5 options to replace Craig Berube as Maple Leafs’ head coach

It has been an eventful first few weeks for John Chayka and Mats Sundin as the leaders of the Toronto Maple Leafs’ front office. The team won the NHL Draft Lottery for the first-overall pick, is dealing with trade rumors for their captain, Auston Matthews, and then fired their head coach, Craig Berube. For their next act, the duo will need to find the best candidates to be the Maple Leafs’ next head coach.

Bruce Cassidy is top head coach available

Bruce Cassidy has already made it known that coaching a Canadian team would be appealing to him. The allure of bringing a Stanley Cup back to the country for the first time since 1993 (if the Montreal Canadiens don’t win it this season) is something that any Canadian head coach would want to do. However, it might be up to Cassidy to decide whether his best opportunity is with the potentially rebuilding Maple Leafs or the Edmonton Oilers.

Coaching the Maple Leafs to a Stanley Cup would have its perks, but Cassidy isn’t the type of leader that the organization may want through a quick retool/rebuild. He doesn’t have the best reputation as a player’s coach, and he does weigh on his players after a while. A short-term fix with big result potential? Yes. But putting him in a room that isn’t close to winning a Stanley Cup has the chance to blow up for the organization.

David Carle’s growing resume appealing to Maple Leafs

David Carle is one of the most sought-after hockey coaches in the game, but his heart still resides in Colorado with the University of Denver. Carle has two National Championships at his alma mater and two World Junior gold medals with Team USA. He is a proven winner and the type of coach you want with your team through a rebuild. The only problem is getting him to leave his cushy job with Denver and take on the pressure of leading the Maple Leafs.

Jay Woodcroft has NHL superstar experience

Jay Woodcroft was once the head coach of the Edmonton Oilers, until a bad stretch of play led to his firing in favor of Kris Knoblauch. Questions remain about Woodcroft’s abilities as a head coach, but he is now working on the Anaheim Ducks’ bench under Joel Quenneville and is the architect of one of the league’s best offenses.

If the Maple Leafs want to get the most out of their superstars, Woodcroft might be the one to do it, according to a stat from HS Hockey via X, formerly Twitter.

“Woodcroft got 150 pts out of [Connor] McDavid, 130 out of [Leon] Draisaitl, 100 out of [Ryan Nugent-Hopkins], and 83 out of [Zach] Hyman,” he posted.

Toronto would like to see their captain get back to being one of the most dangerous scorers in the world, and the growth of Gavin McKenna if he is the one they choose with the first overall pick. There might not be a better person to do it than Woodcroft.

Could Maple Leafs target recently unemployed Kris Knoblauch?

Oilers fans weren’t thrilled with the way Knoblauch handled the bench this past season, which led to the team firing him a day after Berube left the Maple Leafs. While the 2025-26 season was a bit of a mess, Knoblauch did lead Edmonton to back-to-back Stanley Cup Finals. McDavid and Draisaitl aren’t walking through the door for whichever team Knoblauch joins next, but Toronto could potentially at least give him a goalie who can make a save.

Bruce Boudreau is the most fun option

If you watch Canadian sports media closely, Bruce Boudreau has been making guest appearances on every hockey show since his firing by the Vancouver Canucks during the 2022-23 season to talk about his Maple Leafs fandom and break down exactly what is going wrong in Toronto. Boudreau isn’t afraid to say that when he is out of work, the Maple Leafs are his No. 1 team and the one he follows most closely.

Maybe the game is passing Boudreau by, and he isn’t the ideal candidate for Chayka, who is likely looking for a younger, more analytical candidate. However, if Sundin was brought in to bring more passion to the fanbase and locker room, there isn’t a better fit than Boudreau.

There will be no shortage of people lining up for a chance to take one of the most prestigious jobs in the world, but the list of people who can actually handle it is much shorter.

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