If Toronto Maple Leafs want a new coach, they need to hurry up and pick their GM. The New York Islanders hiring Peter DeBoer means teams are already planning for the future.
The timeline has been moved up.
The Toronto Maple Leafs may have believed they got a head start on the hiring process for finding their next GM when they fired Brad Treliving with eight games remaining in the regular season.
But as early as that decision was made, it still wasn't nearly early enough.
The deadline for hiring a coach was apparently yesterday, as the New York Islanders swooped in and replaced Patrick Roy behind the bench with Peter DeBoer, who was considered one of the top coaches available on the open market.
With DeBoer no longer available and John Tortorella having replaced Bruce Cassidy last week in Vegas, the list of former coaches is not as deep as it was two weeks ago.
There's Cassidy, who is believed to be the most sought-after coach on the open market. There's Roy, who was fired with the Islanders sitting third in the Metropolitan Division, hours before they fell to one point out of a playoff spot. And there's Peter Laviolette, who was fired by the New York Rangers at the end of last season.
Of course, the Leafs are obviously not the only team potentially looking for a new coach. And as everyone saw with the Islanders hiring DeBoer with four games remaining, this is a group of coaches that you don't want to wait around for.
Cassidy won a Stanley Cup with the Golden Knights in 2023, took the Boston Bruins to Game 7 of the final in 2019 and has qualified for the playoffs in each of the past nine seasons. Roy, who is in the Hockey Hall of Fame as a three-time Vezina Trophy winner, led the Islanders to a playoff berth two years ago and after missing out last season and ending up with the No. 1 pick in the draft, quickly had them back contending again.
Laviolette, meanwhile, has the most experience of any of the options. This is the first time since the 2004-05 lockout where he hasn't been behind the bench as a head coach. And considering that he is seventh on the all-time coaching win list, he probably won't be out of work for much longer.
Any of them would be a good option for a Leafs team that appears to be ready to move on from Craig Berube. Then again, Toronto is not the only team in the market for a new coach.
The New Jersey Devils and Winnipeg Jets are just two of the teams that could be looking for an upgrade once the season ends. And if the Islanders and Golden Knights taught us anything, there is no guarantee that they'll wait around until the summer to do it.
In other words, Toronto better get moving. Or else they may have to start next season with Berube back behind the bench.
The coach, however, is one of the last things on Toronto's growing to-do list heading into the summer.
Before the Leafs can even think about who is coaching the team, the Leafs need to think about who is running the team. After all, you cannot hire a coach until you first hire a new GM, because few GMs want to inherit a coach they didn't pick.
And before you hire a GM and then a coach, you must first decide what the next couple of years will look like.
Toronto has already been mathematically eliminated from the playoffs, but the question for ownership is whether it was a one-off or the start of a multi-year retool. If it's the former and you believe this team is a couple of tweaks away from competing for a Stanley Cup in 2026-27, then a win-now coach such as Cassidy or Laviolette makes perfect sense.
But if the Leafs believe that they need to bottom out next season and get a top-five pick, then maybe you aim lower and someone who can compete while developing the youngsters, such as Roy or former Buffalo Sabres coach Tony Granato, who also coached Auston Matthews at the USA Hockey National Team Development Program.
Either way, Toronto needs to pick a lane — and act fast.
The season ends in less than two weeks. But by then, Bruce Cassidy could be coaching in Edmonton, and Laviolette could be behind the bench in Detroit.
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