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Sheldon Keefe

Maple Leafs Will Not Make Management, Coaching Changes

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Any team that faces a first-round exit will draw questions about the future of its management and coaching staff, especially so when it is the same result year after year. The Toronto Maple Leafs haven’t moved past the first round since 2004, meaning those questions are getting louder and louder. Today, Maple Leafs president Brendan Shanahan made it very clear during his end-of-year availability that the jobs of both general manager Kyle Dubas and head coach Sheldon Keefe are not in jeopardy for next season.

Both will be back and have already started exit interviews with the Maple Leafs roster that failed to get past the Tampa Bay Lightning in round one. Shanahan specifically noted that they will “not be making changes just for the sake of making changes” and gave a full vote of confidence to Dubas and Keefe as important parts of the organization.

Since taking over behind the bench in 2019, Keefe has had one of the most successful starts to his NHL coaching career in history–at least in terms of regular season success. Through 185 games behind the bench, he has gone 116-50-19, a .678 winning percentage that is actually better than the likes of Scotty Bowman, Jon Cooper, and Joel Quenneville. Obviously, that kind of success doesn’t mean much if the playoff results don’t follow but it certainly would be difficult to move off the young coach so quickly.

For Dubas, the results are similar in the regular season, though there has also been criticism over the way some of his contract negotiations have gone–specifically with the young restricted free agents that were handed huge long-term contracts. As those players get closer to unrestricted free agency–Auston Matthews will be a free agent after the 2023-24 season–the pressure to win will be even more apparent on Dubas and his management staff.

Maple Leafs Notes: Bunting, Tavares, Muzzin, Liljegren

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In talking to TSN’s Mark Masters, Toronto Maple Leafs head coach Sheldon Keefe gave several updates on his team, which has several players banged-up. One of those players is rookie Michael Bunting. The breakout forward suffered an undisclosed injury in last night’s game, and while he did take a puck to the face, the belief is that the injury is in fact to Bunting’s leg. According to Keefe last night, he expected Bunting to miss some time, but did not disclose how much. Today, Keefe reiterated that Bunting would certainly miss some time, but did add that he woke up feeling a lot better than expected (link). Still, the team will wait until they get back to Toronto after their road trip to further evaluate Bunting and get a more clear picture of how much time he will miss.

Bunting’s absence, especially at this juncture, is of concern for Toronto. The team has several formidable offensive weapons, but Bunting’s breakout season, which has seen him score 23 goals along with 40 assists in 79 games has helped to take some focus off of Toronto’s other weapons. Tonight’s game at the Washington Capitals will be the first Bunting has missed this season.

  • John Tavares, the Maple Leafs’ captain, will also miss tonight’s game, his second of the season and first since November (link). Tavares’ absence should be of no concern to Maple Leafs fans, as Keefe assured that this was merely a case of load management, acknowledging that despite being injured, Matthews’ absence from the lineup provided him with a break heading into the playoffs, something Tavares has not had.
  • Defenseman Jake Muzzin will also be out of the lineup tonight, missing his sixth straight game (link). The exact nature of Muzzin’s injury is not clear, however it is not believed to be connected to the concussion that saw him miss significant time in February and March. Keefe did not provide any timeline for Muzzin on a return or any further absence. Muzzin has played in just 45 of the Maple Leafs’ 79 games this season, but getting him back in the lineup would be a key addition heading into the playoffs.
  • Also missing tonight’s game is defenseman Timothy Liljegren, though his injury is considered a minor one (link). Keefe did not elaborate on the nature of Liljegren’s injury, or mention any timetable, however it does appear that the recently recalled Carl Dahlstrom will draw into the lineup in his place. The 27-year-old Dahlstrom has played in just two games at the NHL level this season for the Maple Leafs, recording an assist. In 47 games at the AHL level with the Toronto Marlies, Dahlstrom has 14 points, all assists.

Snapshots: Horvat, Kane, Matthews

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The Vancouver Canucks are steaming toward the playoffs, and they’re doing it without captain Bo Horvat, who left a game last week with a lower-body injury. Ruled out for at least two weeks, it seems he only has a chance to return this year if the Canucks do in fact come all the way back and grab a spot in the Western Conference postseason. Even if they are able to do that, his regular season ended with 31 goals in 70 games, a career-high, and a total that sets him up for quite well the summer.

Eligible for an extension in July when the calendar flips from 2021-22 to 2022-23, Horvat has just one year left on his current deal. He would be an unrestricted free agent after that and with the uncertainty surrounding the Canucks after making sweeping changes to the front office, it wasn’t clear if a new contract would be on the table. Today, his agent Pat Morris was on CHEK TV with Rick Dhaliwal, and explained that the Canucks management likes Horvat, and Horvat loves Vancouver and would like to stay. The two sides will “talk when the time is right,” suggesting no negotiations have taken place to this point. While the focus for everyone is on the playoff chase, things in Vancouver will quickly turn to the future if they aren’t able to secure a position in the postseason.

  • Evander Kane’s grievance hearing with the league over his contract termination began this morning, according to Darren Dreger of TSN. The Edmonton Oilers forward is away from the team for a few days while he deals with this grievance, which is fighting the process which the San Jose Sharks used to terminate the more than $22MM that remained on his seven-year contract. The decision is not expected for some time and will likely have no impact on his current contract status with the Oilers, regardless of the outcome.
  • The league’s leading goal scorer will have to wait for a chance to chase 60, as Auston Matthews is still not playing for the Toronto Maple Leafs this evening, despite feeling “really good” according to head coach Sheldon Keefe, who spoke with reporters including Mark Masters of TSN. The Maple Leafs are obviously more concerned about their first-round playoff matchup than individual performance records, as they still haven’t advanced in the postseason since 2004. Matthews still leads in the Rocket Richard race, four ahead of Leon Draisaitl in second place.

Auston Matthews, Patrik Laine Out Day-To-Day

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Any injury hurts a team and a star player’s injury makes an even greater impact. However, when superstar players are sidelined, it even hurts the league itself as the on-ice product suffers. The NHL was dealt some bad news on Sunday night regarding two high-profile players, but at least their absences seems short-term. The Toronto Maple Leafs were without league-leading goal scorer Auston Matthews as they took the ice, with TSN’s Mark Masters relaying that he was out with an undisclosed “minor” injury. The Columbus Blue Jackets were in the same sport with point-per-game scorer Patrik Laine, announcing that he would miss Sunday’s game with an upper-body injury. Both players, who went No. 1 and No. 2 overall in 2016, are considered “day-to-day”.

Toronto head coach Sheldon Keefe told Masters that Matthews was held out for precautionary reasons, especially as the team played the second of a back-to-back. In fact, it was during Saturday’s game that Matthews suffered the injury. Matthews has been relatively healthy this season, only missing time due to injury for the first three games of the campaign, which has helped him reach his massive 58-goal, 102-point totals for the year. The Maple Leafs are understandably playing it safe surrounding the source of so much of their offense.

While Columbus is out of the playoff picture, the team is still rightfully careful with their skilled winger who has dealt with injury issues. Laine is quietly having a career year, recording 56 points through 56 games thus far. Had he been healthy this whole season, Laine very easily might have been on an 80+ point pace. There is no reason to rush him into action if he is dealing with an ailment, no matter how small, with the season lost. Instead, the Blue Jackets will hold out hope that Laine can stay on the ice next season and produce at the same rate.

Toronto Maple Leafs Place Five In COVID Protocol

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The Toronto Maple Leafs tweeted today that defensemen T.J. Brodie and Travis Dermott, goalie Jack Campbell, head coach Sheldon Keefe, and assistant coach Spencer Carbery entered the league’s COVID-19 protocol.

The team now has nine players on the list. Captain John Tavares, as well as Alexander Kerfoot, Wayne Simmonds, and Jason Spezza, were added earlier in the week.

After seeing a back-to-back set of games against Vancouver and Seattle postponed this weekend, the team was originally scheduled to return to play on Thursday, December 23 against St. Louis. Understandably, that’s now in jeopardy as their list of COVID cases expands.

Matters are made worse in the organization due to a COVID outbreak on their AHL team. The Toronto Marlies have over 10 cases and are officially considered an outbreak, severely limiting any possible recalls.

If their game against St. Louis is postponed, Toronto will return to action on December 27 against Columbus.

Maple Leafs Agree To Two-Year Extension With Sheldon Keefe

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Teams generally don’t like when their coaches are in the final year of their contracts and the Maple Leafs were set to be in that situation with Sheldon Keefe.  However, that won’t be the case anymore as Pierre LeBrun of TSN and The Athletic reports (Twitter link) that Toronto has inked their bench boss to a two-year contract extension that runs through the 2023-24 season.

The 41-year-old was promoted to Toronto’s head coaching role back in 2019 following the firing of Mike Babcock (whose contract runs through 2022-23) but hasn’t yet had a full 82-game season with the Maple Leafs and is in the middle of his first regular training camp with the team.

Toronto has had plenty of regular season success with Keefe at the helm with the team posting a .660 point percentage with young stars like Auston Matthews and Mitch Marner immediately seeing their ice time and production improve.  However, that hasn’t materialized into playoff success as they were upset in the bubble in 2020 by Columbus in the play-in series and last spring by Montreal in the opening round of the postseason.

Accordingly, this short-term pact makes sense from Toronto’s perspective.  With Keefe barely having 100 games under his belt behind the bench plus their early ousters, he wasn’t in a position to command a lucrative long-term deal but their regular season success has shown enough to suggest he’s worth keeping around.  This contract is a commitment from GM Kyle Dubas to stick with the process – one Dubas made this summer by not significantly shaking up the core – but is short enough that it shouldn’t be an impediment if it’s decided that a change has to be made.

Toronto Hires Spencer Carbery As Assistant Coach

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The Toronto Maple Leafs have plucked one of the top coaches from the AHL ranks to take over their vacancy at assistant coach. The team has announced that Hershey Bears head coach Spencer Carbery has been hired to join Sheldon Keefe’s staff. Carbery replaces Dave Hakstol, who left to become the inaugural head coach of the Seattle Kraken.

Even as a minor league coach, Carbery should be a recognizable name for many. The 39-year-old is the reigning AHL Coach of the Year, named the recipient of the Louis A.R. Pieri Memorial Award after leading Hershey to a 24-7-2-0 record. Carbery only just completed his third season as an AHL head coach, but in that time the Bears went 104-50-9-8 for a .658 points percentage that was among the AHL’s best in that span. Carbery previously won the ECHL Coach of the Year Award as well, taking home the honor in his third of five seasons spent as the head coach and Director of Hockey Operations for the South Carolina Stingrays. He is no stranger to Ontario either, spending one season as the head coach of the OHL’s Saginaw Spirit.

Carbery is a well-regarded head coach and should be a natural fit with a Toronto staff that is young and innovative, much like the culture of the team. There could be an adjustment period, seeing as Carbery has no NHL experience to this point, but having fellow young coaches around who went through the same transition not long ago will help the process. Meanwhile, Carbery’s loss will be felt in a major way in Hershey and the Washington Capitals must now work quickly to find a new bench boss for their AHL affiliate.

Toronto Maple Leafs Hire Dean Chynoweth

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The Toronto Maple Leafs have found a replacement for Dave Hakstol, who recently left the organization to become the first head coach of the Seattle Kraken. Toronto has hired Dean Chynoweth as an assistant coach after he spent the last three seasons with the Carolina Hurricanes. Maple Leafs head coach Sheldon Keefe released a short statement:

After spending time with Dean, it became clear that his knowledge, passion and personality would make him the right fit. We’re fortunate to add someone of his quality and experience to our staff.

Chynoweth, 52, has a long history in the WHL, as a head coach, general manager and even franchise owner. He also served in the NHL with the New York Islanders for three seasons and has experience as a head coach in the AHL. All of that coaching experienced followed a long playing career, which included stops with the Islanders and Boston Bruins. The tough-guy defenseman racked up 667 penalty minutes in his 241-game career.

It’s the defense that he’ll be responsible for in Toronto, given he is replacing Hakstol on the staff. The team has taken a few big steps forward in that regard over the last few seasons with the additions of T.J. Brodie and Jake Muzzin, but will obviously need to continue to develop their young options to fill out the depth chart.

Coaching Notes: Vincent, Hakstol, Boudreau, Tocchet

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New Columbus Blue Jackets head coach Brad Larsen is adding to his staff. Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman reports that the Blue Jackets are set to hire Manitoba Moose head coach Pascal Vincent as an assistant to Larsen. Vincent had previously left Paul Maurice’s Winnipeg Jets staff in favor of being the head coach for their AHL affiliate, but seemingly is back to being open to an NHL assistant role. Vincent has spent the past decade with the Jets organization and the previous dozen years as a head coach and GM in the QMJHL. With an impressive resume, Vincent may see this Columbus opportunity as a way to get his name out there beyond the confines of Winnipeg in hopes of attracting NHL head coach attention of his own down the road. Vincent will re-unite with Jack Roslovic in Columbus; he previously coached him as a prospect with the Moose but he has now become the No. 1 center for the Blue Jackets. That relationship should be mutually beneficial for the pair.

  • The big coaching news of the day was of course the hiring of Dave Hakstol as the first head coach of the expansion Seattle Kraken. And while Hakstol’s role will be in the locker room and not the front office, GM Ron Francis will certainly take his opinions into consideration. After all, it was the Florida Panthers, the former team of Vegas’ inaugural head coach, Gerard Gallant, that were swindled the worst by the Golden Knights in the last Expansion Draft. Florida traded Reilly Smith and a fourth-round pick so that Vegas would select Jonathan Marchessault over the likes of Alexander Petrovic and Mark Pysyk. While no teams should be fooled so badly this time around, Hakstol’s knowledge of the Toronto Maple Leafs and Philadephia Flyers – not to mention the numerous University of North Dakota alumni around the league – could come into play. The Flyers in particular are expected to have many well-known names exposed in the draft, some of whom played their best seasons under Hakstol, and the coach may know exactly how to target the team.
  • The Maple Leafs now have a vacancy on their coaching staff in the wake of Hakstol’s departure, but the club’s fans think they have already figured it out. Yahoo’s Thomas Williams writes that there has already been an outpouring of support for veteran coach Bruce Boudreau to be hired as the team’s newest assistant. The Toronto native and former Maple Leafs player spoke out this off-season as a free agent that he would like to coach his hometown team and fans seem to agree with the match. Boudreau has had a long and successful coaching career and some feel that head coach Sheldon Keefe could use the veteran support on the bench. With that said, Boudreau has never served as an assistant in the NHL and interviewed for the Buffalo Sabres’ head coach vacancy late last month. Despite any personal feelings and fan support, Boudreau will take the top job for the struggling Sabres over a No. 2 role for Toronto.
  • Of course, Boudreau is not the only candidate for the Sabres’ job, as Rick Tocchet is also among the names who interviewed for the position. Tocchet interviewed multiple times with the Columbus Blue Jackets, New York Rangers, and Seattle Kraken, only to lose out on all three jobs. He has reportedly only interviewed once with Buffalo, who may not have been his top choice at first, but they are the only landing spot left, as the other remaining NHL head coach position is the post he vacated with the Arizona Coyotes. Tocchet is clearly a well-regarded and sought-after coach, so now that they are his last hope at a top job this season, perhaps the Sabres and Tocchet will get serious about a potential match.

Playoff Notes: Wahlstrom, Merrill, Lauzon, Foligno, Reaves

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It’s the postseason which of course means injuries. And while players often try to play through their ailments come playoff time, it’s not always possible. This appears to be the case for young New York Islander forward Oliver Wahlstrom. The dynamic winger was injured in Game Five of the Isles’ first round series with the Pittsburgh Penguins and did not appear in Game Six. Per Newsday’s Andrew Gross, head coach Barry Trotz stated on Friday that Wahlstrom is trying to work his way back into the lineup, but remains “doubtful” for Game One against the Boston Bruins. Saturday’s morning skate did not bring any update and it appears as though Wahlstrom will miss at least one more outing. Whatever injury he has sustained, New York is clearly concerned that it many linger. They have yet to disclose any details about Wahlstrom’s condition, likely to protect him should he fight through the pain and return to the lineup.

  • While the Montreal Canadiens hope to stay alive on Saturday night in order to see a Game Seven with the rival Toronto Maple Leafs, defenseman Jon Merrill will need much more than just one or even two wins if he is to see the ice again this postseason. The Canadiens have announced that Merrill will not play in Game Six, replaced in the lineup by Brett Kulak, and further comments by interim head coach Dominique Ducharme suggested that Merrill’s timeline for return is likely 7-to-14 days. If the Canadiens are to survive another week or two in the playoffs, they not only will need to complete an unlikely comeback against Toronto, but will also have to be the first team to defeat the Winnipeg Jets this postseason. It’s a tall task, especially without their solid deadline acquisition on the back end.
  • The Boston Bruins announced the opposite news this morning, with head coach Bruce Cassidy welcoming defenseman Jeremy Lauzon back to the lineup, according to The Athletic’s Fluto Shinzawa. Lauzon missed most of the team’s first round series with the Washington Capitals after taking a shot off the hand in Game One. With Kevan Miller also sidelined following a head injury in the series, Lauzon’s return will provide the Bruins with much-needed support on their bottom pair and adds a top penalty killer back to the lineup.
  • Nick Foligno was a full participant in morning skate for the Toronto Maple Leafs and was wearing a regular practice jersey, but TSN’s Kristen Shilton warns not to read into that too much. Foligno has appeared to be ready for previous games in this series, but has nevertheless missed each of the past three match-ups with a lower-body injury. Shilton adds that he did not look comfortable at morning skate. Head coach Sheldon Keefe also noted that Foligno remains a game-time decision, so Shilton appears to be right to caution any expectation that the big deadline addition will suit up.
  • Vegas Golden Knights forward Ryan Reaves was the cause of an injury on Friday night, shoving Minnesota Wild defenseman Ryan Suter face-first into the post. The check earned him a two-minute penalty for interference, but there was plenty of speculation that it could result in a suspension, especially given Reaves’ spotty reputation. However, it appears the grinder will move forward with his postseason scot-free. Adrian Dater of Colorado Hockey Now reports that Reaves will not have a hearing with the NHL Department of Player Safety and as such will not receive any supplemental discipline. The stars of the Colorado Avalanche will have to watch for Reaves (and watch out for their faces) in Round Two.

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