The Maple Leafs head coach has one season remaining on his existing deal with the club.

It’s been a busy offseason for the Toronto Maple Leafs and head coach Sheldon Keefe appeared to have crossed off the final priority off his list.

The club announced on Tuesday that they hired Guy Boucher and Mike Van Ryn as new assistant coaches to complete their bench staff.

Keefe had a vacancy to fill when Spencer Carbery departed the club earlier in the offseason to become the head coach of the Washington Capitals.

Boucher will take over the power-play duties vacated by Carbery, although Keefe said he did consider Van Ryn for power-play duties as well.

One day before the NHL Draft, Maple Leafs GM Brad Treliving confirmed that Keefe would return as head coach this season. Treliving, who became the team's new general manager on May 30, needed some time to get to know Keefe before deciding to bring back Toronto's head coach from the past four seasons.

When discussing the decision to bring Keefe back, Treliving said extension talks with his head coach would happen at a later point. 

We now know that hasn't happened as of this writing.

"Really both of us have been focused on our individual roles," Keefe said on a Zoom call on Thursday. "Brad has a number of things that are at the top of his list. I’m not too concerned about it at this point in time. 

"I’ve really just enjoyed my time working with Brad and have been so focused on this process that the other stuff, to me, will work itself over time."

Keefe has one year remaining on his existing contract with the Leafs. It's been a typical process for most NHL head coaches to not go into an upcoming season with an extension of some sort. Although it doesn't mean it can't happen, either.

When would a contract extension finally take place?

It's hard to pinpoint. As Keefe mentioned, Treliving does have a lot on his plate, including figuring out new contract extensions for Auston Matthews and William Nylander. There are also the final discussions with Ilya Samsonov's camp on a deal before an arbitration hearing begins on Friday. 

If extensions aren't worked out closer to the end of summer, it's possible Treliving pivots his focus. But there's still a lot for Toronto's GM to figure out.

Keefe mentioned the process of finding out if he was coming back or north as an "uncomfortable" process. So waiting for an extension is likely the least of his concerns at this point.

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