TORONTO — John Chayka vows to dig deep as he seeks the 33rd head coach of the Toronto Maple Leafs.
You’re about to hear a whole whack of names in the rumour mill. Old-guard retreads, active assistants and AHL heads craving promotion, and under-the-radar longshots will all be speculated as potential candidates.
“We will have a thorough process. It will be a wide search. We’ll take our time. We’ll try to get it right. It is the most critical decision as a general manager,” Chayka declared Wednesday, upon firing Craig Berube.
“We are going to start very wide and talk to as many people as we can with varying backgrounds. As a general point, yeah, I think experience — certainly, experience in the NHL and in larger markets — could be an asset and will be weighed, but I wouldn’t discount anything at this time.”
If the end of Berube’s brief tenure taught the organization anything, it should be that fit matters. Chayka and chief advisor Mats Sundin should not be in a rush to lock up the most familiar name, most readily available guy with a whistle, or any candidate with a Cup ring.
The Maple Leafs must first identify how they want to play hockey, then find players and a head coach that aligns with that style and culture.
Here are some thoughts on the hot names and a few underdiscussed options Chayka should explore as he makes this critical decision.
Bruce Cassidy
Far and away the most coveted (and expensive) coach on the open market, Cassidy comes with a recent Stanley Cup ring, a 4 Nations Face-Off championship, and an Olympic silver medal.
After successful runs in Boston and Vegas, how would the Ottawa native feel about coaching a Canadian team?
“Usually, the first thing you think of is the market. Does the team have a chance? How does it impact your family? Then you worry about the city later. Is ownership solid?” Cassidy told Leafs Morning Take last month.
“Yeah, it would be kinda cool to do it. I’ll tell ya what would be cool is to win a Stanley Cup in a Canadian city right now, because it’s been a while. That would be something else.”
Demanding, detailed and dialed in from a media perspective, Cassidy could handle the heat in Toronto, but he’s in win-now mode and the Oilers and Kings also want to explore a fit. Of course, those pesky Golden Knights, who are still cutting Cassidy’s cheques, need to grant permission first.
Our gut says Edmonton is the best and most likely landing spot for Cassidy.
Manny Malhotra
The head coach of the AHL Canucks in Abbotsford has paid his dues, learned the trade, and is knocking on the door.
Malhotra, 45, isn’t nearly as far removed from his playing days as the 60-year-old Berube, and has proven capable of elevating young players. He guided Abbotsford to 44 wins and the 2025 Calder Cup. Which is precisely why Vancouver — now managed by that AHL squad’s GM, Ryan Johnson — will weigh the idea of promoting Malhotra against sticking with Adam Foote.
There’s already a familiarity between Malhotra (brother-in-law of Auston Matthews’ tennis buddy, Steve Nash) and this Leafs core; he served as an assistant in Toronto from 2020 to 2024, but Abbotsford fell off this past season and missed the playoffs, leading to some questioning Malhotra’s NHL readiness.
“Growing up in Toronto, you obviously understand the gravitational pull that the Leafs have on the community,” Malhotra told us when he first joined Sheldon Keefe’s bench.
“Each individual is different. They all learn differently. They’re all motivated by different things. So, it’s important for me to understand the person and get to know them as an individual to find out who they are, what’s their makeup, before we can get into the X’s and O’s of the game.
“That’s a big thing for me, the communication aspect of things. And from there, you learn how to get information to players. That’s part of coaching that I really enjoyed, learning about guys and learning what makes them tick.”
Jack Capuano
The 59-year-old made his NHL debut for the Maple Leafs back in 1989-90, and it would be worth exploring a full-circle moment here.
Capuano ran the Islanders bench for nearly seven seasons beginning in 2010-11, making the playoffs thrice and overseeing John Tavares’s deepest run on Long Island.
Well-liked by players and never out of work long, Capuano has quietly served as an associate coach for the Panthers, Senators, and now the Wild, who were eliminated Wednesday after an impressive season.
David Carle
The hottest name outside of the NHL, Carle just captured his third NCAA championship in five years for the Denver Pioneers. Those trophies pair nicely with the Alaska native’s gold medals from the 2024 and 2025 world juniors. Surely, the 36-year-old will want to see if his winning touch translates to the pros at some point.
The recent success of young, enthusiastic Eastern Conference head coaches like Martin St. Louis, Spencer Carbery, and Dan Muse suggests a first-timer can work.
But Carle would be the youngest of all 32 NHL bench bosses, and he would be tasked with motivating and managing one of the oldest dressing rooms in the league.
Our understanding is that Carle wants big money and a voice in roster construction if and when he makes the leap to the NHL and already turned down a lucrative offer from Chicago’s Kyle Davidson during the Blackhawks coaching search in 2025.
Mike Yeo
The Toronto native has been a valued assistant in Philadelphia, Vancouver and now Ottawa in the seven seasons since he was fired from his second head gig in St. Louis. Yeo was the Blues coach Berube replaced in 2018-19, so there would be rich irony here.
There’s no questioning Yeo’s experience; the 52-year-old has stood behind a pro bench every season since his own playing career ended in 2000.
The Maple Leafs’ greatest weakness was team defence, which was arguably the greatest strength of the Senators in the two seasons Yeo assisted Travis Green’s bunch.
Yeo should be given serious consideration here.
John Gruden
No, not Jon Gruden. (The h is for hockey!)
The current head coach of the Toronto Marlies is busy taking the Leafs’ farm club to the North Division final and is focusing on the task at hand. Understandably, Gruden is downplaying his personal ambitions, but that doesn’t mean the former Islanders and Bruins assistant wouldn’t want a crack at an NHL head job.
Or that Gruden’s familiarity with several current Leafs and the market should be seen as a benefit. The deeper the Marlies go, the more intriguing a prospect Gruden becomes.
“That is not part of my aspiration right now,” Gruden told reporters Wednesday. “I coach because I love it. I’ve always coached because I love it. It has put me in this very fortunate situation. I am just really happy to be here and coaching this remarkable group in our locker room.
“The players can make the coach look really good. They’re doing that for us right now as a staff.”
Joe Sacco
The former Maple Leafs winger has 10 years of coaching experience, biding his time mostly as an assistant in Buffalo, Boston and now New York since his run as the head man in Colorado from 2009 through 2013. Sacco, 57, was a candidate to take the Bruins’ job last season before it went to Marco Sturm.
“Joe’s awesome. He was put in a tough situation, for sure — just with where the team was at the time,” Bruins star Morgan Geekie said of Sacco. “I had a lot of fun playing for him.
“I can’t say enough good things about him as a coach, as a man.”
More candidates to consider: Pascal Vincent, Peter Laviolette, Gerard Gallant, Steve Sullivan, Dean Evason.
