TORONTO – Craig Berube has been handed the keys to the Toronto Maple Leafs.
It will be up to the 58-year-old to deliver something the Original Six franchise hasn’t experienced in more than a generation — sustained playoff success.
The Leafs named Berube their new head coach Friday after another post-season flop that cost predecessor Sheldon Keefe his job last week.
He will be tasked with getting the Leafs’ offensively gifted — and playoff-challenged — core led by Auston Matthews to the next level with Toronto having lost eight of nine series dating back to 2017.
TORONTO – The Toronto Maple Leafs have given Craig Berube the keys.
The 58-year-old will have to provide the Original Six team with consistent postseason success, something they haven’t had in over a generation.
Following another disastrous postseason performance that cost former head coach Sheldon Keefe his job last week, the Leafs appointed Berube their new coach on Friday.
As Toronto has lost eight of nine series since 2017, he will have the responsibility of leading the Leafs’ offensively talented but playoff-challenged core, headlined by Auston Matthews, to the next level.
He added three goals, an assist and 211 penalty minutes in 89 playoff appearances.
Berube also had a supporting role in one of Toronto’s franchise-altering moments.
Traded three times in quick succession following the 1990-91 season, the second brought him to the Leafs for a 40-game stint before he was included in the blockbuster 10-player deal with Calgary that saw Toronto acquire Doug Gilmour.
The gritty centre and fan favourite would lead the Leafs on memorable back-to-back runs to the conference final in 1993 and 1994.
Berube, who had been doing some TV work with TNT in the United States, spent his final professional season in the American Hockey League as a player/coach with the Philadelphia Phantoms in 2003-04 before becoming a full-time assistant.
He eventually joined the Flyers’ bench and was promoted to head coach three games into the 2013-14 campaign. Berube made the playoffs that first season, but missed out the following April and was fired.
After a year away from the pro game, he signed up to coach the AHL’s Chicago Wolves in 2016-17 and joined the Blues as an associate the next season before taking the reins when Mike Yeo was dismissed 19 games into 2018-19.
The Leafs advanced in the post-season for the first time in nearly two decades last spring, but lost five of six series under Keefe, including four winner-take-all contests.
Berube, meanwhile, won two Game 7s during the Blues’ run to the Cup, including a title-clinching victory on the road in Boston.
He enters a locker room in Toronto — an organization with a title drought stretching back to 1967 — featuring an ultra-talented group led by Matthews that has been unable to truly break through in the playoffs.
