Maple Leafs head coach announcement takes unexpected turn

The Toronto Maple Leafs' coaching search is entering its final stage, with Frank Seravalli reporting Monday morning that the final interviews are taking place this week.

Seravalli, speaking on the FAN Morning Show, said the process reached that stage both Monday and Tuesday.

That's a significant timeline. It means a hire could come as early as this week, ending one of the more drawn-out searches in recent Leafs history.

Frank Seravalli on the FAN Morning Show says the final interviews for the Leafs coaching search is taking place this week (yesterday and today).

The urgency makes sense when you look at where this franchise just landed. Toronto finished the season 32-36-14, good for 28th overall in the league.

A -46 goal differential and a seven-game losing streak to close the year. That's not a team that needs a maintenance hire. That's a team that needs someone who can actually change the culture in that locker room.

The Leafs went 2-7-1 over their final 10 games. Whatever was happening on the bench stopped working a long time before the season ended.

Toronto's next coach inherits a roster in serious need of direction

This is not an easy seat to fill. Whoever gets this job walks into a situation where the roster allowed 299 goals against this season, second worst in the Atlantic Division.

The offense was there on paper, 253 goals for. The problem was everything else.

At some point you have to wonder whether even the right coach can fix what's structurally broken here, or whether the front office needs to do more heavy lifting this summer before a new bench boss can actually make a dent.

Final interviews happening now means a decision is close. The Leafs don't have the luxury of waiting deep into the offseason, not with free agency and the draft on the horizon.

The clock is moving. Whether the right name is attached to this job when it stops is the question nobody in Toronto has a clean answer to yet.