LOS ANGELES — Craig Berube will stand behind the Toronto Maple Leafs’ bench at Crypto.com Arena on Saturday night to do what he loves: coach.
Berube will continue to coach the Leafs … for now.
Keith Pelley, the president and CEO of Maple Leafs Sports and Entertainment, made that clear this week when he said Berube’s fate would be determined by the next leader of the Leafs.
“That’s not decided by myself,” Pelley said. “His role on the hockey club doesn’t change today.”
Pelley went on to suggest that in a “perfect world,” he will hire the person(s) running the Leafs by the time of the NHL Draft combine, which begins in Buffalo on May 31. But he also said that the process could stretch into June.
That means Berube, who is signed through the 2027-28 season, will be left in limbo for the six remaining games on the Leafs’ schedule and another six-plus weeks after that.
Pelley didn’t have to go about it this way, which begs the question of why he did.
Berube and recently dispatched general manager Brad Treliving both deserve some blame for the Leafs’ failed season. So why make one move and not the other?
Berube’s strategies are a huge part of why things have gone sour.
Under his direction, the Leafs have spent the most time of any team in the league at even strength in the defensive zone this season. They have been outshot in 75 percent of their games to this point, 57 times and counting, the most in the NHL and five times more than the next closest team, the Chicago Blackhawks.
Berube has made puzzling lineup decisions along the way and has been unable to get his group to play hard and structured on a consistent basis. He has been perplexed with the state of his team more often than not.
His Leafs were supposed to be a shoo-in for the playoffs. Instead, they have missed the postseason for the first time in 10 years.
Ideally, the Leafs would have moved on from the general manager and the head coach at the same time. Pelley, however, opted to fire Treliving with two and a half weeks left in the season. Dumping Berube along with him would have only added to the dysfunction.
The Leafs intend to let their next leader(s) decide on Craig Berube’s fate. (Brad Penner / Imagn Images)
The question is whether Pelley even believes a head coaching change is necessary.
Other than vague mentions of alignment issues organizationally in his press conference this week, he said nothing critical about Berube’s coaching. We know, from past comments, that he’s a big Berube fan. We also know that the Leafs decided to hang onto Berube all the way through a nightmarish season and at least a little longer after that.
On the one hand, letting the next Leafs’ boss handle the decision makes sense. Pelley could stay out of the way and let the hockey people make the hockey decisions. On the other hand, why leave it to the next leader at all when the justification for change, as with Treliving, is so strong? Pelley could have made the decision himself (with ownership’s approval), just as he did with Treliving, and offered the next leader a clean slate.
Instead, that person’s first move as leader of the Leafs will be to either fire Berube or own what would be a perplexing decision to bring him back.
The next president and/or general manager would ideally know exactly what they want to do with the head coach and communicate that to Pelley in the interview process. But what if that person(s) wants time for a more thorough evaluation, including a conversation or two with Berube, before coming to a decision?
That’s precisely what Treliving chose to do when he became Leafs general manager nearly three years ago. He took three full months before he determined that Sheldon Keefe would return as head coach, then handed him a two-year extension along with it.
What if, in the six weeks the Leafs spend waiting to decide on Berube, one or both of the two premier coaching candidates known to be available, Bruce Cassidy and Pete DeBoer, get scooped up? While a “data-driven” boss certainly wouldn’t be enamoured by Berube’s tactics, they might also be swayed by Pelley’s influence and inclined to offer to keep Berube, knowing it might win them the job.
They might also like the idea of not cashing a chip on a coach immediately.
It’s unusual to have a coach’s future confirmed to be so openly in jeopardy (or not). It will also have the effect of keeping Berube and his staff effectively off the job market when the offseason begins later this month and for more weeks after that, which is far from ideal for them.
For his part, Berube has said he is unbothered by any of it because, at the end of the day, he still loves to coach.
“It’s been my life,” he said. “Whatever happens, happens. I’m the coach here now, and my focus is the team. That’s it.”