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The next Maple Leafs’ head coach needs to be the anti-Berube
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Photo credit: John E. Sokolowski-Imagn Images
Arun Srinivasan
May 13, 2026, 13:10 EDTUpdated: May 13, 2026, 13:16 EDT
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Afforded with a chance to start anew, the Toronto Maple Leafs need to fully embrace what change entails. Craig Berube was fired as head coach on Wednesday, after meeting with John Chayka and Mats Sundin over the weekend. Berube failed to get his group to play his system, which was predicated on surrendering puck possession on dump-ins, while pushing opponents to the outside off the rush. As the NHL continues to evolve, the Maple Leafs’ next coach needs to be the anti-Berube.
Chayka met with reporters at the Ford Performance Centre on Wednesday afternoon, to discuss Berube’s dismissal.
“We’ll have a thorough process. It’ll be a wide search. We’ll take our time, try to get it right. It’s the most critical decision as a general manager,” Chayka said, while noting multiple times that there’s no timeline to replace Berube.
Berube was hired in large part due to the notion that he would revamp Toronto’s systems and culture. He was thought to be an old school, hard-nosed practitioner of defensively-sound hockey, with some much sought-after Stanley Cup pedigree. Berube was expected to overhaul Toronto’s tactics in order to take a hypertalented regular season team, and turn them into a Stanley Cup contender. Instead, the Maple Leafs finished near the bottom of every predictive metric in 2025-26, the defensive structure entirely collapsed, Berube earmarked jobs for Max Domi and Calle Jarnkrok at the expense of younger, more productive players, and the team underwent a 30-point decline.
Chayka was measured and guarded Wednesday, opening his remarks by thanking Berube for his tenure, stating that it wasn’t a verdict on Berube’s coaching. All due respect to Chayka, but of course it was. Berube’s north-south edict above all made the Maple Leafs slower, predictable, less dynamic and unable to defend speedier teams off the rush. The next head coach has to inherently understand where the game’s going, even if Chayka elected for outright diplomacy at his media availability.
“I think we’re going to start very wide and talk to as many people as we can, with varying backgrounds,” Chayka said. “As a general point, I think experience, certainly experience in the larger NHL markets, could be an asset and will be weighed, but I wouldn’t discount anything at this time.”
The next head coach decidedly needs to act as the anti-Berube, especially when Penn State’s Gavin McKenna is expected to join the team immediately as a dynamic, top-six winger. It would’ve been irresponsible to allow Berube to oversee the next wave of Maple Leafs’ talent, a nucleus consisting of McKenna, Matthew Knies and Easton Cowan. A team with Auston Matthews and William Nylander at the forefront should always be a dynamic offensive team, and it will take further creativity on entries, and on the power play, in order to forge a pathway to contention.
Chayka dismissed the notion that McKenna’s arrival would influence their decision in selecting a new head coach. With the aim of finding the anti-Berube, Toronto may be wise to elect for a first-time NHL head coach, who can reinvigorate the core, and cut through the communicative and pedagogical challenges that plagued Berube’s tenure. University of Denver head coach David Carle has never expressed a desire to leave the NCAA, but the Maple Leafs can offer their ideal candidate a package that may be impossible to refuse.
Chayka declined to specify why he fired Berube, but it was evident from the outset that was always going to be the course of action. Although Chayka refused to outline specific tactical criteria he wants to see from his next head coach, it’s apparent the Maple Leafs are heading into an entirely new direction. Out of respect for Berube, Chayka was measured and guarded, but it doesn’t change the attendant message: the next Maple Leafs’ head coach will have to be the anti-Craig Berube.

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