A brand new coaching candidate just emerged out of nowhere for the Toronto Maple Leafs
Joe Pavelski is now part of the Leafs' head coach conversation, and that wrinkle makes a murky search even harder to read.
Chris McCluskey laid it out Saturday. Toronto's early candidate list was already all over the map. Adding a former star with zero NHL bench experience scrambles it further.
Peter Laviolette appears out of the Leafs race, with reports now linking him to the Los Angeles Kings. Toronto's search moves forward without him.
McCluskey's best guess on the plan: a young, forward-thinking coach is Plan A, with experience as the fallback if nobody young checks the boxes.
One thing he flagged as non-negotiable is possession hockey. Whoever takes this job has to play a controlled, puck-driving style.
Then comes the Pavelski caution, and it's a sharp one.
McCluskey's full breakdown is worth reading in order, because the logic builds toward a conclusion most fans won't expect.
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The Auston Matthews clock looms over every Toronto hire
Here's the core tension McCluskey nails. Handing an unproven coach a win-now roster is a high-wire act with no net.
He compared it to the David Carle talk. If you hire a first-timer, you'd better be in it for the long haul, not throwing him into a two-year pressure cooker.
Martin St-Louis worked in Montreal because he took over a team early in its build. Toronto isn't that. The Leafs want to contend immediately, and that changes everything.
The calendar makes it heavier. The coming season shapes up as a make-or-break year for Auston Matthews, who was limited to 60 games and 53 points.
If Matthews decides not to re-sign, the rebuild starts whether Toronto likes it or not. That's the trapdoor under this whole hire.
McCluskey's smarter pitch: bring Pavelski in as an assistant now, paired with a win-now head coach. If it clicks, you've got your staff and maybe Matthews stays.
That path has a track record in Toronto, with D.J. Smith and Spencer Carbery among the assistants who launched from there.
Here's my read: McCluskey's right. Hiring a first-time bench boss to chase a contender is like handing someone race car keys after a few laps in a go-kart.
Nobody doubts the man's presence. Pavelski would command respect the second he walked in. The question is whether Toronto can afford his learning curve, and the Matthews clock says probably not.
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YESTERDAY
JUNE 6, 2026
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| G | A | PTS | ||
| Mitch Marner | 3 | 1 | 4 | |
| Tomas Hertl | 1 | 1 | 2 | |
| Jordan Staal | 1 | 1 | 2 | |
| Shea Theodore | 1 | 1 | 2 | |
| Sebastian Aho | - | 2 | 2 | |
| Brayden McNabb | - | 2 | 2 | |
| Taylor Hall | 1 | - | 1 | |
| Jordan Martinook | 1 | - | 1 | |
| Andrei Svechnikov | 1 | - | 1 | |
| Jackson Blake | - | 1 | 1 | |
| Jack Eichel | - | 1 | 1 | |
| Brett Howden | - | 1 | 1 | |
| Seth Jarvis | - | 1 | 1 | |
| William Karlsson | - | 1 | 1 | |
| Eric Robinson | - | 1 | 1 | |
| Jaccob Slavin | - | 1 | 1 | |
| Logan Stankoven | - | 1 | 1 | |
| Frederik Andersen | - | - | - | |
| Rasmus Andersson | - | - | - | |
| Ivan Barbashev | - | - | - | |
| COMPLETE STATS | ||||