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Leafs Front Office 2026-27 | Speculation, Discussion

I'd buy the "give him a chance" argument if he showed any willingness to change up the play style. There was a brief period in the middle of the season where the Leafs seemed to carry the puck a bit more and had marginally better numbers but they constantly reverted back to his collapse defence and dump and chase hockey that clearly didn't work.

I get that coaches have a certain way they like to play. But you need to adapt to the strengths of your roster. Having Nylander play dump and chase hockey is stupid. Matthews scores a lot of his goals off the rush. Having him dump and chase is stupid.
 
Bill_Berg said:
I don't like the comment that Matthews would wait to see what they do in free agency. What they do in free agency should depend on what Matthews decides!
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Haha, yes. EF followed that bit up with saying the Leafs don't want to wait until July for clarity from AM34.
Which is why I infer that this message to the Front Office (prior to the lotto) was about Matthews' general opinion about the coaching situation.
 
dappleganger said:
I like Berube. I think he got the Leafs the closest to being cup winners in 2024-2025 during the entire Matthews era. But they need a new coach if they're going to turn this thing around. Bruce Cassidy or David Carle.

I would even hire Bruce Boudreau, I have a lot of respect for him but that ship might have sailed.
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Great goaltending did.
 
herman said:
Haha, yes. EF followed that bit up with saying the Leafs don't want to wait until July for clarity from AM34.
Which is why I infer that this message to the Front Office (prior to the lotto) was about Matthews' general opinion about the coaching situation.
Click to expand...
I don't like all this innuendo and rumour talk but if your best player doesn't respect the coach then this seems to be an open and shut case to say goodbye to Berube.

You can easily replace a coach, you can't easily replace a Matthews.
 
herman said:
Haha, yes. EF followed that bit up with saying the Leafs don't want to wait until July for clarity from AM34.
Which is why I infer that this message to the Front Office (prior to the lotto) was about Matthews' general opinion about the coaching situation.
Click to expand...
Perhaps they will have a plan that Matthews is in on. If you don't this and that in July I will stay sort of thing.
 
Joe S. said:
Great goaltending did.
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Yup. The biggest difference between the two seasons was the quality of the goaltending. 24/25 goaltending was elite. 25/26 was . . . inconsistent at best. Overall defensive play/puck possession time continued the downward trend we saw happening last season, too, which is heavily on coaching. Like I've said before, I don't think it's a coincidence so many Leafs had their worst seasons under Berube and many of those that left the team saw their performances improve almost instantly. Special teams this past season were also pretty good (PK was 8th overall, PP was 4th in the games after Savard was fired) - and those are generally assistant coaches running them.

I get that they don't wanted to bring out the axes so quickly after being officially given the jobs, but I don't see how you can be data driven and not place a huge chunk of the blame squarely on the head coach. I'd lean towards keeping the assistants (definitely keep Sullivan, could go either way on the rest) but Berube needs to go.
 
Sullivan is staying in some way, as he both did nothing wrong and was an early Chayka believer (and interim GM'd after his departure from ARI), whether it be behind the bench or as an exec of some sort.

The only way I can see Berube staying* and being effective is getting a really really good assistant coach to run the actual tactics and 5v5 forwards, and a really really good assistant coach to handle the defense group. For all his flaws, Berube made a very good front-facing spokesperson for the team and the very bad season (of his making, granted) could have been played a lot worse under a less controlled coach.

* but if he's staying, Matthews is probably leaving, so everybody loses

In the classic Rogers way, just promote Berube up and out of the day to day. Sit him with Pelley and Teherany and see if they can figure out an AI agent to implement and motivate a committed forecheck scheme.
 
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