Heat must shift to Berube, Maple Leafs after Savard firing

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Firing assistant coach Marc Savard, as the Toronto Maple Leafs did on Monday, was something that had to happen.

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Published Dec 23, 2025 • Last updated 1 day ago • 4 minute read

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Maple Leafs head coach Craig Berube stands behind the bench during a game earlier this year. Photo by Jeffrey T. Barnes /The Associated PressArticle content

The Maple Leafs fired assistant coach Marc Savard because they could.

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That’s how general manager Brad Treliving put it on Tuesday afternoon, a couple of hours before the Leafs met the Pittsburgh Penguins at Scotiabank Arena.

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Treliving can’t make a bunch of trades, let alone one or two, to improve a massively underachieving Leafs team in 2025-26.

So out went Savard on Monday afternoon, the former National Hockey League veteran taking the fall for a power play that has landed in 32nd place in a 32-team league. Never mind that an in-season firing of an assistant coach in hockey is awfully rare, no matter the circumstances.

Usually, it’s the head coach who is fired and his replacement spends the rest of the season deciding which staff members he wants to retain going forward.

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Treliving underlined on Tuesday his support for Berube, giving the latter another vote of confidence, much like Treliving did when he most recently did a media availability, on Nov. 18.

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With the Leafs taking up residence in the Eastern Conference basement, firing Savard apparently was the easiest route for Treliving to take. Still, it was something that had to happen.

Now that it’s done, the glare of the spotlight has to become more intense for Berube and the players.

“It was a change that we could make, right?” Treliving said. “It’s a change that we could make to change the dynamic, change maybe a little bit of the play, how we go about our business on the power play.

“I don’t want to just single out the power play, but it’s been an area that has cost us points in the standings.”

Berube gruff with media

It was a terse Berube who met with media minutes after Treliving departed the podium.

“It’s tough,” Berube said of the Savard firing. “Good friend. Known him for a long time. It’s always hard when you lose somebody and things change, but we didn’t perform well enough.

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“It’s ultimately on me. The PP struggled all year. It wasn’t improving. Tree and I talked, and we made a decision.”

Treliving acknowledged the players “have responsibility” in the power play’s failures, and that Savard’s firing “doesn’t absolve anybody.”

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No sane hockey person would argue with that. At the same time, truly holding captain Auston Matthews and William Nylander and John Tavares and Matthew Knies and others to a higher standard isn’t something the team does with much teeth, certainly not publicly.

For the Leafs to have any hope of making a run at a playoff spot and, considering how many teams they would have to leapfrog to do so, there has to be a major step forward in the play of the team’s leaders.

There’s a lot more to it than whoever is coaching the power play. Assistant coach Derek Lalonde will run the power-play meetings, Berube said, though other staff will have input. Treliving left the door open to making an external hire.

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The inability to make the power play work falls as much on the players as anyone else.

Trade options?

If the Leafs don’t make a big-time turnaround, Treliving will have to take a much harder look at how he can make trades happen.

A major swap could only be done if one of the bold-face millionaires agreed to waive a no-move clause or no-trade clause, whichever applies.

Treliving was asked whether Matthews has asked for a trade. The answer was no. Treliving added that he has not asked any player with trade protection whether he is willing to waive.

But if the Leafs haven’t recovered by the time the NHL trade deadline rolls around on March 6, how could there be any guarantee that what Treliving does, if anything, would help in the long run?

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Last March, he gave up two first-round picks and forward prospect Fraser Minten to get Scott Laughton and Brandon Carlo. How has that worked out?

Treliving didn’t offer much reasoning for why he thinks Berube remains the right coach or why there is belief that this group can get going in the right direction.

Blowing it up with trades? Not yet.

“I don’t think we’re turning the page right now on the season,” Treliving said. “You continue to monitor your team. You know what’s going on the league. You’re having discussions with different teams.

“We’re not here waving a white flag. You always look at change. I don’t say all the answers are internal. If you can find somewhere to help your team from bringing a player in or making a deal, that’s what you look to do.

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Maple Leafs GM Brad Treliving still believes in coach Craig Berube after latest woes

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“When you’ve got people that are underperforming, the best way to turn around is getting people playing to the level that they can, and that’s where a lot of the lion’s share of the work is.”

The Leafs will be five games shy of the halfway point when they come back from the Christmas break to play host to the Ottawa Senators on Saturday. You’d think that by now the players would have found a way to play to “the level they can,” if they were capable.

Firing Savard had to be done, but it also was the easiest route for Treliving to take.

Other decisions that seem tough now won’t be, or shouldn’t be, if the Leafs continue to flail.

tkoshan@postmedia.com

X: @koshtorontosun

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Heat must shift to Berube, Maple Leafs after Savard firing

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