John Chayka, the newly-hired general manager of the Toronto Maple Leafs, is expected to meet with head coach Craig Berube to discuss the plan moving forward in Toronto, TSN Hockey Insider Pierre LeBrun reports.
Chayka was announced as the next general manager of the Maple Leafs on Sunday, hired alongside senior advisor Mats Sundin to lead the franchise moving forward after a disappointing campaign in which Toronto finished worst in the Atlantic Division with 78 points and fired GM Brad Treliving in April.
Given the struggles of the team this past season, and the new front office in place, questions have naturally arisen surrounding Berube, who has coached the Maple Leafs for the past two seasons.
Speaking on OverDrive on TSN1050 on Thursday, LeBrun reports that there will be a meeting on Berube’s future with the team in the coming days, and that he expects Berube to be coaching with the Maple Leafs next season.
“John Chayka’s going to meet with Craig Berube in the next number of days here to see where the coach and the GM are, in terms of whether they’re on the same page, whether they share a vision of where things need to go moving forward,” LeBrun said. “If I had to handicap that part of it, I’d think John Chayka would be comfortable with Craig Berube as his head coach, but that’s just a gut feeling on my part.”
Speaking to reporters at his introductory press conference earlier this week, Chayka did not tip his hand on what direction he is leaning with Berube moving forward.
“He is a guy who has been a respected leader for decades in the National Hockey League,” Chayka said on Monday. “I think he is a tremendous coach, a Stanley Cup coach, and a good person. We had a good conversation. It was brief. We will get together later this week with Mats and go through it all. Mats and I are coming in as outsiders. He spent the past few years with the team. We want to listen, learn, understand his perspective, and go forward from there.”
Berube, 60, owns an 84-62-18 record in two seasons leading the Maple Leafs, and led them to the second round of the playoffs in 2024-25, where they fell to the eventual Stanley Cup-champion Florida Panthers in seven games. Prior to his time with the Maple Leafs, Berube served as head coach of the Philadelphia Flyers (2013-15) and St. Louis Blues (2018-24), where he won the Stanley Cup in 2019.
