Ex-Blues coach Craig Berube gets Maple Leafs job - ESPN

The Toronto Maple Leafs have hired Craig Berube as their new head coach.

The Leafs fired head coach Sheldon Keefe on May 9 after Toronto bowed out of the postseason with another first-round Stanley Cup playoff loss, for the third time in four full seasons under Keefe. Toronto's general manager Brad Treliving said then the Leafs were targeting a fresh voice who could help the team reach its full potential.

«In this business over a period of time, the message stops hitting home,» said Treliving of moving on from Keefe. «It's not just changing the personnel but understanding why a message may not be getting through. So, our focus right now is trying to find that individual [as our next coach].»

This will be Berube's third NHL head coaching job. He was previously behind the bench in Philadelphia from 2013-15, guiding the Flyers to a playoff berth in 2014 before being let go following a poor sixth place finish in the Metropolitan Division the following season.

Berube, 58, went on to coach the St. Louis Blues' American Hockey League's Chicago Wolves from 2016-17. At the end of that season the Blues promoted Berube to be an assistant coach under Mike Yeo. When Yeo was fired in November 2018, Berube was named interim head coach for the struggling Blues. In January 2019, St. Louis was a lowly 15-18-4 and sitting last in league standings. The Blues rallied under Berube though to not only reach the postseason as a third seed in the Central Division, but eventually win St Louis' first-ever Stanley Cup.

That made Berube just the second interim head coach in league history to ever win a championship (Larry Robinson did it first with the 2000 New Jersey Devils).

In June 2019, the Blues removed Berube's interim tag and signed him to a