The Toronto Maple Leafs are in free fall, losing five of their last six games. They currently sit 15th in the Eastern Conference with 35 points, one above the 16th-place Columbus Blue Jackets. The Leafs are six points out of a playoff spot, and three points out of dead last in the NHL.
It is pretty clear that head coach Craig Berube has lost the room, and the players have tuned him out. Craig Berube needs to be replaced. Despite the free fall, there are still 47 games, more than half the season, to turn it around. To save the season, the Leafs also need to fire Craig Berube and hire a different coach for this roster. One name that is circulated is Peter DeBoer, who I think would be an excellent fit with this group.
Let’s take a look DeBoer’s career, and how he could fit with the Leafs.
Peter DeBoer’s career beginnings
Peter DeBoer has quite an impressive track record for a coach who has never won a Stanley Cup. He has made deep playoff runs with four different NHL franchises, which included two Stanley Cup Final appearances.
DeBoer started his head coaching career with the Florida Panthers in the 2008–09 season. The Panthers missed the playoffs in all three seasons, and DeBoer was let go. The following season, 2011–12, DeBoer was hired as the head coach of the New Jersey Devils.
In his first season with the Devils, they finished 9th in the league with 102 points. This Devils team had Ilya Kovalchuk, Zach Parise, and a highly touted rookie, Adam Larsson. The Devils lost in the Stanley Cup Finals to the Los Angeles Kings. DeBoer’s Devils did not make the playoffs for the next two seasons, and he was fired partway through his fourth season.
In 2015–16, DeBoer was hired as the head coach of the San Jose Sharks. The Sharks finished 11th in the league with 98 points that season in his first year as head coach. The Sharks had aging veterans, Joe Thornton and Patrick Marleau. They also had Joe Pavelski, youngster Tomas Hertl, Brent Burns, and Marc-Edouard Vlasic on defence.
Like with his first season with the Devils, DeBoer’s Sharks made the Stanley Cup Finals, but lost to the Pittsburgh Penguins. DeBoer’s Sharks would face a first-round elimination next season, followed by a second-round elimination and a Conference Finals elimination in his last full season as head coach.
Peter DeBoer’s recent work
After being fired by the Sharks, DeBoer took over the Vegas Golden Knights’ head coaching job mid-way through the 2019–20 season. DeBoer went on an impressive 15–5–2 record, putting the Golden Knights third in the Western Conference. After an impressive turnaround, the Golden Knights lost in the third round to the Dallas Stars.
The following season, the Golden Knights made the third round again, only to be eliminated by the Montreal Canadiens. The Golden Knights missed the playoffs the following year, and DeBoer was fired.
The Dallas Stars hired DeBoer ahead of the 2022–23 season. In all three years with DeBoer at the helm, the Stars were at the top of the league, even clinching the Western Conference in the 2023–24 season. Each year, the Stars went on deep playoff runs and made the Conference Finals. However, under DeBoer, the Stars did not progress to the Stanley Cup Finals.
While he hasn’t won the Stanley Cup, he has a track record of deep playoff runs, especially in the modern NHL. Furthermore, DeBoer also has a fantastic game seven record. He leads all NHL coaches in NHL history in Game 7 wins with nine.
A good fit?
DeBoer’s teams have good forechecking and defensive structure, as well as a good transition game, which allows the players to be creative in the offensive zone. With the Vegas Golden Knights, while there wasn’t as much star power, they still had Mark Stone, Jonathan Marchessault, and Shea Theodore. With Dallas, there was Jason Robertson, Roope Hintz, Miro Heiskanen, and last season, Mikko Rantanen.
If the Leafs made the third round this season, many fans would be thrilled. It would be the first time since the 2001–02 season, 24 seasons ago, that the Leafs made the third round. This would put the team on par (in terms of success) with Mats Sundin’s Leafs.
DeBoer’s system seems to combine both Sheldon Keefe’s and Craig Berube’s systems into one. Under Sheldon Keefe, the Leafs were purely an offensive team. Often, they would outscore their opponents for those “exciting games” we saw. However, the drawback was the lack of defence, often leaving it up to the goalie.
Berube’s system is almost the opposite. The Leafs play a more defensive system and an old–school dump–and–chase game. It worked last season, as the Leafs made the second round and looked fairly good doing so. They even took a 2–0 lead against the eventual Stanley Cup Champions, but lost in seven games.
Despite making it the furthest in the Matthews era, the Leafs look like a shell of last year’s team. The Leafs are not built like the 2018–19 St. Louis Blues. The Leafs are a transition and offensively creative team. Offensive creativity does not shine under Berube’s system, but it is the DNA makeup of the Leafs. By combining an offensive system with a strong defensive structure, it would suit the existing roster more effectively.
The Leafs need changes
The Leafs fired their power play coach yesterday evening, Marc Savard, midway through his second season with the team. So far this season, the Leafs are dead last in the NHL with a power play of 13.3%. Last year, the Leafs’ power play finished 16th with a 21.4%, which, as a “Stanley Cup Contender,” is unacceptable.
I do think that the Leafs need more on-ice leadership, and need their star players, mainly Auston Matthews and William Nylander, to start being true leaders. They need to take control of games, and we have only seen them do so a handful of times during their tenure with the Leafs. I don’t think Craig Berube is fully to blame; the roster is unwilling to adapt to Berube’s system.
Normally, there would be two options. If General Manager Brad Treliving thinks Berube’s system is the way to build a championship-winning team, then they should sign or trade for players that fit this system. However, outside of Easton Cowan, the players that have value and could net a big return, such as Morgan Rielly, Auston Matthews, and William Nylander, all have no-movement clauses.
Given that the Leafs can’t ship out players that don’t fit the coaches’ philosophy, the Leafs are left with the alternative. That is, bring in a coach and system that suits the existing players and a coach that has a track record of success. In my mind, the best available option is Peter DeBoer.
DeBoer’s deep playoff runs with the four different NHL franchises all had some high-end talent. Despite no Mitch Marner, the Leafs still have high-end talent with Matthews, Nylander, and John Tavares. More offensively-minded players such as Easton Cowan, Oliver Ekman-Larsson or Matias Maccelli would thrive under DeBoer. Defensively minded players with some offensive upside, such as Scott Laughton and Nicolas Roy, would also thrive under DeBoer.
DeBoer’s system seems to be a match made in heaven. At least it seems to align closer to the players that the Leafs are locked into long-term.
Who should the Leafs replace Craig Berube with? Let us know in the comments down below!
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