Will Leafs cater to Auston Matthews for next coaching hire?
The Toronto Maple Leafs find themselves at a formative time after naming John Chayka as the new general manager and announcing that Craig Berube would not return as head coach for the 2026-27.
While there is positivity surrounding the success and relative recency of the 2025-26 season, as well as the first overall pick, there is also uncertainty about how the new leadership may view Auston Matthews, William Nylander and the rest of the veteran core.
On a recent episode of Daily Faceoff LIVE, The Sheet’s Jeff Marek joined co-hosts Tyler Yaremchuk and Carter Hutton to break down whether a new coach has to perfectly suit Matthews, or if that is a non-factor in the process, compared to the situation the Edmonton Oilers are in with Connor McDavid’s remaining contract years.
Tyler Yaremchuk: With the Oilers, they’re going with an experienced veteran, a top-of-the-market kind of guy, because they can’t risk this next year going poorly, because it’ll probably lead to Conor McDavid going out the door. Do you think Chayka and Mats Sundin feel that same pressure at all in Toronto? Is this a make-or-break year for keeping Matthews happy, and is the coaching decision tied into that?
Jeff Marek: No, I don’t think so. In Edmonton, it feels because it’s a doomsday clock that’s been, that’s been started, right? Like, the doomsday clock is very much on, so I think that everything is informed by that, and you saw guys like Leon Draisaitl talking about this and how they don’t know what happens after two years, right now.
That doesn’t exist in Toronto. I thought the comments about turning a new page, a new direction for the Maple Leafs, were really interesting. So, this isn’t a matter of the Maple Leafs still having Matthews and needing to go for it now. You’re starting to see more of a look towards the future again. Maybe I’m just reading in too much into this one press release, but just knowing how John Chayka thinks, and knowing what Keith Pelley wants, I don’t think they want to like completely strip something down, but I do think that they’re very much having eyes towards not next year’s future, but years subsequent to it, and I don’t think that this is a situation where every trade and every signing and every firing and every hiring is a sort of audition to see whether it’s going to tickle Auston Matthews’ chin and allow him to stay with the Maple Leafs.
You can catch Marek’s full appearance and the rest of the episode here…