The Toronto Maple Leafs are expected to hire longtime Ottawa Senators legend Daniel Alfredsson to their coaching staff, according to Sportsnet insider Elliotte Friedman.

According to Friedman, the Maple Leafs are going to bring Alfredsson onto their coaching staff as their associate head coach after he spent the past two-and-a-half years on the Senators’ coaching staff. He was originally hired as a player development coach before being promoted to assistant coach following D.J. Smith’s firing in December 2023.

This is a shocking revelation, to say the least. Bringing in a household name from a rival organization is one thing – the Leafs did have Jason Spezza for the twilight of his career, after all. But Alfredsson was arguably the most hated player in the NHL among Leafs fans during the prime of the Battle of Ontario in the early 2000s. Between his controversial hit on Darcy Tucker in Game 5 of the 2002 Eastern Conference semi-finals to mocking Mats Sundin’s broken stick suspension a few years later, this would be the hockey equivalent of the New York Yankees hiring David Ortiz as their next manager.

Speaking of Sundin, the connection between the two former Battle of Ontario captains had to play a big part here. While the Leafs and Senators hated each other’s guts in the early 2000s (and still do today), Sundin and Alfredsson have always maintained a great respect for each other and even led Sweden to a gold medal at the 2006 Winter Olympic games.

Following the hiring of Alfredsson, the Leafs’ coaching staff features Hiller in the head coaching role, with the assistants still consistint of Derek Lalonde and Steve Sullivan, as well as goaltending coach Curtis Sanford. It’s unknown if Hiller plans to revamp the rest of the coaching staff as of right now. Mike van Ryn, who previously spent three years behind the Leafs’ bench as an assistant coach, was reported to have parted ways with the team a couple of weeks ago.