The Toronto Maple Leafs looked much improved coming out of the holiday break, garnering three points out of their back-to-back set with Ottawa and Detroit. But if they don’t keep it on track, there will undoubtedly be more talk about whether a change behind will be needed at some point this season.
Veteran NHL coach Pete DeBoer was frequently mentioned as the ideal candidate on the market to take over from Craig Berube. But if Berube was not tired of hearing that kind of talk, DeBoer himself certainly was.
Insider Elliotte Friedman revealed on Hockey Night in Canada this weekend that DeBoer actually sent a note through a friend to the embattled Leafs coach to let him know what he thought of the rumors:
‘Forget all this noise. I’m not involved here, and it’s not happening.’ I (asked) DeBoer about it, and all he said was ‘I’ve been on the other side of that. I didn’t like the fact that I was on this side of it this time’.
Why DeBoer is not interested in the Leafs’ job
Other reports had already emerged over the last week that it was highly unlikely that DeBoer would be getting involved with the Leafs this season. Insider David Pagnotta said on Leafs Morning Take that the veteran coach was quite happy with his current role as an assistant coach for Team Canada at the upcoming Winter Olympics in February.
“What I was told was, he’s comfortable right now. He’s still getting paid by Dallas, and he’s focused on Canada… If he does consider joining an NHL club, it’ll be a team that’s right there. He’s the finishing piece. He’s the one that’s gonna put you over the edge by bringing him in to get to a Cup Final. Or to win the whole thing. That’s the type of team he would consider joining, from what I’ve been told.”
Safe to say that the Leafs are not that team at this point in time (or anytime for the remainder of this season). Pagnotta did throw a caveat in there, however. If Toronto was “to throw $5-6-7-8 million dollars his way per season,” then all bets could be off on that.
But for now, a win against the Senators, and an overtime loss to the Red Wings, plus three power play goals in five opportunities overall, and the guillotine has been put back in storage for now.
Let’s see how long that lasts.
