The daily main story at Hockey Hot Stove is powered by Watrhouse Brands, dedicated to quality, consumer education, and awareness: Benevolent Bakery, SoSHEL beverages, and Smokiez vegan fruit chews. Today: Maple Leafs upheaval.
The Toronto Maple Leafs begin their final lengthy road trip of the 2025-26 season against the St. Louis Blues on Saturday, followed by a swing through California starting with the much-anticipated rematch with the Anaheim Ducks on Monday. The rematch may lose some of it’s lustre, as defenseman Radko Gudas suffered an injury earlier this week and may not be in the lineup for the Ducks.
Following the road trip, the Leafs will have two weeks remaining in the season and the only thing left to be determined will be where they will end up in the standings and how much of a chance they will have at winning the NHL Draft Lottery. Toronto is four points out of a top-five draft slot, and has played one-to-three games more than the clubs in that group of five, which includes the Blues.
The focus to what happens with the Leafs shifted after the trade deadline, and there is all kinds of speculation to how extensive the changes made to the club will be. Will head coach Craig Berube be fired? How about GM Brad Treliving? Will MLSE chairman Keith Pelley hire a team president? What will these changes mean in terms of the willingness of team captain Auston Matthews to stay while the club retools? How much of the current roster will be back next season?
Maple Leafs head coach
Berube appears to be the most vulnerable of the higher-ups in the organization, which might be unfair based on the fact that the Leafs won the Atlantic Division last season and got as deep in the playoffs as they did under Mike Babcock or Sheldon Keefe, but the veteran bench boss has to answer for the direction of the club, the handling on the roster, and the questionable allocation of players.
Before the season, Pelley indicated that Berube would have more input on roster decisions, and over the summer, the additions of Matias Maccelli, Nicolas Roy, and Dakota Joshua were at best mediocre.
Where Berube really fell flat was the handling of the roster, from the shifting of Max Domi from center to wing, the moving of Maccelli up and down the lineup and scratching him for almost a month, the playing of subpar defenders like Philippe Myers instead of giving a legitimate opportunity to blueliners in the AHL, the lack of recognition that Morgan Rielly needed to be played lower in the lineup, the overuse of Anthony Stolarz at the start of the season, the lack of recognition that Dennis Hildeby was ready for prime time, to the baffling mishandling of playing time for 20-year-old rookie Easton Cowan.
Any one of these things would be a problem, but this list spells catastrophe, and going another year with this head coach cannot happen. It has to be said that it is not all on Berube; the players and their lack of buy-in to the type of game he wanted them to play were a big factor, but he apparently has no ability to adjust when he sees that the club assembled cannot play that game.
That lack of flexibility might be what is behind concerns about Matthews and his immediate future or the disenchantment of William Nylander. There is no way to predict what will happen with this club, but the easiest prediction is that he will be fired the day after the season ends.
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Tagged: nhl, Toronto Maple Leafs