the end, there was no hiding that Keefe’s dismissal was closely tied to postseason success, and so the Leafs now replace him with one of the only coaching candidates to coach a Stanley Cup winner.
Berube formed the St. Louis Blues into a powerhouse when he took over their coaching role in the 2018-19 season. The Blues managed an impressive 38-19-6 record under his guidance, after starting the year at 7-9-3. That gave St. Louis plenty of momentum for the postseason, carried on the back of then-rookie goalie Jordan Binnington and the commandeering style of Berube. Those forces were strong enough to push St. Louis through 26 playoff games – just two shy of the longest a playoff run can go – ultimately culminating in a Game 7 win over the Boston Bruins to win the first Stanley Cup in Blues franchise history. Berube has served as St. Louis head coach in the four seasons since, leading the team to postseason appearances each season between 2020 and 2022 but missing the last two playoffs.
Berube will now move to a Toronto club with much more starpower than the Blues. It seems changes are still incoming for the Leafs – with Mitch Marner a rumored trade candidate and Tyler Bertuzzi rumored to return – but there’s no doubting that the trio of Auston Matthews, William Nylander, and John Tavares has Berube excited. Berube should also be a good match for Toronto’s gritty young forwards like Matthew Knies, Connor Dewar, and Fraser Minten. Berube accrued 3,149 penalty minutes in 1,054 career games during his own playing career and carried over that hard-nosed mindset into his coaching style. At the least, his appreciation for physical, endurance-based hockey should be a welcome change in perspective as Toronto gears up for another strong playoff push next season.
Maple Leafs Closing In On Craig Berube For Head Coach Vacancy
The Maple Leafs are now “far down the road” of naming Craig Berube their next head coach, Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman reports Friday.
Berube, who won the Stanley Cup with the Blues in 2018-19 after taking over as their interim coach midseason, was fired partway through his sixth season at the helm in mid-December. The Blues went 13-14-1 under Berube in the early stages of the season but rallied to finish 30-19-5 under Drew Bannister, whom they recently signed to a two-year deal to remain as head coach. However, they missed the playoffs for the second straight season.
In two stops behind NHL benches with the Blues and Flyers, the 55-year-old has a career regular-season record of 281-190-72 (.584) and a 27-31 (.466) record. Outside of St. Louis’ 2019 championship, he guided them to only one other series win, a 4-2 victory over the Wild in the first round in 2022.
Berube has been viewed as the favorite for Toronto’s vacancy seemingly within hours of when they fired Sheldon Keefe last week. The Leafs also reportedly interviewed former Kings bench boss Todd McLellan, and Friedman confirmed today that they also spoke to 2018 Jack Adams Award winner Gerard Gallant in the past few days.
He was also in rather advanced talks with the Senators a few weeks ago, but Ottawa ended up doling out a four-year deal for former Canucks coach and Devils interim bench boss Travis Green instead. Berube has also interviewed for the Devils’ and Jets’ openings, but they’ll now need to look elsewhere.
Friedman’s report implies that Toronto won’t be waiting around to see if the Hurricanes decide to part with Rod Brind’Amour, as suggested this morning. Brind’Amour, whose Carolina team was just eliminated in six games in the second round by the Rangers, is not signed for next season.
Berube’s main task will be helping the Leafs overcome their recent playoff scoring woes in hopes of a deep playoff run. The franchise has made the postseason in eight straight years, tied for the longest active streak in the NHL, but has only one series win, coming in 2023 over the Lightning. They averaged just 1.92 goals per game in this year’s first-round loss to the Bruins and were similarly held to 1.90 goals per game by the Panthers in the second round last season.
Maple Leafs Among Teams Monitoring Rod Brind’Amour’s Availability
After blowing a 3-1 third-period lead and being eliminated in Round 2 at the hands of the Rangers last night, there’s now an immediate focus on what the Hurricanes opt to do with pending free-agent coach Rod Brind’Amour. Among other teams, expect the Maple Leafs to delay their head coaching decision until gaining clarity into whether he’ll hit the market, reports Lance Hornby of the Toronto Sun.
The Hurricanes had offered Brind’Amour an extension earlier in the season, but a report from TSN’s Darren Dreger before the second round indicated the team rescinded it. His report seemed to spur some momentum between the two sides, as within 24 hours, Dreger issued a follow-up saying talks between Brind’Amour and Carolina ownership had advanced.
However, no deal has been made for either Brind’Amour or his assistants. Losing in such a dramatic fashion could very well influence the Canes to turn elsewhere.
Toronto, meanwhile, is on the hunt for a new head coach on the heels of a similarly familiar playoff disappointment. They fired five-year veteran Sheldon Keefe last week and have already interviewed former Blues coach Craig Berube and ex-Kings bench boss Todd McLellan for the vacancy, per Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman.
Berube is widely viewed as their preferred candidate, but they’re not the only team heavily considering him – the Jets interviewed him for their vacancy this week. If they wait too long to see if Carolina decides to part ways with Brind’Amour, Berube may not be available as a Plan B.
Outside of Toronto and Winnipeg, the Devils, Kings, Kraken and Sharks still need to fill coaching vacancies. New Jersey (link) and Seattle (link) appear to be in the final stages of their searches, while the Sharks’ cast net is a tad wider. But all three would likely have interest in Brind’Amour if he became available, especially the Devils and Kraken, who have playoff aspirations next season.
Brind’Amour has made the playoffs in all six years behind the Hurricanes bench and won the Jack Adams Award in 2021, overseeing perhaps the best possession team in the NHL over that time. However, the Hurricanes haven’t won a game past the second round in his tenure. They were swept by the Bruins (2019) and Panthers (2023) in their two Eastern Conference Finals appearances under their 2006 Stanley Cup-winning captain to date.
Overall, Brind’Amour has a 278-130-44 (.664) regular season record and a 38-35 (.521) playoff mark as Carolina’s head coach.