John Chayka remains tight-lipped about future plans after firing head coach Craig Berube

Toronto Maple Leafs general manager John Chayka met with the media on Wednesday afternoon after the news broke about Berube’s firing. In a statement following the move, he disclosed that it was more to do with an ‘organizational shift’ as opposed to a knock on Berube’s coaching abilities. Pressed with several questions regarding experience, tactics, and conversations with his players around the firing, Chayka refused to reveal anything about the organization’s decision and coaching search going forward.

“I’ll just say that we didn’t make this decision in a vacuum,” Chayka said when asked to elaborate on the organizational shift. ‘This is a bigger picture decision and it’s not just about a coach. Mats [Sundin] and I have spent, like I said, the past ten days or so, meeting with everybody from the chefs to talking to some of the players and everything in between. I just feel like there are some things we need to change and do better, be better, and certainly that starts with Mats and myself at the top, with Keith [Pelley] and the board aligned on a vision and the path ahead.”

Chayka was then asked if the uncertain future of Auston Matthews had anything to do with the decision to let Berube go.

“None. Zero.”

With several intriguing coaches available on the market, including Bruce Cassidy, Jay Woodcroft, and David Carle, to name a few, there are many different directions the Leafs could go in here. Just like his comments on the organizational shift quip, Chayka wouldn’t disclose what he would be looking for in his next head coach.

“I think out of respect for the process and the candidates, I don’t want to get into that today, and it also seems like it means that Craig [Berube] was missing something, which I don’t think would be fair,” Chayka said. “But, we’ll have a thorough process, it’ll be a wide search, we’ll take our time and try to get it right. You know, it’s the most critical decision as a general manager.”

And if you’re hoping to know when the Leafs will have a new coach by, there wasn’t an answer there, either. However, Chayka implied that it could come before the offseason truly gets underway, with draft weekend and free agency coming in back-to-back.

“No timeline. I mean, certainly, there’s key milestones that are coming up, so certainly, running an efficient process matters. But we’re going to take our time, do a very wide search and talk to a lot of people, and ultimately, how that goes and the quality of candidates that come at the time we do is going to dictate a lot of that.”

With both Berube and Brad Treliving out, the Maple Leafs will enter the 2025-26 season with a new coach and a new GM for the first time since Lou Lamoriello and Mike Babcock took the helm in 2015-16.

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