Though the Maple Leafs saw the lottery gods rule in their favour earlier this week, the work has only just begun for this new front office.
Although there’s still time to get going on roster construction for next year, a big question still needs to be answered before the team can move on to the next steps: Is Craig Berube the right man to steer the ship?
According to Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman, Toronto’s new general manager John Chayka is set to meet with the incumbent head coach in the coming days — either this weekend or next week — for what could be a long conversation about the future on the team’s bench.
“It’s coming soon, there’s no question about that, and it might not be just a one-day thing or a one-hour thing; it sounds like there’s a lot to talk about,” Friedman said on the latest episode of 32 Thoughts: The Podcast, released Friday.
A priority of this new regime under Chayka and Mats Sundin has been making sure they don’t give anything away preemptively about the status of Berube for next season, out of respect for the tenured head coach.
“There was no way Chayka or Sundin … were going to start this off by disrespecting Berube in any way until they really had a chance to have a meeting with him,” Friedman said.
“Now, I’ve had some conversations with some of the people who had interviews, and they said that the Leafs were very respectful to Berube, but they didn’t really take a position on should he be back. So, Sundin and Chayka clearly have an opportunity here to decide what they want to do. It was clear that (MLSE president and CEO Keith) Pelley liked Berube, but he didn’t say ‘You have to keep him.'”
Instead, the front office wants to get a proper lay of the land before making any key decisions.
The Maple Leafs finished with the fifth-worst points total in the NHL this past season — a stark contrast to Berube’s first year on the job in 2024-25, when they won the Atlantic for the first time since the 1999-2000 season — and want to give the coach a chance to discuss why he thinks that might’ve been the case and how he can get the team back to contention.
Following their meeting with Berube, the front office is expected to reach out to captain Auston Matthews — whose future has come into question after vague answers at his end-of-season press conference — even if he may want to take a more wait-and-see approach.
“At some point after they meet with Berube, I expect them to start discussing or reaching out to Auston Matthews about, ‘Let’s have some more serious conversations about what you’re thinking,'” Friedman said. “I had heard kind of over the last week or two that Matthews might decide to wait until around July to see what the Leafs do at the draft or free agency before making a decision, but if you’re the Maple Leafs and the new regime, it makes no sense to wait that long to get an idea of what he’s thinking. You might as well start as quickly as possible.”
The 28-year-old, amid injury struggles, had his least productive season with the Leafs by point total, finishing with 27 goals and 26 assists for 53 points in 60 games.
His campaign ended in mid-March after an ugly knee-on-knee hit from Anaheim Ducks defenceman Radko Gudas, as Matthews suffered a Grade 3 MCL tear and quad contusion.
However, with a longer off-season and extra recovery time without playoff hockey, Matthews will hope to get back to his goal-scoring ways. Now, the Maple Leafs will just have to sell him on their vision and figure out where he aligns.
“Look, they had a big lottery win this week, they’re probably gonna want to hear what (he thinks),” Friedman said. “Even though he’s probably not seen much of the players, they kinda know the generalities — what position they play, what skillset they are, what the team needs — and I’m sure they’ll give him an idea of what that all means and what he might prefer.”
