Savard has been in charge of the Maple Leafs' power play since June 2024.
The Toronto Maple Leafs have fired Marc Savard.
Toronto announced the news on Monday evening, less than 24 hours after their 5-1 loss to the Dallas Stars. The firing comes on the heels of three straight losses on the road and five losses in their last six games.
Savard, who has been in his role with the Maple Leafs since June 2024, was in charge of the team's power play. In his first season in control of the power play, Toronto with a 24.8 percent success rate, which put them ninth in the NHL.
This season, however, has been different.
Toronto has struggled to find the back of the net during the man advantage and currently sits dead-last in the league at 13.3 percent. They've scored an NHL-low 12 times through 90 opportunities this season under Savard.
The club tried to fix the power play issues by balancing out the units last week, after a 4-0 loss to the Washington Capitals, but that hasn't gone to plan. Their last goal on the power play came six days ago, on Dec. 16, against the Chicago Blackhawks.
Since then, they've gone 0-for-10 on the man advantage.
"The power play has actually been getting better, but tonight it was god awful, in my opinion," said a frustrated Maple Leafs head coach Craig Berube after their loss to the Capitals on Thursday, where Toronto was 0-for-5 on the power play.
"I thought the other unit did some good things. They had a couple opportunities, and just the misfire didn't go in. They had some good chances, but our top unit didn't execute, didn't win any battles when they needed to, just couldn't make plays."
After a loss against the Stars on Sunday night, the Maple Leafs sit last in the Atlantic Division and second-last in the Eastern Conference with 35 points. They currently sit just six points out of a playoff spot.
During Savard's year-and-a-half as an assistant coach with the Maple Leafs, their power play operated at 21.4 percent, putting them 16th in the league.
According to TSN's Pierre LeBrun, it doesn't sound like the Maple Leafs are going to be bringing in a replacement for Savard. Instead, they're reportedly going to "go in-house for now," but things are subject to change.
After associate coach Lane Lambert departed the Maple Leafs last spring for a head coaching job with the Seattle Kraken, general manager Brad Treliving hired Derek Lalonde as an assistant coach. Since joining the organization, he's been in charge of the team's penalty kill.
Toronto also has Mike Van Ryn as an assistant, whom the team hired in July 2023, under former head coach Sheldon Keefe. He's worked alongside Berube for several years, going back to their days with the St. Louis Blues.
The Maple Leafs have one more game, against the Pittsburgh Penguins on Tuesday afternoon, before they depart for their holiday break. The team will reconvene on Dec. 27 for a matchup against the Ottawa Senators.