Craig Berube completely failed in his mandate to change, elevate talented Leafs squad

There’s a simple maxim in professional sports: it’s incumbent upon the head coach or manager to maximize the talent of the group they’re designated to oversee. As the Toronto Maple Leafs experienced a 30-point drop-off from the 2024-25 campaign, head coach Craig Berube certainly deserves significant, proportional criticism for his role in this disaster. It has been the annus horribilis for the Maple Leafs and Berube’s lack of creativity, a strict adherence to a dump-and-chase style that his roster had no interest in executing, along with few contingency plans, the 60-year-old was in over his head.

Berube did nothing to acquit himself of the notion that he ought to wear the brunt of the blame for the Maple Leafs’ season from hell, throughout the year, and again at the Ford Performance Centre on Thursday.

“It’s on me. It’s on everybody. We didn’t perform at the level we needed to perform to get back into the playoffs,” Berube said during Thursday’s end-of-year media availabilities, when asked if he failed to maximize his team’s talent level.

During Berube’s first season with the Maple Leafs, the team captured the Atlantic Division title. Berube implemented a 1-2-2 forecheck, while he simplified the team’s defensive zone coverage: clear bodies away from the net-front, force opponents to the outside, and take the shortest route to the puck. This season, Berube was ill-prepared to make any changes, his group arrived a year older, slower, and not necessarily wiser. Morgan Rielly and Brandon Carlo’s form fell off a cliff, and Berube had no answers all season to fix Toronto’s porous rush defence. Berube was hired in large part due to the idea that he would take a hyper-talented but underperforming Leafs team, and turn them into a pragmatic, defensively-sound unit. During this campaign, Berube’s team showed none of the offensive flair from year’s past, while opponents took liberties in taking runs at their goalies. And this was all glaringly true before the Maple Leafs provided no response to Radko Gudas’ season-ending hit on captain Auston Matthews.

Matthews’ answer, during his first media availability since Gudas took his knee out, was perhaps telling.

“It was an unfortunate play. I thought they responded in the third period. It was an unfortunate play,” Matthews said Thursday, while telling reporters that he was recovering fine, one month removed from the incident.

Berube was defensive throughout Thursday’s end-of-year media availabilities, telling reporters that he knows just as much as we do, when it comes to his job security. To be clear, no one expects Berube to survive the new regime. It’s somewhat surprising that the Maple Leafs didn’t fire him before Christmas, instead electing to dismiss assistant head coach Marc Savard, with the power play’s dismal performance during the opening three months sealing his exit.

“Well, a system’s a system,” Berube said, when asked to explain his tactics. “Again, we did modify it this year, at times, and it ended up being the same result. So it’s not like we’re not trying to work and help the players and try to get them to a different level, so I mean, systems are systems and they have to be executed to be successful.”

When did Berube try to modify the system? There’s no evidence of this claim. Berube grew complacent as a manager as well. For a coach that was expected to hold players to account, he extended carte blanche to Calle Jarnkrok, Steven Lorentz, Max Domi, Morgan Rielly and Brandon Carlo for large stretches of the year. Dennis Hildeby outperformed virtually every Leafs goalie during training camp, but Berube and his cohorts still elected to call up Cayden Primeau instead, when Joseph Woll took a leave of absence. Primeau was absolutely dreadful and sent back to the AHL in short order.

Easton Cowan was one of the team’s best players all year, perhaps the lone positive on-ice story for the Maple Leafs. Berube sent him to the AHL, called him back up, and then benched him for several games through late January. And when it became readily apparent to everyone outside of the organization that the Leafs were going to miss the playoffs, Berube was insistent on playing his veterans, some of whom were battling injuries, to the bitter end over a cohort of promising Marlies call-ups.

Toronto couldn’t find any consistency within its top-six forward group and it started during training camp, when Berube earmarked Max Domi for the first line right wing job. He never seriously considered Matias Maccelli as a real top-six options. Several wingers admitted privately that they had difficult adjusting to Berube’s tactics, because he would become irate with turnovers, which were the function of trying to be creative while entering the offensive zone.

Berube said the primary reasons why the Leafs dropped off were “goals against” and it’s true that they became the NHL’s worst defensive team under his supervision. Rielly was on the ice for 78 goals at 5-on-5: only Quinn Hughes was on the ice for more goals, split between the Vancouver Canucks and Minnesota Wild. Brandon Carlo fought through a foot injury for two months, but when he was healthy, he was a shell of the player that frequently shut down opponents during his tenure with the Boston Bruins. It took the best stretch of waiver wire claim Troy Stecher’s career to keep the team (barely) afloat in the Atlantic Division, and Berube did nothing to adjust his systems or tactics.

Berube was more than content to pass the buck. He was a pleasant person to deal with on a daily basis, something we appreciated as reporters on the Leafs beat. That’s not what he was paid for, though. Berube completely failed in his mandate to change and elevate a talented Leafs team, and it’s why his days are seemingly numbered following Thursday’s end-of-year media day.

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