Welcome to another edition of NHL rumours. The offseason has begun for the Toronto Maple Leafs, and not just for players. Teams have requested to speak with two staff members of the Maple Leafs. President of hockey operations Brendan Shanahan and associate coach Lane Lambert could be moving on from their respective roles with Toronto.
NHL insider Chris Johnston reported to The Athletic that the New York Islanders requested permission to speak to Shanahan. The Islanders’ request was granted as they continue to search for Lou Lamoriello’s replacement. Lamoriello was the team’s president of hockey operations and general manager for the last seven seasons. However, the Islanders announced in April that they won’t renew Lamoriello’s contract, and he won’t return as president and general manager. Therefore, New York has been exploring their front office options, and Shanahan appears to be on that list.
Shanahan has led Toronto’s front office for 10 seasons, and his contract will expire this offseason. He became the team’s president for the 2014-15 campaign and built the Leafs to be a consistent playoff team. Furthermore, the Leafs have made the postseason for nine straight years. Toronto was a lottery-pick team when he became the president, and in what could be his last year, the Maple Leafs went the distance in the second round of the playoffs.
The Islanders have other candidates on their list, including Marc Bergevin, Mathieu Darche and Jarmo Kekalainen. There’s no guarantee that Shanahan will be the Isles’ next hire, but it gives the sense that he won’t be renewing his contract with the MLSE and the Maple Leafs.
The Maple Leafs could be losing Lambert to the Seattle Kraken, as TSN’s Darren Dreger reported that the two parties have been speaking. Seattle is looking for a new head coach for next season. They fired Dan Bylsma after one season as the Kraken’s bench boss. Whoever becomes Seattle’s next head coach will be the team’s third coach since their inaugural season in 2021-22.
Lambert was Toronto’s penalty-kill coach this season, standing beside power-play coach Marc Savard and head coach Craig Berube. The Leafs ended the year in the middle of the pack in terms of PK percentage, finishing 17th with a 77.9 percent rate. In the playoffs, the team was much better at killing penalties. Upon elimination, Toronto finished with an 81.5 PK percentage, fifth best in the league.
However, Lambert has a history of being a head coach in the NHL. Before his days as an associate coach for Toronto, he was the bench boss of the Islanders for one and a half seasons from 2022 to 2024. In his first year, he led the Islanders to the playoffs, finishing fourth in the Metropolitan Division. They earned 93 points with a 42-31-9 record. Eventually, the Carolina Hurricanes eliminated them in the first round of the 2023 playoffs in six games. In the next season, Lambert was replaced by Patrick Roy in January 2024, and hasn’t been a head coach since.
Main Photo Credit: Dan Hamilton-Imagn Images
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