The Toronto Maple Leafs announced on Monday that they have relieved assistant coach Marc Savard of his duties.

Savard is the first domino has fallen on a Toronto Maple Leafs 2025-26 season that’s been disappointing in enough ways to fill a grocery list. He joined the Maple Leafs’ coaching staff in 2024-25 as one of head coach Craig Berube’s hand-picked assistants, and was predominantly in charge of the team’s power play.

While the Maple Leafs’ power play eventually pulled it together to finish ninth in the league in that category, the team has been dismal with the man advantage in 2025-26, currently sitting dead last in the league at 13.3%. For a team with Auston Matthews, William Nylander, John Tavares, and Matthew Knies along with seemingly improved depth scoring, this wasn’t a result the team could tolerate any longer.

Savard was one of Berube’s assistants on the St. Louis Blues in 2019-20, the year after they won the cup, and followed that with a head coaching job with the Windsor Spitfires of the OHL. He returned to the NHL to join the Calgary Flames as an assistant coach in 2023-24 before joining the Maple Leafs following the hiring of Berube.

With the Maple Leafs losing three straight games and currently sitting dead last in the Atlantic Division with one game remaining before Christmas, it seemed like change of some sort was imminent even if it wasn’t going to be a more prominent name like Berube or general manager Brad Treliving. The Leafs have been able to keep their head above the water due to the parity in the Atlantic Division, and really across the entire NHL, but they won’t be able to lean on for much longer before the buyers and sellers market start to take shape.

The Maple Leafs have not announced any plans for Savard’s replacement at the time of filing.

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