The Maple Leafs should fire Craig Berube and hire Bruce Cassidy while the Stanley Cup winner is free
Photo credit: Stephen R. Sylvanie-Imagn Images
For all the talk about Peter DeBoer coming in, the Toronto Maple Leafs instead need to fire Craig Berube and replace him with Bruce Cassidy after he was let go by the Vegas Golden Knights.
Toronto needs a new coach badly, and there's no two ways around it. But their focus needs to be not only on a winner but someone who can develop the future and make sure the stars are given every opportunity to succeed.
It's going to be a huge factor in whether or not Auston Matthews stays, and as luck would have it there's a perfectly capable coach suddenly available.
Bruce Cassidy being available changes the math for the Toronto Maple Leafs and the future of Craig Berube
After Vegas fired Bruce Cassidy on Sunday, it meant that the former Stanley Cup winner was a free agent and who better to help turn the tides than to bring him in — and maybe also stick it to Mitch Marner a little bit.
It's night and day with Berube and Cassidy. While the former plays a slower, more dump and chase style, the latter relies more on dynamic scoring, power-play efficiency, and an onus on using the stars where they are supposed to be (except for Marner, granted).
But one year shouldn't be a black mark on Cassidy as he has a career .630 win percentage (470-254-9-96) with his lowest finish being fourth (2021-22 in Boston and 2023-24 in Vegas). Otherwise, he knows how to win and wouldn't it be fun to win with him when Marner couldn't?
Plus, don't you want to give Matthews a chance to become a 69-goal scorer again? Then you need to make sure that Berube is as far away from his as possible. Cassidy is someone very familiar with the Atlantic Division and could be the one to steer the ship through rough waters.
The Maple Leafs need to do what Vegas did and stop with the hesitation. There's no reason to keep Berube regardless of if the roster is an issue, and you may as well rip the bandage off now — it's pointless to let things fester.
Toronto needs to follow the Golden Knights blueprint and prioritize winning over loyalty
So what if there only a handful of games left? Vegas are looking to make the playoffs and just made a change. It's what winners do. But for a team who hasn't won anything in nearly 60 years it seems they have lost that part of their identity.
There's been news that a 'May audit' is in the works from MLSE as they evaluate the entire organization but hiring Cassidy — a guy with a real resume and a game plan to back it up would be a great head start.
Let him come in and bring in his own staff. Nothing against Derek Lalonde and Steve Sullivan but there needs to be a complete overhaul of the coaching system and you gotta throw Mike Van Ryn in there as well.
Even today, it's not like he led the Golden Knights to the basement of the Pacific and they are struggling badly. They just needed a new voice to motivate them for the end run and Cassidy's wasn't being heard anymore.
Bruce Cassidy just became the most available and most qualified coach in the NHL. Toronto has very limited to make the right call before someone else does.
Also read on Hockey Patrol :
The Mitch Marner era in Vegas just claimed its first victim as Bruce Cassidy is out and John Tortorella is in
The Mitch Marner era in Vegas just claimed its first victim as Bruce Cassidy is out and John Tortorella is in
Previously on Hockey Patrol