Maple Leafs tab former Stanley Cup winner as new head coach

After four first-round playoff exits in five years under former head coach Sheldon Keefe, it was clear the Toronto Maple Leafs prioritized a Stanley Cup pedigree in their search for a new head coach.

Mission accomplished.

The Maple Leafs have named Craig Berube as their next head coach, according to a team announcement .

“We determined a new voice is needed to help the team push through to reach our ultimate goal,” Maple Leafs general manager Brad Treliving said after Keefe was fired, via NHL.com.

Berube was the rumored front-runner for the job once Toronto was eliminated from the postseason, and it was expected the job was his to lose.

Berube’s claim to fame was the job he did after taking over as interim head coach of the Blues during the 2018-19 season. At the time, St. Louis was the last-place team in the NHL. Berube led them to a 38-19-6 record and third-place finish in the Central.

From there, the Blues dispatched of the Winnipeg Jets in six games, the Dallas Stars in seven games, the San Jose Sharks in six games in the Eastern Conference Final and the Boston Bruins in seven games in the Stanley Cup Final.

Winnipeg was the second seed in the Central Division, Dallas was the top wild-card team, San Jose was the second seed in the Pacific Division and Boston was the second seed in the Atlantic Division.

A hot commodity among teams with a head-coaching vacancy, Berube reportedly also spoke with the Jets and New Jersey Devils about their open HC jobs in addition to the Leafs.

Berube was fired perhaps somewhat hastily in mid-December by the St. Louis Blues after the team got off to a 13-14-1 start. That came on the heels of a sixth-place finish in the Central Division the previous season, marking the first time the Blues had missed the playoffs in Berube’s tenure.

In five-plus years in St. Louis, Berube compiled a 206-132-44 record with four playoff appearances and one Stanley Cup championship. The 58-year-old has seven-plus seasons of coaching experience with 281 wins and five playoff appearances.

Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman reported that the Maple Leafs also spoke to a few other notable candidates including Gerard Gallant, who most recently coached the New York Ranges from 2021 to 2023, and Todd McLellan, who was fired on Feb. 2 by the Los Angeles Kings.