The Maple Leafs announced Wednesday that Lane Lambert has been added to incoming head coach Craig Berube’s staff as an associate. He’ll be replacing assistant Dean Chynoweth, who the team said won’t return next season.
TSN’s Darren Dreger reported earlier this week that Lambert would likely join Berube’s bench in Toronto. The 59-year-old spent parts of the last two seasons as the Islanders’ head coach before being fired in January. He’s long been a disciple of Barry Trotz, serving under him as an assistant or associate for the better part of the last 15 years during his coaching tenures with the Capitals, Isles and Preds, but that trend is officially broken with today’s move.
The Leafs didn’t specify Lambert’s responsibilities as an associate. He held the title under Trotz in New York for four seasons before being promoted to head coach after his departure in 2022. The nomenclature implies that he won’t be a direct replacement for Chynoweth in terms of job responsibilities. Chynoweth, 55, had been with the club for the past three seasons.
Berube still needs to finalize the rest of his staff. There’s already one opening created by former assistant Manny Malhotra, who departed the organization last month to take a minor-league head coaching job with the Canucks. The future of assistant coach Guy Boucher, who was in charge of their power play with a 4.8% success rate in their first-round loss to the Bruins, is also in question. Former Flames assistant Marc Savard, who parted ways with the club last month, is a strongly speculated candidate to join Berube’s staff after previously working with him during his days as head coach of the Blues.