Craig Berube named 32nd Toronto Maple Leafs head coach
The Toronto Maple Leafs’ search for their 32nd head coach is complete, and it was a short one. Sources told Daily Faceoff’s Frank Seravalli Friday that Craig Berube would be named to the job, with an official announcement expected shortly thereafter, and the Leafs made it official late Friday afternoon.
The news comes eight days after they fired Sheldon Keefe following their seven-game defeat to the Boston Bruins in Round 1 of the 2023-24 Stanley Cup playoffs.
Berube, 58, was unemployed as a head coach for roughly five months. The St. Louis Blues fired him in December following a 13-14-1 start this season. Despite his ousting from the job, he’ll forever be a legend in St. Louis, having coached them to their one and only Stanley Cup. In 2018-19, Berube took a Blues team that was last overall in the NHL standings as late as Jan. 3 and guided them on an improbable run that culminated in them defeating the Bruins in Game 7 of the Final, ending a 51-season championship drought that began with the franchise’s debut in 1967-68.
Berube spent parts of six seasons behind the Blues bench, compiling 206-132-44 record and .597 points percentage. Previously, he coached the Philadelphia Flyers in 2013-14 and 2014-15, going 75-58-28 (.553).
Berube also spent 17 years in the NHL as a player, functioning primarily as an enforcer, compiling 159 points and 3,149 penalty minutes across 1,054 games. His playing career include a 40-game stop in Toronto in 1991-92. He was shipped to the Calgary Flames partway through that season as a piece of the blockbuster trade that brought Doug Gilmour to Toronto.
The Leafs are hoping Berube’s playoff coaching pedigree helps their star-studded roster break through after losing in the first round seven times in eight seasons of the Auston Matthews/Mitch Marner era. The Leafs have won a single playoff series and have gone 0-6 in do-or-die games during that time. Across Berube’s tenure in St. Louis, the Blues won five playoff series and two Game 7s.