Maple Leafs add Steve Sullivan to coaching staff

On Friday morning it was announced by the Toronto Maple Leafs that they had hired Steve Sullivan as an assistant coach to replace Marc Savard:

Sullivan has been with the Marlies since last season where he was hired as an assistant, but did spend four seasons with the Maple Leafs from 1996-2000 and had 85 points in 154 games with the team.

He will be spearheading the power play, a spot where he had a lot of success in his career (221 PP points in 1,011 games) and should be able to find a new and creative way to help the stars unlock their potential again.

He led the Marlies to the 11th-best power play in the AHL last season at 19.0% although that has dipped this season to 16.3%. Granted, the Marlies are a struggling team as well who can't seem to score; they have given up 96 goals and have a minus-12 goal differential.

According to TSN's Darren Dreger, Sullivan was hired to work on the man advantage however while he catches up to things, it will be up to the whole staff to figure things out.

Sullivan also has extensive GM experience as part of the Arizona Coyotes, spending time as assistant GM as well as interim GM for the NHL team, and the GM for their AHL affiliate, Tucson.

The Maple Leafs are going to hope that Sullivan is the answer, and though it's going to be a collective working together at first, he should be given a lot of freedom and flexibility to be creative. Toronto needs something different and Sullivan certainly can offer that.

It can't get any worse right now, and the team won't be able to find much success down the road if they can't figure it out.

But if Sullivan is able to take what he has and find a way to kickstart what was once a strong facet of the Maple Leafs' game plan? We could be seeing a much different team in 2026.