Items Maple Leafs Coach Jim Hiller Must Address Quickly

As the Toronto Maple Leafs prepare for the upcoming season, newly-hired head coach Jim Hiller is under pressure like he’s never seen before.

Getting back into the Stanley Cup playoffs is the bare-minimum acceptable outcome for this Maple Leafs team, and Hiller is going to under the spotlight from game No. 1 to game No. 84 as one of new GM John Chayka’s key additions to the team.

But what do the Maple Leafs and Hiller need to do to have success in 2026-27? Let’s take a look at four different things the new bench boss has to address if he’s going to remain Toronto’s coach for the foreseeable future:

New Maple Leafs goaltender Sergei Bobrovsky comes into Toronto as the clear No. 1, alongside backup Anthony Stolarz. The tandem that won a Cup with the Florida Panthers are now back together, and Hiller now is tasked with deciding how often to use each netminder.

Certainly, Bobrovsky has an expectation of playing at least 50 games each season. He's reached that total in nine of the past 10 years – and the only time he didn’t play at least 50 games was the shortened season of 2020-21, when he suited up for 31 of the Panthers' 56 games. 

You shouldn’t expect a 50/50 split of games between Bobrovsky and Stolarz, the latter of whom has never appeared in more than 34 games in a single NHL season. Giving Bobrovsky 50-55 games would be a great target for Hiller, and getting Bobrovsky the bulk of the workload to set the tone for the year seems like the right move.

This past season, the Maple Leafs' power play ranked 15th in the NHL at 21.3 percent, and their penalty-kill ranked eighth at 81.2 percent. That rate of efficiency isn't horrendous, but there’s definitely room for improvement, especially with the man-advantage.

Toronto’s slew of bottom-six additions should improve the penalty kill, but it’s the power play that has no excuses. With a healthy Auston Matthews, William Nylander, John Tavares and newcomer Darren Raddysh on the first power-play unit, that leaves room for either Matthew Knies or first-overall pick Gavin McKenna competing for the final spot. 

With a new look for the power play and a different energy brought by McKenna and Raddysh, the Maple Leafs could quickly assert themselves as an explosive group with the man-advantage.

Improvement on special teams, no matter how big or small, is pretty much a non-negotiable if Hiller is going to turn this team around.

Hiller has to be delicate in the way he uses McKenna. He has to infuse him with as much confidence as possible, while also putting him in positions to succeed.

You’re not going to see McKenna used a lot in Toronto’s defensive zone. That’s not a condemnation of his overall game, but it’s an acknowledgement of McKenna's strengths and weaknesses.

At the other end of the spectrum, McKenna can be used heavily in 5-on-5 action as well as on the man-advantage. The Maple Leafs don’t want to undermine McKenna’s confidence in himself, so careful load management by Hiller will likely be crucial for his development.

The Maple Leafs aren’t going to get another first-overall pick anytime soon, so they need to develop McKenna into a true first-line winger. If Hiller fails to do so, it will be catastrophic to the team's long-term success.

Former bench boss Craig Berube frequently put his forward lines into a blender, and that was a condemnation of him as a coach and of the Maple Leafs’ forwards in general. But one thing Chayka has done with his roster this summer is implement a clear delineation of duties. That should be reflected in the way Hiller puts together his forward lines. 

For instance: you can say Toronto’s top-two lines have to be composed of Matthews, Nylander, Tavares, Knies, McKenna and either Easton Cowan or newcomer Jack Roslovic.

That leaves newly-acquired players like Brandon Duhaime, Colton Sissons, Teddy Blueger and Nick Paul, along with returning forward Steven Lorentz and currently-injured veteran Max Domi to round out the bottom six. 

This isn't to say these placements should be set in stone – after all, the injury bug can quickly impact any plans a coach may have. But if you see Hiller putting someone from the first two lines on the third or fourth line, something will have gone terribly wrong for the Maple Leafs as a whole.

Hiller must provide his players with clear roles, and that means keeping high-end talent in the top-two lines and worker-bee players in the bottom six. 

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