Maple Leafs Grant Seattle Kraken Permission to Speak With Coaching Candidate
Photo credit: Nick Turchiaro-Imagn Images
The Toronto Maple Leafs have granted the Seattle Kraken permission to speak with assistant coach Lane Lambert for their head coaching role according to Darren Dreger.
As the Maple Leafs look to add players to their team given how many might be gone by the time summer comes around, they may be on the verge of losing a very important piece of their team, and it's not even a roster member.
Darren Dreger Reveals Kraken Want Toronto's Lane Lambert For Head Coach
According to NHL Insider Darren Dreger, the team has granted permission to the Seattle Kraken to interview assistant coach Lane Lambert for their vacant head coaching position.
Seattle continues to work through its process in hiring a head coach. Toronto has granted the Kraken permission to speak with Lane Lambert. Mitch Love and David Quinn believed to be among those in the mix as well.
The Maple Leafs were transformed defensively under Lambert, and his ability to help the team lock things down on the back end was a huge reason for their turnaround this season.
If he ends up parting it leaves a huge hole for Craig Berube's team.
Lambert was one of the ones who was fully on board and wanted Lambert a part of his team. He managed to help get the Leafs PK from 23rd last year with a 76.9%, to 17th this year with a 77.9%.
Lambert is no stranger to being a head coach either, leading the New York Islanders from 2022-2024 when he was fired halfway through the season.
He has compiled a 61-46-20 record and made the playoffs in his first season, bowing out to the Carolina Hurricanes in the first round.
Seattle's Coaching Search Involves Prominent Coaches
Seattle is also interested in bringing aboard either Mitch Love or David Quinn aboard as their new coach as well.
Love, a former player who never made it to the NHL, is currently an assistant coach with the Washington Capitals; a position he has held since 2023 and was brought in to work on the team's defense as he was both a winger and defender in his playing career.
He's also the only player ever to have his jersey retired by the Everett Silvertips of the WHL and managed to help coach them post-retirement.
Quinn, another undrafted NHLer who never played in the league, had his playing career cut short due to Haemophilia B, a rare disease that prevented his blood from clotting.
He retired in 1993 and immediately transitioned into a coaching role at Northeastern University and helped start up the University of Nebraska-Omaha's hockey program.
He was named the head coach of Colorado's affiliate Lake Erie in 2009, and made it to Colorado as an assistant.
Later he was hired to be the New York Rangers' head coach in 2018, but was fired after missing the playoffs. After coaching the U.S. Olympic Team in 2022, he found himself as the San Jose Sharks head coach in 2022.
Fired after finishing in the bottom of his two seasons in California, he's been an assistant alongside Mike Sullivan in Pittsburgh though Sullivan was let go this season.
For his coaching career, he compiled a 137-185-50 record with New York and San Jose.
We will for sure know more about Lambert's future with the Maple Leafs not only as the offseason trudges on, but possibly as soon as Thursday where MLSE are set to make a stunning announcement.
| POLL | ||
MAI 21 | 888 ANSWERS Maple Leafs Grant Seattle Kraken Permission to Speak With Coaching Candidate Do you think Lane Lambert will return as Maple Leafs assistant coach or leave to coach Seattle? | ||
| Stay Here in Toronto! | 236 | 26.6 % |
| Leave For a Head Coach Job | 652 | 73.4 % |
| List of polls | ||
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