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Snapshots: Boucher, McDavid, Kraft Hockeyville

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Former Toronto Maple Leafs assistant coach Guy Boucher was hoping to be much more of a contender in the team’s head coaching search, shares Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman on the 32 Thoughts Podcast. Toronto parted ways with Boucher on Saturday, ending his tenure in Toronto after just one year with the team. Boucher mainly presided over Toronto’s power play, which posted a 23.95 percent success rate this season, down two percent from last year though still a top-10 unit in the league. They lost that special-teams spark in the playoffs, though, scoring on just one of the 21 power plays they received in their first-round loss to the Boston Bruins.

The Leafs were rumored to be interested in a long list of candidates for their head coaching vacancy – including Todd McLellan, Gerard Gallant, and even Rod Brind’Amour prior to his extension in Carolina. Toronto’s assistants were never among the rumored candidates, with the team even overturning Manny Malhotra, who left for an AHL head coaching role and was replaced by Lane Lambert. Boucher may need to follow in Malhotra’s path to the minor league if he’d like another head coaching role, with seemingly no vacancies in the NHL following Ryan Warsofsky’s hire in San Jose. There are currently three head coach vacancies in the AHL – with the Coachella Valley Firebirds, Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins, and Hartford Wolf Pack, though the latter could opt to promote interim head coach Steve Smtih

Other notes from around the league:

  • Edmonton Oilers superstar Connor McDavid has broken Wayne Gretzky’s record for assists in a single postseason, now at 32 after recording three assists in Game 4. McDavid and Gretzky are the only two players to record 30 assists in a single postseason, with Gretzky managing the feat in both 1985 and 1988. McDavid is now up to 38 points in 22 playoff games this year, more than any other player in NHL history save for Gretzky and Mario Lemieux – though 38 points still ranks McDavid as just the fifth-highest scoring postseason, with Gretzky breaking 40 points three separate times, including a record-holding 47 points, and Lemieux once scoring 44. Those will be the records that McDavid is chasing as he looks to will Edmonton to a Game 7 Stanley Cup.
  • The Ottawa Senators will host the Pittsburgh Penguins in the 2024 Kraft Hockeyville Preseason Game, set to take place in Elliot Lake, Ontario. Elliot Lake will also receive $250K to support arena upgrades and $10K in hockey equipment from the NHLPA Goals and Dreams fund. The matchup will bring Canadian superstars Sidney Crosby and Kris Letang to Northern Ontario, and mark Pittsburgh’s first time playing guest to the Senators since a 2-1 overtime loss in March.

Maple Leafs Fire Assistant Coach Guy Boucher

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Guy Boucher’s time behind the bench in Toronto will be short-lived.  The team announced today (Twitter link) that the assistant coach will not return to the team next season.

Boucher had been out of coaching since 2019 before GM Brad Treliving hired him last July to serve as an assistant for the Maple Leafs.  More specifically, they were eyeing him to fill the void created when Spencer Carbery left the team to become the head coach in Washington.

With the firepower that Toronto has, there were high hopes that Boucher could help turn what was already one of the top power play units into an even better one.  Instead, the team suffered a bit in that regard during the season, dropping from second-best to seventh while their success rate dropped a little more than two percent to 23.95% overall.  Things were even worse in the playoffs when they scored just once in 21 opportunities against Boston, playing a big role in their first-round exit.

Boucher has parts of six years of head coaching experience at the NHL level, spending parts of three years each with Tampa Bay and Ottawa.  His teams played to a record of 191-186-46 overall.

It has been a busy few weeks for Treliving and the Maple Leafs when it comes to their coaching staff.  Craig Berube took over as head coach following the dismissal of Sheldon Keefe at the end of the first round.  Meanwhile, Lane Lambert was hired as an associate coach earlier this month, taking the place of Dean Chynoweth who was let go.  Manny Malhotra was also an assistant last year but has since been hired as AHL Abbotsford’s head coach.  Now, they have a second vacancy to fill with Boucher leaving the team.  As things stand, Mike van Ryn will be the only assistant from last season to remain on Berube’s staff.

Maple Leafs Haven't Fully Committed To Trying To Move Marner

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  • While Maple Leafs winger Mitch Marner has been a speculative trade candidate following their opening-round playoff exit, Chris Johnston of TSN and The Athletic reported on his latest SDPN podcast (video link) that the team has not fully committed to the idea of trying to move him just yet. The 27-year-old had another productive regular season that saw him record 85 points in 69 games but struggled in the playoffs, notching just a goal and two assists in their seven-game loss to Boston.  He’s entering the final year of his contract, one that carries a $10.903MM cap charge although it’s worth noting that with a full no-move clause, it’s Marner that will ultimately decide his next destination or even if there will be a next destination in the coming months.

Maple Leafs Part Ways With Laurence Gilman

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The Maple Leafs are parting ways with longtime front office member Laurence Gilman, Pierre LeBrun of TSN and The Athletic reports Thursday. He was on an expiring contract.

Gilman, 59, joined the Leafs in 2018 as an assistant general manager to replace Kyle Dubas, who was promoted to GM after Lou Lamoriello’s contract to serve in the role ran out. For his first three years in the organization, he also served as the GM of their AHL affiliate, the Toronto Marlies, just as Dubas had since 2014. He was replaced as GM of the Marlies for the 2021-22 season by Ryan Hardy but remained in his AGM role on the NHL staff.

After one year as AGM without any AHL responsibilities, Gilman was elevated to a senior vice president of hockey operations title. That’s where he’s served for the past two seasons, but no longer. He’ll hit the open market and potentially look to join his fourth NHL franchise this summer.

The longtime executive has been in NHL front offices on and off since 1998 when he got a chance with the Coyotes as their director of hockey operations. He also had AGM roles in the desert and managed their AHL affiliate for a brief time before moving on in 2007, taking a year off before finding his next home with the Canucks. Gilman stayed in Vancouver from 2008 to 2015 as their VP of hockey ops and assistant general manager, helping build the team that won the Presidents’ Trophy and reached the Stanley Cup Final in 2011.

With a history of taking years off between jobs, it may be another year or two before Gilman’s name resurfaces.

Maple Leafs Not Expected To Qualify Noah Gregor

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  • Touching on several different members of the Toronto Maple Leafs heading into the offseason, Joshua Kloke of The Athletic (Subscription Required) passes along that Noah Gregor’s time with the organization has likely ended. With the emergence of forward prospects and depth pieces down the stretch, Gregor’s role was severely diminished towards the end of the regular season, and the Maple Leafs will likely use his roster spot for other purposes. Throughout the regular season, Gregor managed six goals and 12 points for Toronto over 63 games but only managed one goal in his last 35 contests.

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Extension Talks Quiet Between Maple Leafs, Timothy Liljegren

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The Maple Leafs don’t have much in the way of pending restricted free agents to worry about aside from blue liner Timothy Liljegren. While he averaged a career-high 19:40 per game last season and produced at a respectable 34-point pace, he was one of many Leafs that struggled in postseason play and posted the worst even-strength possession metrics of his young career.

Injuries plugged up his regular season, too, limiting him to 55 appearances. He missed weeks with an ankle injury in the first half of the season and missed a significant chunk of the stretch run with an upper-body injury. It’s becoming an unfortunately common theme for the 2017 first-round pick, who’s yet to hit 70 games in a season.

That makes his future in the organization and, even if he stays, his contract discussions this summer quite complicated. To that end, The Athletic’s Joshua Kloke reports Wednesday that “there hasn’t been much dialogue between the Leafs and Liljegren’s camp” regarding a new deal for the RFA.

Whether that means Maple Leafs general manager Brad Treliving is examining trading his signing rights elsewhere remains to be seen. At the very least, it’s clear that Toronto prefers to reserve its early-offseason cap flexibility for more aggressively upgrading their defense, goaltending and depth scoring during free agency, as well as the increasingly small likelihood of trading superstar winger Mitch Marner elsewhere. Put simply, Liljegren doesn’t seem to be a priority for the Leafs’ front office, likely a telling sign of the role they envision him playing next season and beyond.

No matter what they do with Liljegren, they’re in a bit of a tough spot. His gaffes are clear, and he often seems visibly indecisive or uncomfortable playing the puck in his own zone under pressure – a concern that’s plagued a handful of Toronto defensemen throughout the Auston Matthews era.

But his ability to produce offense took major strides this season in an increased role, and the Leafs have consistently had the better share of possession quality at even strength with Liljegren on the ice. He’s logged a career 54.6 xGF%, including a 55.1% mark this season, although his ability to control shot attempts outright dipped this season down below 50% for the first time since his brief initial NHL showing five years ago.

His deal shouldn’t cost too much or require a lengthy term offering, and his being arbitration-eligible this summer after missing significant time with injuries likely isn’t a major concern either. But it would likely require a $2MM-$3MM cap hit to get across the finish line, a decent chunk of change for a team that will take every inch of available cap space they have this summer to make a deep playoff run.

Offseason Checklist: Toronto Maple Leafs

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The offseason has arrived for all but the two teams who are still taking part in the playoffs.  For the rest, it’s time to examine what they will need to accomplish over the coming months.  Next up is a look at Toronto.

An offseason of low-risk, short-term signings for new general manager Brad Treliving paid some dividends for Toronto. Unfortunately, a lack of impact adds at the trade deadline and injuries to star forwards Auston Matthews and William Nylander contributed to yet another first-round playoff loss to the Bruins. Now, a sharp increase in the salary cap is coming at the best possible time for the Leafs, who have a significant amount of roster and spending flexibility available for the first time in a while. It’s up to Treliving to not waste it.

Defense, Defense, Defense

Did we say defense? The Leafs only have three everyday defenders signed next season. Two of them, Simon Benoit and Jake McCabe, had competent showings in shutdown roles last season (especially the latter) but struggled to move the puck up the ice. The other, longtime fixture Morgan Rielly, remains a high-end offensive blue liner but has documented defensive weaknesses that make it increasingly difficult to justify playing him nearly 24 minutes per game.

Nearly all of their pending UFAs on defense, namely T.J. Brodie, aren’t expected to back. Their lone restricted free agent, Timothy Liljegren, is far from a sure bet either, and his signing rights could be used as trade bait this summer.

That leaves plenty of money and roster space for turnover, especially on the right side. All of Benoit, McCabe and Rielly are lefties, although McCabe is comfortable playing his off-side. In any event, Treliving is looking for at least two marquee right-shot blue liners on the open market that can comfortably shoulder top-four minutes.

Two options the Leafs have already been connected to as July 1 draws closer are Brett Pesce and Sean Walker. Both have historically been positive possession forces. While Pesce is coming off a down year offensively, the longtime Hurricane has a solid history of tossing up 20-plus assists per season. Walker was an absolute monster at getting the puck on net this year, though, managing 150 shots on goal (32nd among NHL defenders) despite averaging fewer than 20 minutes per game. Both are logical fits and upgrades over the rotating cast of Brodie, Joel Edmundson, Mark Giordano and Ilya Lyubushkin that was utilized down the stretch and in the postseason.

The Marner Conundrum

Despite producing over a point per game in six straight seasons, Marner immediately found himself in trade speculation after being limited to just one goal and two assists in seven playoff games. Like Matthews and Nylander, Marner likely wasn’t playing at 100 percent after sustaining a high ankle sprain in a regular-season game against the Bruins weeks earlier. But he’s entering the final season of his contract, is headed toward unrestricted free agency, and there’s little appetite to work on an extension on July 1 with another playoff disappointment fresh on everyone’s minds.

Reporting indicates the Leafs haven’t directly approached Marner about waiving his no-move clause, and the 27-year-old has made it clear he wants to stay in his hometown. They likely won’t do so until receiving a serious trade offer, and the likelihood of one of those coming through correlates directly with how aggressively Treliving shops him this summer, if at all.

The question for a Maple Leafs team in win-now mode is simple. Is the potential value of reallocating Marner’s $10.9MM cap hit next season greater than what he’ll give you on the ice? What he is is a consistent 100-point threat (if healthy) who averages over 21 minutes per game and finds himself consistently earning outside Selke Trophy consideration. Playoff disappointment aside, he’s a superstar.

It’s a tough question to answer, but one Treliving and his staff need to in short order.

Complement Woll

Perhaps the greatest certainty about the Leafs’ summer is that Ilya Samsonov will find a new home in unrestricted free agency. That leaves the up-and-coming Joseph Woll as the sole keeper of the crease for now, but they’ll need to find a solid complementary piece to give them better overall goaltending than last season’s roller-coaster ride.

Shelling out for a high-priced starter will be a controversial decision. Woll is still only 25, had a solid regular season and was excellent in brief playoff action this year before getting injured (.964 SV%, 0.86 GAA). He should likely be trusted for around 40 starts – which means the assets needed to acquire a Jacob Markström or Juuse Saros could wisely be repurposed elsewhere.

Unfortunately, the list of established true tandem options is incredibly small. They’ve been connected to Laurent Brossoit, who’s headed to UFA status next month. He’s had great numbers over the past two seasons, logging a .927 SV% through stops in Vegas and Winnipeg, but has never started more than 22 games in a season. He’s an upgrade on Samsonov over smaller stints, but questions will remain about how well he can handle an extended workload.

Find Cost-Effective Forward Depth

The Leafs had no problem putting the puck in the net last year, at least in the regular season. Their 303 goals were second in the league, influenced by a combined 109 snipes from Matthews and Nylander. But as it stands, no player projected in their bottom six next season had more than 0.5 points per game last year, a difficult stat to acquiesce for a team with championship aspirations.

One thing that would be a major boost is pushing shutdown pivot David Kämpf squarely into a fourth-line role. It’s not the most attractive option for a player with a $2.4MM cap hit, but averaging north of 13 minutes per game isn’t feasible for a player who provides as little offense as he does. He’s certainly a capable fourth-line defensive center on a Cup winner, but right now, they’re asking too much. Thus, at least one middle-six option is needed to help create a domino effect and spread out some scoring depth, plus a few more if they do indeed move on from Marner.

A spot can hopefully be filled by either Easton Cowan or Fraser Minten, their two top forward prospects, the former of whom is coming off an electric OHL postseason performance that earned him playoff MVP honors. After 96 points in 54 regular-season games and 34 points in 18 playoff games, Cowan is a solid bet for at least a nine-game trial out of the gate, but they need insurance options in the semi-likely event neither is ready to be an everyday top-nine force.

Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports.

Maple Leafs Linked To Laurent Brossoit

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The Maple Leafs and netminder Laurent Brossoit will have mutual interest in a deal should he reach unrestricted free agency on July 1, The Athletic’s James Mirtle reports.

Brossoit, 31, is likely headed to market in search of a bigger role after making 22 starts last season behind Connor Hellebuyck with the Jets. He’s coming off a great season in his limited relief action, putting up a .927 SV%, 2.00 GAA and three shutouts, but without any history in a tandem role, he won’t command too much cash.

Those 22 starts were remarkably a career-high for the veteran netminder, who just completed his 10th NHL season. His career numbers (.911 SV%, 2.64 GAA) rival the other top options slated for the open market, like Anthony Stolarz and Cam Talbot, and he’s arguably been the best pure backup in the league over the past 18 months.

A member of the Cup-winning Golden Knights last season, Brossoit started the year on the injured list and was sent down to the minors upon his return to health in November. But he worked his way back to the Vegas roster later in the year, posting a .927 SV% in 10 starts and one relief appearance. That earned him the start in Game 1 of their postseason run against the Jets, and while an injury eventually forced him out of the crease and opened the door for Adin Hill, he’d re-established himself as a major-league talent.

As Mirtle posits, a short-term deal in the neighborhood of $3MM annually is a realistic bet for Brossoit. It’s similar to what Stolarz, who’s coming off a .925 SV% in 27 appearances behind Sergei Bobrovsky in Florida, should garner as well.

He would be Toronto’s replacement for Ilya Samsonov, who will hit free agency next month and isn’t expected back. He’d been serviceable but inconsistent in tandem action for them over the past two seasons, although he did backstop them to their first playoff series win of the Auston Matthews era against the Lightning in the first round in 2023.

In Toronto, Brossoit would nearly guarantee himself a new career-high in starts, assuming he avoids injuries. He’d serve in a tandem role with the younger Joseph Woll, who is slated to eventually take over as the Leafs’ long-term starter. Injuries limited him to 25 games last year, posting a respectable .907 SV%, but he’s also been excellent in brief playoff action over the last two seasons.

Domi: Agent Has Been Talking Contract With Brad Treliving

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Maple Leafs forward Max Domi told Lance Hornby of the Toronto Sun that he knows his agent Judd Moldaver has been in discussions with GM Brad Treliving but declined to comment on the status of negotiations.  Domi signed a one-year, $3MM deal with Toronto last summer but saw his goal total drop from 20 a year ago to just nine this season.  However, his 38 assists were his best since the 2018-19 campaign.  That could still put him in line for a raise this summer on a multi-year agreement.  Toronto has a little less than $19MM in cap room per CapFriendly but they have multiple key pieces to try to sign into that space which could make fitting in a raise for Domi a little harder.

East Notes: Marner, Red Wings, Guentzel

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Jonas Siegel of The Athletic speculates what a potential Mitch Marner trade might look like for the Toronto Maple Leafs. Siegel points to several recent trades for Pierre-Luc Dubois and Dougie Hamilton as templates the Maple Leafs could use to get a return package for the 27-year-old Marner. Both of those trades brought young NHL-ready talent back to their respective teams, which is something that Toronto would likely covet given their competitive window.

Siegel points to the Carolina Hurricanes and Tampa Bay Lightning as teams that the Maple Leafs could potentially do business with. Carolina could dangle Seth Jarvis, Andrei Svechnikov, and Martin Necas as potential centerpieces of a return for Marner, while Tampa Bay could use Mikhail Sergachev or Brandon Hagel.

Siegel does concede that any potential Marner trade could be nixed by his no-movement clause and might be a difficult trade for Toronto to win. However, with Marner’s pending free agency status, it may be something they need to explore.

In other Eastern Conference notes:

  • Max Bultman of The Athletic wonders if the Detroit Red Wings might be players in the goaltending market this summer, specifically the trade market where several high-end starters are available. Bultman writes that the Red Wings’ general manager isn’t revealing much but adds that Ville Husso’s health could nudge the Red Wings into the trade market and would be the quickest way to improve the team’s overall defense which was something that was an Achilles heel last season. Detroit missed the playoffs by the smallest of margins and adding a top-tier netminder might be the thing that gets them back into the playoffs for the first time since 2016. The team has backup Alex Lyon signed next year to a very reasonable $900K, but likely can’t count on him to duplicate his 44-game workload from this past season.
  • Elliotte Friedman reported today on his 32 Thoughts podcast that the rights to Hurricanes forward Jake Guentzel are available for a mid-round pick. Friedman tells his audience that Carolina has made it known to other teams that the 29-year-old’s signing rights are available and adds that there will be a ton of interest. It was reported earlier this week that Guentzel was likely to test free agency and it makes sense for the Hurricanes to pivot and try to recoup an asset after dealing Michael Bunting, three prospects, and a second-round pick to Pittsburgh at the trade deadline to acquire Guentzel.

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