The NHL club made the hiring official just nine days after dismissing former coach Sheldon Keefe.

It's official.

After days of speculation, the Toronto Maple Leafs announced Craig Berube as their new head coach.

According to TSN's Pierre LeBrun, Berube signed a four-year deal to become Toronto's 32nd coach in franchise history.

Berube had been seen as the frontrunner to land the coveted coaching position when the position became available. The Leafs dismissed head coach Sheldon Keefe on May 9, just days after Toronto's Game 7 loss to the Boston Bruins in the opening round of the 2024 Stanley Cup Playoffs.

Maple Leafs GM Brad Treliving lauded Keefe as a person and coach but felt "a new voice was needed" following another disappointment from the club who have won just one playoff round in the last 20 years.

The Leafs began a search process that involved Berube. Other NHL head coaches with NHL experience (Todd McLellan and Gerard Gallant) were also interviewed before the club came to terms with Berube, who had interviewed for other vacancies with the Ottawa Senators (who hired Travis Green), New Jersey Devils and Winnipeg Jets, to name a few.

The 58-year-old is expected to bring a different coaching style than Keefe. With eight seasons as an NHL coach, including a 2019 Stanley Cup victory, Berube hasn't been shy of calling out his players openly when they haven't been playing to a level he accepts. 

Berube, a veteran of over 1000 NHL games as a player becomes the first Maple Leafs to both play and serve as a head coach at different stages of his career since Randy Carlyle took over coaching duties from 2012-15. Berube played in 40 games with the Maple Leafs during the 1991-92 season where he scored five goals and added seven assists.

The veteran coach will meet with the media in a news conference scheduled for Tuesday morning. More will be learned about how Berube will handle this, his third stint, as a NHL head coach.

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