With the firing of Sheldon Keefe on Thursday, there will be no shortage of candidates to become the 32nd head coach of the Maple Leafs.
Speculation has Craig Berube as the front-runner, but Leafs general manager Brad Treliving wouldn’t be doing his due diligence if he didn’t conduct interviews with more than one or two possibilities.
In the statement announcing that Keefe was being relieved of his duties, the Leafs said the search for a new head coach will begin “immediately.”
In odds released by BetOnline on Thursday, Berube is the favourite to be hired by the Leafs (at 3/1 odds), followed by Gerard Gallant (4/1), Jay Woodcroft (5/1), Bruce Boudreau (6/1) and Leafs assistant coach Guy Boucher (7/1).
Considering that the Winnipeg Jets, Seattle Kraken, San Jose Sharks and New Jersey Devils also are in need of a head coach, Treliving can’t waste any time.
In his column today, our Steve Simmons makes a case for Joel Quenneville — who would require clearance from the NHL to return to coaching — to become the next Leafs coach.
Here’s glance at the list of other potential candidates to take over behind the bench in Toronto:
CRAIG BERUBE
Berube’s tenure as coach of the St. Louis Blues came to an end when he was fired in December.
The 58-year-old Berube hit his peak early in his time as Blues coach, guiding the team to a Stanley Cup in 2019 on an interim basis after he took over from the fired Mike Yeo earlier that season. In June of that year, the Blues took the interim title off Berube.
A native of Calahoo, Alta., Berube also was head coach of the Philadelphia Flyers from 2013-15. His winning percentage in 543 games coached in the NHL is .517 (281-190-72), not close to the .607 winning percentage Keefe had in 349 games as Leafs coach.
Of Berube’s 1,054 games as an NHL player, 40 were with the Leafs during the 1991-92 season.
TODD MCLELLAN
The 56-year-old McLellan hasn’t been out of work long, sitting idle since Feb. 2 when he was fired by the Los Angeles Kings.
McLellan first became an NHL head coach in 2008-09 when he started a seven-year run behind the bench of the San Jose Sharks. He coached the Edmonton Oilers starting in 2015 and was fired in November 2018 before moving on to Los Angeles to start the 2019-20 season.
McLellan hasn’t coached a team to the Cup final, twice going to the Western Conference final with the Sharks.
The native of Melville, Sask., is 24th in NHL history with 1,144 games coached, compiling a .523 winning percentage.
GERARD GALLANT
The 60-year-old native of Summerside, P.E.I., didn’t coach this past season after he and the New York Rangers mutually agreed to part ways in May 2023.
Gallant’s first stint as an NHL head coach was in 2003-04 with the Columbus Blue Jackets. He had some post-season success more recently with the Vegas Golden Knights (going to the Cup final in the expansion year of 2017-18) and Rangers, but has not won a Cup as an NHL head coach.
In 705 games running an NHL bench, Gallant has a .523 winning percentage.
JAY WOODCROFT
The Toronto native has been biding his time since November, when the Edmonton Oilers fired him after a 3-9-1 start.
Woodcroft was a long-time assistant with the Sharks and Oilers, and coached Bakersfield to a Calder Cup championship in the American Hockey League in 2021, before he took over in Edmonton in February 2022 when Dave Tippett was fired.
