The Toronto Maple Leafs have announced more coaching changes to continue building out the bench bosses with Craig Berube as the team’s head coach. The team is adding Lane Lambert as an associate coach. Lambert was most recently the head coach of the New York Islanders prior to being relieved of his duties midway through the 2023–24 season.
Lambert’s coaching pedigree
Lambert’s record as an NHL head coach sits as 61–46–20, all with the Islanders. It was his first head coaching stint after being an associate coach for the Islanders during Barry Trotz’s head coaching tenure. It was after Trotz was fired that Lambert got his promotion. Lambert led the Islanders to a postseason berth after a fourth-place finish in the Metropolitan Division with a 42–31–9 record in his first year but put up a 19–15–11 record before he was let go this year.
Despite limited NHL head coaching experience, Lambert has been a hockey coach for over two decades. A good chunk of his time coaching was spent in the NHL, where he’s been a coach since 2011–12. He was an assistant coach for the Nashville Predators, followed by a stint with the Washington Capitals—where he won a Stanley Cup with them in 2018.
Lambert’s coaching career started in 2002–03 where he was an assistant coach for the Moose Jaw Warriors in the WHL, followed by getting a head coach role with the Prince George Cougars. He went on to become an assistant coach in the AHL with the Bridgeport Sound Tigers in 2005–06, before joining the Milwaukee Admirals where he was an assistant coach for one season before becoming the head coach for four more.
More Leafs changes afoot
In adding Lambert to the coaching staff, the Maple Leafs also announced that assistant coach Dean Chynoweth would not be returning to the team. We’ll see if the Leafs continue to make changes behind the bench or if they’re done with their staffing changes.
