What are the early impressions of Jim Hiller with the Leafs?
The Toronto Maple Leafs had the sort of year that forces wholesale organizational changes in 2025-26, and after a summer of change, former Los Angeles Kings head coach Jim Hiller is tasked with righting the ship from behind the bench.
Hiller, whose teams in Los Angeles struggled mightily to produce offense at times, is looking to prove that had more to do with the construction of the roster with the Kings than with his coaching philosophies.
If it comes to fruition, that would be a huge development for Auston Matthews, who saw his offensive numbers decline in a major way last season as head coach Craig Berube deployed him in a shutdown role and he battled through various ailments.
On Wednesday’s episode of Daily Faceoff LIVE, host Tyler Yaremchuk and co-host and former NHL goaltender Carter Hutton were joined by Nick Alberga of Leafs Morning Take to discuss the early returns on Hiller’s handling of training camp and the preseason ahead of a pivotal year for Toronto.
Tyler Yaremchuk: The two markets that you and I cover closely, in Edmonton and Toronto, I kind of made the argument off the start of the show that maybe these are two markets because of the two new coaches, maybe the preseason does matter a little more to them than 30 other teams. So what have been your early impressions of what Jim Hiller’s trying to do in Toronto?
Nick Alberga: As for Jim Hiller, I was thinking about it, like, I think it’s been very quiet in Toronto in training camp. He has not said one negative thing about anybody. Everybody’s the best. I laugh at this every year, everybody’s in a great, chipper mood. I’ve been down to the rink a couple times. Everybody’s feeling great, and then the season starts, and maybe a bit of a different story. I think the biggest thing to come of training camp thus far, it’s been very quiet aside from the expected Max Domi news as we know, and clearly the Morgan Rielly situation that’s unfolding. He’s back in the mix which is great to hear. So I think from that perspective, it’s exactly what the doctor ordered here for the Maple Leafs after last season.
You can watch the full segment and the rest of the episode below…
