May 5, 2024 | 11:06am ET
TheFourthPeriod.com

CHANGES EXPECTED IN TORONTO AFTER PLAYOFF EXIT

Sheldon Keefe

Just hours after losing Game 7 to the Boston Bruins, eliminating them from the 2024 NHL Stanley Cup Playoffs, the Toronto Maple Leafs are already hearing noise over potential change coming this off-season.

With just over $19.4 million in salary cap space going into the 2024-25 campaign, Maple Leafs GM Brad Treliving is expected to quickly get to work and begin making moves to alter the makeup of his team for next season.

The first change Toronto makes could come behind the bench, as the future of Leafs head coach Sheldon Keefe has been in question since mid-season.

Keefe, 43, is under contract through the 25-26 season, but a coaching change in Toronto has been long speculated and come be on the horizon as Treliving inherited his coach from previous-GM Kyle Dubas, who is now overseeing the Pittsburgh Penguins.

As TFP’s David Pagnotta reported on SiriusXM NHL Network Radio last month, the Leafs are believed to have interest in former St. Louis Blues bench boss Craig Berube becoming their next coach and could look to interview him if they decide to make a coaching change.

Berube, 58, still has one-year left on his contract with the Blues that pays him $3.5 million. The Leafs will require permission to interview Berube if they go down that road.

Treliving will surely weigh all of his options beyond Berube if he drops the hammer on Keefe.

Outside of a potential coaching change, the Maple Leafs will likely make a number of roster moves this off-season, starting with his potential free agents.

Forwards Tyler Bertuzzi and Max Domi, and defencemen T.J. Brodie, Joel Edmundson, Mark Giordano, Ilya Lyubushkin, Jake Muzzin and John Klingberg, and goaltenders Ilya Samsonov, Matt Murray and Martin Jones are all on expiring contracts and can become unrestricted free agents July 1.

Muzzin’s playing career has ended, and he clearly won’t be back, while Klingberg, Murray, Jones and Giordano are not expected to be re-signed.

Treliving will also need to make decisions on Bertuzzi and Domi up front, and both have expressed a desire to stay in Toronto.

As the dust settles on Saturday night’s overtime loss to the Bruins, more chatter will pop up over potential changes in Toronto, and more clarity could come over the next few days leading into the team’s exit interviews with the media.