{"id":43509,"date":"2026-05-13T14:54:21","date_gmt":"2026-05-13T14:54:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/43509\/"},"modified":"2026-05-13T14:54:21","modified_gmt":"2026-05-13T14:54:21","slug":"toronto-maple-leafs-fire-head-coach-craig-berube-ending-two-year-run-with-club","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/43509\/","title":{"rendered":"Toronto Maple Leafs fire head coach Craig Berube, ending two-year run with club"},"content":{"rendered":"

Open this photo in gallery:<\/a><\/p>\n

Toronto Maple Leafs head coach Craig Berube during a game in Toronto, in December, 2025.Frank Gunn\/The Canadian Press<\/p>\n

The Toronto Maple Leafs fired head coach Craig Berube on Wednesday after he guided the team to a last-place finish in the NHL\u2019s Atlantic Division this past season.<\/p>\n

The move ended Berube\u2019s two-year run with the Maple Leafs. He helped the club to a 108-point campaign in his first season as coach, but Toronto struggled mightily in 2025-26.<\/p>\n

\u201cCraig is a tremendous coach and an even better person,\u201d general manager John Chayka said in a statement. \u201cThis decision is more reflective of an organizational shift and an opportunity for a fresh start than it is an evaluation of Craig.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are grateful for his leadership, professionalism and commitment to the Maple Leafs organization and wish Craig and his family nothing but the best moving forward.\u201d<\/p>\n

Chayka was hired earlier this month. He succeeded Brad Treliving, who was let go in March.<\/p>\n

Berube went 84-62-18 with Toronto, but the Maple Leafs were just 32-36-14 this past season. The drop in points \u2013 from 108 to 78 \u2013 was the team\u2019s largest year-over-year points decline.<\/p>\n

The Maple Leafs headed into this past season with high hopes despite the loss of star winger Mitch Marner.<\/p>\n

Toronto added a trio of forwards \u2013 Matias Maccelli, Dakota Joshua and Nicolas Roy \u2013 in hopes of replacing those minutes by committee on a team thought to be still poised for Stanley Cup contention.<\/p>\n

Open this photo in gallery:<\/a><\/p>\n

Maple Leafs head coach Craig Berube looks on from the bench in a game against the Pittsburgh Penguins in December, 2025.Nathan Denette\/The Canadian Press<\/p>\n

The Maple Leafs, however, never really got out of second gear. Along with a string of key injuries and absences, the club largely looked out of sorts from puck drop.<\/p>\n

Despite a roster still anchored by star forwards Auston Matthews and William Nylander, the Maple Leafs\u2019 power play was a huge issue.<\/p>\n

Defensive deficiencies also caused glaring problems for a club that finished with the second-worst goals-against mark and was outshot a league-worst 66 times.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey played with more passion than we did,\u201d Berube told reporters in December after a particularly ugly 4-0 road loss to the Washington Capitals. \u201cThat\u2019s what it boils down to. It looked to me like they had way more urgency in their game, more passion in their game. That\u2019s the difference.\u201d<\/p>\n

Asked to explain how that could be the case, he replied: \u201cAsk those guys, not me.\u201d<\/p>\n

The exchange was just one example of clear disconnect.<\/p>\n

Maple Leafs, special adviser Shane Doan part ways after three seasons<\/a><\/p>\n

A three-time Maurice (Rocket) Richard Trophy winner as the NHL\u2019s top goal-scorer, Matthews found the back of the net just 27 times before suffering a season-ending knee injury on an ugly hit from Anaheim Ducks defenceman Radko Gudas in March.<\/p>\n

Toronto\u2019s players didn\u2019t do much in the immediate aftermath, which led to stinging rebukes from Berube \u2013 a former NHL enforcer with the seventh-most penalty minutes in league history \u2013 media members and fans as the locker-room culture was called into question.<\/p>\n

Berube, 60, was hired in May, 2024 after Treliving let Sheldon Keefe go following 4\u00bd seasons in charge.<\/p>\n

Toronto won a playoff round for just the second time in the NHL\u2019s salary-cap era during his first campaign. The Maple Leafs beat the Ottawa Senators before falling to Florida in a series accented by 6-1 losses on home ice in Games 5 and 7.<\/p>\n

The Panthers would go on to win their second straight Stanley Cup.<\/p>\n

Open this photo in gallery:<\/a><\/p>\n

Craig Berube looks on during a game against the Buffalo Sabres, on March 14.Jeffrey T. Barnes\/The Associated Press<\/p>\n

The Maple Leafs had embraced Berube\u2019s straightforward, no-nonsense, north-south approach in 2024-25 after Keefe was unable to get the same talented group over its playoff hump, but didn\u2019t come close to duplicating that success a second time.<\/p>\n

Berube\u2019s coaching journey began with the Philadelphia Flyers organization after retiring as a player. He worked his way up the ladder, moving from the AHL to the NHL as an assistant in 2006-07.<\/p>\n

The Calahoo, Alta., product took over as Flyers head coach early in 2013-14, and he lasted another season before getting fired.<\/p>\n

Berube then led the St. Louis Blues\u2019 AHL affiliate after a year on the sidelines. He became an NHL associate coach in 2017-18 and was promoted to the top job with St. Louis in November 2018.<\/p>\n

Berube rallied the group, which at one point sat last in the overall standings, to make the playoffs before they went on a magical run that culminated with the franchise\u2019s first and only Cup victory.<\/p>\n

Opinion: Maple Leafs\u2019 stroke of lottery luck should hasten split with Auston Matthews<\/a><\/p>\n

Berube lost in the first round each of the next three seasons and missed out entirely in 2022-23. The Blues fired him just 28 games into the subsequent campaign.<\/p>\n

When Berube was hired by the Maple Leafs, Treliving said he had plenty of conversations with people who worked with, worked under and played alongside the former tough guy.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey talked about how they would go through a wall for him,\u201d Treliving said. \u201cThere was the connection he had with his players, the accountability he had with his players, and the bond he was able to build with staff.\u201d<\/p>\n

Toronto won the NHL draft lottery last week. The Maple Leafs are expected to pick either Gavin McKenna or Ivar Stenberg with the first overall pick on June 26 at the NHL Draft in Buffalo.<\/p>\n

The club\u2019s next head coach will determine the makeup of the remainder of the coaching staff, the Maple Leafs said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Open this photo in gallery: Toronto Maple Leafs head coach Craig Berube during a game in Toronto, in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":43510,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[164,224,238,214,212,239,17,211,230,231,227,213,210,235,171,234,143,222,249,215,216,229,225,226,219,240,220,244,245,247,242,246,94,243,217,142,233,113,232,241,223,236,48,237,228,221,218,248],"class_list":{"0":"post-43509","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-toronto","8":"tag-alberta","9":"tag-arts-news","10":"tag-bc","11":"tag-breaking-news","12":"tag-breaking-news-video","13":"tag-british-columbia","14":"tag-canada","15":"tag-canada-news","16":"tag-canada-sports","17":"tag-canada-sports-news","18":"tag-canada-trafficcanada-weather","19":"tag-canadian-breaking-news","20":"tag-canadian-news","21":"tag-economy","22":"tag-education","23":"tag-environment","24":"tag-federal-government","25":"tag-foreign-news","26":"tag-globe-and-mail","27":"tag-globe-and-mail-breaking-news","28":"tag-globe-and-mail-canada-news","29":"tag-government","30":"tag-life-news","31":"tag-lifestyle","32":"tag-local-news","33":"tag-manitoba","34":"tag-national-news","35":"tag-new-brunswick","36":"tag-newfoundland-and-labrador","37":"tag-northwest-territories","38":"tag-nova-scotia","39":"tag-nunavut","40":"tag-ontario","41":"tag-pei","42":"tag-photos","43":"tag-political-news","44":"tag-political-opinion","45":"tag-politics","46":"tag-politics-news","47":"tag-quebec","48":"tag-sports-news","49":"tag-technology","50":"tag-toronto","51":"tag-travel","52":"tag-trudeau","53":"tag-us-news","54":"tag-world-news","55":"tag-yukon"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43509","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=43509"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43509\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/43510"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=43509"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=43509"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=43509"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}