The Toronto Maple Leafs are making a change behind the bench after a disappointing season.
Head coach Craig Berube has been fired, the team announced on Wednesday.
New general manager John Chayka and senior executive adviser Mats Sundin made the decision less than two weeks after being hired.
“Craig is a tremendous coach and an even better person,” Chayka said in a statement released by the team. “This decision is more reflective of an organizational shift and an opportunity for a fresh start than it is an evaluation of Craig. We are grateful for his leadership, professionalism and commitment to the Maple Leafs organization and wish Craig and his family nothing but the best moving forward.”
Chayka said the next head coach would determine the makeup of the rest of the staff. Chayka will meet with media Wednesday at 12:30 p.m. ET to discuss the decision.
Berube, 60, had two more seasons left on his contract.
The Leafs missed the playoffs in Berube’s second year with the team after he guided it to the second round last year. This season marked the first time since 2016 that the Leafs didn’t make the playoffs.
Toronto lost badly to the eventual Stanley Cup champion Florida Panthers in Game 7 of their Eastern Conference semifinal last year, and never regained much momentum this season after the loss of star winger Mitch Marner in free agency.
General manager Brad Treliving was fired at the end of March as Toronto slipped out of playoff contention, leaving Berube to finish out the season without a full-time GM.
Despite the two-time reigning Cup-champion Panthers falling out of the playoff mix this season, the Leafs couldn’t hold off Atlantic rivals in the Buffalo Sabres, Boston Bruins, Ottawa Senators, Montreal Canadiens and Tampa Bay Lightning.
Under Berube this season, the Maple Leafs allowed the second-most goals in the NHL at 295 (3.6 per game) while sitting 16th in goals for at 252 despite having star talents up front in Auston Matthews and William Nylander.
"They played with more passion than we did," Berube told reporters in December after a particularly ugly 4-0 road loss to the Washington Capitals. "That's what it boils down to. It looked to me like they had way more urgency in their game, more passion in their game. That's the difference."
Asked to explain how that could be the case, he replied: "Ask those guys, not me."
The exchange was just one example of clear disconnect.
A three-time Maurice (Rocket) Richard Trophy winner as the NHL's top goal-scorer, Matthews found the back of the net just 27 times before suffering a season-ending knee injury on an ugly hit from Anaheim Ducks defenceman Radko Gudas in March.
Toronto's players didn't do much in the immediate aftermath, which led to stinging rebukes from Berube — a former NHL enforcer with the seventh-most penalty minutes in league history — media members and fans as the locker-room culture was called into question.
The Maple Leafs join the Los Angeles Kings as the only two NHL teams with coaching vacancies.
Bruce Cassidy, who was fired by the Vegas Golden Knights in late March despite leading them to the 2023 Stanley Cup title, is among the coaches available this off-season.
Toronto won the NHL draft lottery last week. The Maple Leafs are expected to pick either Gavin McKenna or Ivar Stenberg with the first overall pick on June 26 at the NHL Draft in Buffalo.
--with files from The Canadian Press
