Guy Boucher made it known to the Toronto Maple Leafs that he wanted to be considered for the team’s head coaching vacancy, if the team elected to make a change, according to Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman.

This is a moot point now, as the Maple Leafs hired Craig Berube and formally introduced him on May 21. Toronto announced that it would be retaining Boucher for the 2024-25 season on Saturday. Berube filled out his staff by naming Lane Lambert as an associate coach, while Mike Van Ryn remains on staff.

“I think Boucher had indicated that if a coaching change was made, he would like to be considered for the position. I don’t know how seriously Toronto did, or if he was a candidate,” Friedman said on the latest edition of 32 Thoughts: The Podcast. 

Boucher was primarily responsible for Toronto’s power play during the 2023-24 season, which faltered badly during the team’s seven-game loss to the Boston Bruins in the first round of the playoffs. Toronto converted at a ghastly 4.8 percent rate against Boston, after clicking at a 24 percent clip during the regular season, the seventh-best mark in the league. During the playoff series, Toronto routinely failed to adapt to the Auston Matthews and William Nylander’s injury-related absences, failing to enter the zone cleanly, while running stale set plays.

It’s unclear at the time of this filing if other teams have interest in hiring Boucher. Sheldon Keefe was hired by the New Jersey Devils as their head coach on May 23 and could be looking to fill out his staff, but there’s been no formal indication of any potential move.

Boucher has extensive head coaching experience, spending parts of three seasons (2010-11-to-2012-13) with the Tampa Bay Lightning before spending parts of three seasons with the Ottawa Senators (2016-17-to-2018-19) although he was dismissed in both instances.