The Maple Leafs wanted to be sure there were no issues about Berube's character before committing to him.

The Toronto Maple Leafs are set to introduce Craig Berube to the media on Tuesday and although the club didn't take very long before naming him their 32nd head coach in team history, it appears they were pretty thorough.

On the latest episode of the '32 Thoughts' podcast, Sportsnet's Elliotte Friedman explained why everyone seemed to know about Berube's imminent arrival in Toronto before it became official.

“One of the things I heard they did was they called the NHLPA and said,' Hey, if we hire Craig Berube, are there any problems here that we're going to have to know about? And they were told, no, there's nothing here.”

[embed]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CuBdaoDKc8A[/embed]

The reason the Maple Leafs would do this is not any indictment or indication of about Berube's character or coaching style at all. But it's certainly revealing about where the Maple Leafs are coming from.

When the clubs dismissed Sheldon Keefe as head coach earlier this month, GM Brad Treliving cited that a new voice was needed. Keefe replaced Mike Babcock in the head coaching spot in 2019 and there have been all kinds of reports and allegations about the way Babcock treated his players. The most notable incident in Toronto was revealed when Babcock made Marner rank players on the Leafs during his rookie season. The coach later revealed that list to the team.

Maple Leafs team president, Brendan Shanahan, oversaw the hiring of Babcock in 2015 and helped oversea the hiring of Berube as well.

Babcock was hired last summer as head coach of the Columbus Blue Jackets but the player and team agreed to part ways after another reported incident saw Babcock asking to go through players' phones.

More will be learned about Berube during his introduction to Toronto, including which assistants he will be bringing on.

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