Leafs head coach candidates: a tiered list of names to know

May 15, 2026, 09:00 EDTUpdated: May 14, 2026, 12:32 EDT

Credit: © Andy Abeyta/The Desert Sun / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

The arrival of GM John Chayka and executive senior advisor Mats Sundin connoted a period of significant change for the Toronto Maple Leafs, and the trend has continued in the week and a half since their unveiling. First came the 2026 NHL Draft Lottery win, a massive stroke of luck that gives the new regime many compelling options for reconstructing the team going forward. Next came the firing of coach Craig Berube this week on the grounds that the Leafs simply wanted “an opportunity for a fresh start,” as Chayka put it Wednesday.

Chayka indicated the players were not consulted before the decision was made, but there’s a decent chance the move was well received among them. Berube’s no-nonsense style instilled a hard confidence in the Leafs during his first season with the team but appeared to wear thin this past season, as the players’ in-game body language suggested they were beginning to tune him out. More important than that intangible: the tangible regression the Leafs showed on the ice under Berube. They struggled to drive the play and allowed scoring chances by the bushel. Great goaltending masked the deficiencies in 2024-25, but it wasn’t good enough to prop Toronto up this season.

The regime of GM Brad Treliving and Berube molded the Leafs into a big, lumbering, antiquated team that failed to maximize its skill, particularly when it came to that of superstar Auston Matthews, whose deployment as a smothering shutdown artist held back his offense.

Just as MLSE pivoted from the old-school Treliving to a “data-centric” hire in Chayka, we can expect the Leafs to think more progressively when selecting their new bench boss. Who are the top candidates on the market? Let’s break down the names to watch.

TOO LATE?

Bruce Cassidy

Cassidy has the Stanley Cup winning pedigree. His .630 career points percentage places him third among active coaches with at least 500 games. He’s pretty clearly the best candidate out there for any team seeking a bench boss at the peak of his powers. But has the train left the station for Edmonton already? Reports have already suggested the Oilers are his preferred destination, so the Leafs might not get to Cassidy in time. But anything is possible before he officially signs.

THE VETERAN RETREADS

Bruce Boudreau

Boudreau is 71, so it’s debatable whether he has enough fire left in him to inherit a team that might not be playoff-bound next season. But Boudreau has a history of turning struggling teams around very quickly and getting the most out of his skill players thanks to a positive, empowering approach. His points percentages in Year 1 after he takes over an NHL team: .664, .534, .646, .649. He’d be more of a quick-fix bet if the Leafs want to recapture more of a high-flying offensive scheme.

Dean Evason

Evason has a decent NHL resume; he instils discipline and accountability, and his teams tend to have high floors because they play a safe style. His teams, particularly the Minnesota Wild, have defended very well, with strong under-the-hood numbers in chance suppression. But he is probably too much of a Berube redux in persona. The Leafs need to escape a structure that limits their creativity.

Peter Laviolette

Laviolette is the quintessential gun for hire coach at this stage of his career, a trusted veteran who sits top-10 all time in wins and has steered teams through many long playoff runs, winning the Stanley Cup with the Carolina Hurricanes in 2005-06. His teams play an aggressive, up-tempo style that might feel refreshing compared to Berube hockey. But is it the right time for this type of hire? Only if the Leafs truly believe 2025-26 was an anomaly and that they can be a contender again next season. Laviolette feels like a strong fit for a mid-tier playoff team trying to break through – such as the Los Angeles Kings.

Patrick Roy

I’ll editorialize here and say: just don’t. It would be disastrous. Roy’s firebreathing approach would draw too much attention to a market that doesn’t need another star of the show, and his teams have consistently struggled to drive the play over the years. Hiring him would be an extremely shortsighted choice.

SECOND CHANCES

Kris Knoblauch

In his 2.5 seasons behind the Oilers bench, Knoblauch led them on a 16-game winning streak and they reached consecutive Stanley Cup Finals. His deployment decisions reportedly rubbed the players the wrong way over time and led to his ousting after the Oilers regressed this season, but the results were far more good than bad across his tenure. Personality wise, his calm, thoughtful persona would represent a pivot from Berube, though some critiques have suggested Knoblauch brings too little fire and struggles to motivate his troops.

Todd Nelson

It’s hard to believe Nelson still has just 51 games on his resume as an NHL coach, and he was widely believed to have not gotten a fair chance during that short stint with the Oilers in 2014-15. He’s a three-time AHL Calder Cup champion, leading the Grand Rapid Griffins to the prize in 2016-17 and keying back-to-back titles for the Hersey Bears in 2022-23 and 2023-24. He spent four years as a Dallas Stars assistant between those tenures and was highly successful sparking the Pittsburgh Penguins’ power play as an assistant this past season.

Jay Woodcroft

Woodcroft was done in by the Oilers’ horrific October in 2023-24. They were a dominant regular-season team under him before that. Woodcroft’s greatest strength is maximizing output from his stars. McDavid and Leon Draisaitl’s peak scoring seasons came under Woodcroft – even Ryan Nugent-Hopkins topped 100 points in a season during the Woodcroft years – and the Oilers had the NHL’s No. 1 power play of all-time in 2022-23 at 32.4 percent. He’d be inheriting older versions of Matthews and William Nylander – but don’t forget about the incoming No. 1 overall pick. The Anaheim Ducks’ young stars have blossomed nicely this season with Woodcroft as their assistant coach, too.

FRESH PERSPECTIVE

Misha Donskov

What an interesting resume Donskov has. He’s been a video coach, a director of hockey ops and assistant coach at the NHL level, most recently in the latter role with the Stars. He was recently named Canada’s head coach for the World Championship. He’s a modern thinker, focusing a lot on film and individual player development, and he could fit the franchise’s new philosophy. He was previously in charge of analytics with Hockey Canada and reportedly was quite influential on the brilliant choices the Vegas Golden Knights made in the 2017 NHL expansion draft.

Jay Leach

Leach is following a fairly typical assistant coach progression timeline, having worked his way from AHL bench boss with the Providence Bruins to multiple years as a Seattle Kraken assistant and, now, his gig with the Boston Bruins under Marco Sturm, with whom Leach competed for the top job a year ago. Leach is a defense-first coach, so he’d be someone to consider if the Leafs want to prioritize keeping pucks out of their net.

Manny Malhotra

He’s from the Greater Toronto area. He’s relatively young at 45. He’s familiar with the Leafs and many of their players given he was an assistant for four seasons under Sheldon Keefe. Malhotra has since had great success working with the young Vancouver Canucks players in the AHL, having coached their affiliate to a Calder Cup crown last season. He could walk the line between helping the Leafs’ next generation and having familiarity with their veteran brigade. That said, he’s technically a holdover from a coaching staff that couldn’t get the team over the hump, which could be a strike against him.

INTERNAL CANDIDATES

John Gruden

The Leafs have promoted Marlies head coaches to their top positions in the past, most recently Keefe. Gruden’s Marlies teams have been competitive in his three seasons there – they’ve made it through the first two rounds of the 2025-26 playoffs so far – and he has five years of NHL assistant coach experience to boot. He’s seemingly working his way toward a shot at a head job, whether it’s with the Leafs or someone else.

Derek Lalonde

Lalonde was a Leafs assistant this past season. The penalty kill was one of his focuses, and they quietly had the No. 8 unit in the NHL. His previous run as a head coach with the Detroit Red Wings went poorly, but Lalonde was very successful working under Jon Cooper on the two Stanley Cup winning Tampa Bay Lightning teams before that.

Steve Sullivan

The Leafs ousted assistant coach Marc Savard, much to the chagrin of Berube, and hired Steve Sullivan in December to improve the power play. He helped dramatically; the Leafs were dead last at 13.3 percent and finished 15^th at north of 21.3 percent. But Sullivan’s candidacy extends beyond that short-term impact: Sullivan has years of experience working with Chayka. He was Chayka’s director of player development and, later, assistant GM with the Arizona Coyotes. That shorthand with Chayka might mean Sullivan gets an extended look for the head coaching job.

OFF THE BOARD

Jussi Ahokas

It’s probably too soon, but you never know. After transitioning from the Finnish World Junior team to the Liiga to North America, Ahokas is now an OHL champion in his third season with the Kitchener Rangers. He’s an innovative thinker who preaches “positionless hockey.” He would certainly represent a bold new direction for the Leafs.

David Carle

The Best Coach Not in the NHL (TM), Carle has led the University of Denver to three NCAA national titles (with one prior when he was an assistant coach there). He took over Team USA’s World Junior squad beginning in 2024 and guided it to consecutive gold medals. He works well with young players, he’s a modern thinker who cares about data, and he’ll have an NHL gig someday…if he ever wants one. So far, he’s been content to keep dominating in the college ranks. The Ducks and Chicago Blackhawks failed to woo him last year. Could the coveted Leafs job be the carrot that finally attracts him?

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POST SPONSORED BY bet365

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