Elliotte Friedman drops major news on the Maple Leafs' hiring of their new head coach
Peter Laviolette nearly became the Toronto Maple Leafs' next head coach Saturday, before the club pulled back at the last minute.
That's the main takeaway from Elliotte Friedman's latest update, and it adds real tension to a coaching search that has already widened fast over the last 48 hours.
Friedman said the Leafs cast a massive net before trimming the field.
That matters because it shows Toronto didn't stumble into one surprising name. T
he front office went deep into the market, then got close enough on Laviolette for Friedman to think the search was basically over.
His wording was direct, and it landed hard.
That's a real pivot point for Toronto.
A move that looked close suddenly cooled, and a name tied to the Leafs may now be headed to a Western Conference bench instead.
Toronto backed away from a fan backlash with recent failed head coach hiriing
The bigger layer here is the reaction Laviolette would have brought. The report says the response from Maple Leafs fans had largely been negative, which made this more than a simple hockey decision.
That changes the temperature around the search.
Toronto wasn't just choosing a coach. It was weighing fit, pressure, and how the locker room and market would respond the second the news broke.
The Leafs also appear to be sitting out on the biggest restricted name available.
Friedman said Bruce Cassidy remains off limits while Vegas keeps signaling it has no interest in opening that door.
His quote there was just as blunt.
So now Toronto is left with the same reality it faced before Saturday morning: no final hire, a shorter list, and a process still moving without a clean favorite.
What changed is this: the Leafs got close enough on Laviolette to make it feel done, then backed off. In a market like Toronto, that says plenty on its own.
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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 | ||||