The Maple Leafs held a Zoom call with general manager John Chayka and new head coach Jim Hiller on Wednesday.
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During a media availability to introduce Jim Hiller as the new head coach of the Leafs, John Chayka took a moment to speak directly to the team’s current players.
“This decision was made with you in mind,” the general manager said. “We didn’t hire to satisfy a narrative or check a box. We hired based on what we believed would be best to support your growth, both individually and collectively. We hired someone who can create an environment where people are challenged, where accountability and trust can co-exist, and where players have the ability to maximize their abilities.”
Hiller previously served as an assistant coach for four seasons (2015-19) with the Leafs so he has pre-existing relationships with Auston Matthews, William Nylander, John Tavares and Morgan Rielly.
“It was clear that the players who had been around him really valued who he is as a person,” Chayka said of the vetting process. “They really felt like they could trust that he had their back. They felt like he was committed to making them the best versions of themselves and that he was a coach who would be player-centric but also a coach who coaches. He pushed. He wanted the best out of people, and he created an environment that brought that out.”
Hiller emerged during what Chayka described as a thorough and exhaustive search, which began after Craig Berube was let go on May 13. Toronto spent time with 25 candidates as part of the process.
“Everyone from proven Stanley Cup winners that have been in the league for a long time and with multiple organizations, to players who recently retired, to European candidates, to people from major junior and college, and everything in between,” Chayka said.
Hiller’s previous experience in Toronto and his head coaching experience in the league with the Los Angeles Kings made him stand out.
“What was really clarifying through that process, when we got down to it, was the layers of Jim’s knowledge, the layers of his experiences, his experience in the market, his knowledge of some of the players, the organization, and what makes it tick,” Chayka explained. “As we got through that process, it created a lot of conviction that he was the right person at the right time with the right group, hopefully.”
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No team lost more after the Olympic break than the Leafs last season as the team cratered to 28th in the overall standings. It was a gloomy march down the stretch as the Leafs sold at the deadline before general manager Brad Treliving was fired.
In his own opening statement, Hiller made the morale of the group a top priority.
“I believe the biggest impact a coach can have is on guiding the spirit of the team,” the 57-year-old from Port Alberni, B.C. said. “The foundation of any team is how the spirit strengthens and grows during a season.
“The game has to be fun.”
Hiller posted a .600 points percentage while coaching 175 games over parts of the past three seasons with the Kings. In his one full season (2024-25), the team piled up a franchise record 105 points before bowing out to the Edmonton Oilers in the first round of the playoffs. The Oilers also eliminated Hiller’s Kings in the first round after he took over for Todd McLellan midway through the 2023-24 season.
With the Kings struggling to stay in the playoff picture this season, Hiller was fired on March 1.
During Hiller’s time in Los Angeles, the Kings often employed a 1-3-1 structure with an emphasis on defence.
“There is mostly a pretty standard template across the league that all coaches play with,” Hiller said. “Job one is to get the team to play, thrive, and be excited to play whatever style or system there is.”
Berube consistently stressed the need to play a north-south game from the moment he was hired. Hiller, though, isn’t ready to commit to any style with the Leafs just yet.
“We’re early,” he stressed. “We’ll have lots of discussions. We’ll have a style of play that the players will be excited to play in. I think that is most important.”
There is one key element that Hiller will be emphasizing.
“I believe skating is the first chain in competing,” he said. “When you get on the ice and you’re skating, it is back, it is there, it is quick, it is stopping. As quickly and hard as you can do things, that’s how you start to know the spirit of your team is starting to grow.”
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The Leafs finished eighth in goals against in 2024-25, the first season under Berube, but sagged all the way to 31st last season.
Hiller was quick to point out many players remain from the 2024-25 team that pushed the eventual champion Florida Panthers to seven games in a second-round series.
“I am not here to tear up the roster,” Hiller said. “There are good players there. They’ve shown that in the league.”
Still, changes are coming and the coach will wait and see what Chayka and the new management group do to improve the roster.
“We want no space between the coaches and the front office,” said Chayka. “We think Jim gives us the best chance to do that.”
Chayka (Stathletes) and Hiller (TruPerformance) both co-founded analytics companies on the way up in their hockey careers.
“I think it is something that is really easy for us to communicate about,” Hiller said.
“I am always looking and open to trying to find ways we can find more information just to really inform us — to test, backtest, think about, and maybe just create a better discussion in the coaches’ room or coaches and management room to ultimately make a better bet, whether it is playing style or player acquisition or whatever it might be. Those really help to inform. In my experiences, they just help you have better discussions and point you in better directions.”
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Hiller describes coaching the Leafs as “an opportunity of a lifetime.”
“I am a B.C. boy — not an Ontario boy — who grew up sitting on the couch with my dad, with my greatest memories of hockey being watching the Leafs and the Canadiens, all across Canada on Hockey Night in Canada,” Hiller said. “Those are the greatest memories you could take forward, and to sit in this chair and represent this organization—I can’t tell you how much pride I have in that.”
Hiller understands that the job comes with increased scrutiny. He saw it first-hand when he worked on Mike Babcock‘s staff in Toronto. But Hiller is also quick to point out that similar questions are asked in every market.
“It is bigger,” he said. “There is more volume of media. There is no question. But how you approach it – your honesty, your relationship with [the media] – doesn’t change. I know it is a big job and a big market, but it is not something where I am personally going to have to change much to deal with.”
Although there is some trepidation for at least one member of his family.
“When John called me quite a while ago, I got off the phone, and my wife asked me, ‘Who was that?’ I said, ‘That was John Chayka, the GM of the Toronto Maple Leafs.’ She said, ‘Oh no, the media!’ I said to her, ‘No, I know those people. I’ve been there. Those are all really nice people.’”
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The passion of the Leafs fan base was evident once again on Tuesday night as a sellout crowd of more than 8,000 fans packed Coca-Cola Coliseum for Game 3 of the Calder Cup Finals. Chayka was also in attendance.
“What stood out to me was not just the quality of play but the connection, the investment, the pride, and the love people have for this organization at every level,” the 37-year-old from Jordan Station, Ont. said. “I’d like to thank our fans. Their expectations are high because their commitment is high, and we never lose sight of the responsibility that comes with representing this crest.”
The Marlies beat the Chicago Wolves 1-0 to take a 3-0 stranglehold in the American Hockey League’s championship series.
Artur Akhtyamov turned aside all 24 shots faced to improve his save percentage to .928 over 20 playoff games.
The Marlies can win the title on Thursday night. What does this feel like to the leading playoff MVP candidate?
“Actually, I feel nothing,” Akhtyamov said. “We need one more win.”
Akhtyamov’s emergence helped make Joseph Woll expendable and the Leafs traded the goalie to the Philadelphia Flyers on Tuesday.
“I actually didn’t see,” Akhtyamov said of the news. “I just hear in the locker room. Guys talked about that. But Joseph [is a] pretty good guy. Great goalie. I wish him [well]. Everything’s good.”
Teammates appreciate how locked in the 24-year-old Russian is right now.
“Just the calmness of him,” said Marlies defenceman Matt Benning. “There’s no ups, downs with Artie. He’s a rock back there for us.”
Akhtyamov did not flinch as the Wolves dominated the opening period with 13 shots on Tuesday night.
“That might’ve been his best,” said coach John Gruden of the performance. “He really, really looked sharp. He was dialled the whole night.”
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Akhtyamov bought time for the Marlies to get on track. And Easton Cowan, who failed to hit the scoresheet in the first two games of the series, stepped up again.
“First couple games I couldn’t really find my groove,” the 21-year-old winger admitted. “And then in the second period got a bounce there and that kind of gets the juices flowing. So, I’m just looking to keep that going Thursday.”
Cowan’s shot squeezed through Wolves goalie Cayden Primeau and ended up being the only puck to beat a goalie all night.
“You could see the confidence grow after he scored,” Gruden said. “How much better he played detail-wise, 200-foot wise, he was making all the right plays. He was skating. He was creating and that’s when he’s at his best, not trying to do it himself.”
Cowan has consistently shown an ability to bounce back during the Marlies playoff run. He made a costly turnover late in Game 4 in the Conference Final, which allowed the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins to tie the series. Cowan responded by scoring in Game 5 and Game 6.
“For him to come back like that after our first [period], that just says a lot about him, no different than what happened with Wilkes-Barre,” Gruden said. “His growth just continues. You just can’t get this experience any other way than playing in it and he was a big part of that win.”
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Marlies lines in Tuesday’s game:
Groulx - Shaw - Lettieri
Cowan - Quillan- Tverberg
Pare - Haymes - Nylander
Sim - Johnstone - Pezzetta
Thrun - Benning
Mermis - Villeneuve
Rifai - Danford
Akhtyamov starts
Hildeby
