The Toronto Maple Leafs have fired head coach Sheldon Keefe, general manager Brad Treliving made the announcement Thursday, following the Leafs’ seven-game elimination at the hands of the Boston Bruins in the first round of the playoffs.
Keefe went 212-97-40 in nearly five seasons with the Leafs, but just 16-21 in the playoffs, winning just one of six series.
Although he finally led the team to the second round of the playoffs last year, a first in nearly 20 years, Keefe has been unable to build on that success.
The Leafs lost five uninspired games to the Florida Panthers, leading to the firing of general manager Kyle Dubas less than two weeks later.
The move raised questions about Keefe’s future, but Treliving decided to keep him on, even offering him a contract extension through the 2025-26 season.
“Today’s decision is difficult,” Treliving said in a statement. “Sheldon is a great coach and a great person. However, we have determined that a new approach is needed to help the team achieve its ultimate goal.”
The organization added that it will begin a search for a new head coach immediately and that decisions on the rest of the coaching staff will follow.
In a video posted to social media hours after his firing, Keefe said he would be “eternally grateful” for the opportunity to lead the Maple Leafs.
“I didn’t get the job done in the playoffs,” he said in the roughly two-minute clip. “I wasn’t able to deliver. I accept full responsibility for that.”
Keefe thanked the players, support staff, management and media, but most of all he spoke passionately to the fans, who haven’t tasted a championship since 1967.
“You deserve your Stanley Cup. Your passion, at home and abroad, is unmatched.”
Keefe guided the Leafs to third place in the Atlantic Division this season, while Auston Matthews won his second Maurice Richard Trophy with 69 goals. The series against the Bruins followed a pattern all too familiar to Leafs fans, with special teams failing to live up to expectations — the power play scored just once in 21 chances — and goaltending finally admitting it was the club’s weak link.
The team rallied from a 1-3 series deficit to force a seventh game, which the Bruins eventually won in overtime .
Migraines causing blurred vision forced William Nylander to miss the first three games, while a virus kept Matthews out of Games 5 and 6. Even though he returned — diminished — for the final game, those absences certainly didn’t help the Leafs.
Keefe spoke to reporters as players cleaned out their lockers Monday. He took the blame for the team’s failures but said he was looking forward to the future.
“More than ever, I believe in my team and myself,” he said. “I believe that my team and I will win.”
Keefe did win in Toronto, but not in the playoffs.
He led the team to a record-breaking 115-point, 54-win season in 2021-22, while Matthews won his first Hart Trophy as the NHL’s MVP. The Leafs still lost in the first round, a hard-fought seven-game series to the Tampa Bay Lightning.
The team took a slight step back the following season, but still finished second in the Atlantic, with the same core of high-paid forwards in Matthews, Nylander, Mitch Marner and John Tavares, who account for about half of the club’s payroll.
Keefe then allowed the Leafs to win their first series since 2004, again against the Lightning, before collapsing in the next round, against the Panthers.
Keefe, 43, replaced Mike Babcock in November 2019. Despite his big guns up front, the team scored two goals or fewer in 13 of Keefe’s last 14 playoff games.
Keefe has often found himself in hot water due to the club’s playoff failures, but also after a rough start in 2022-23. This time, Treliving had no choice but to fire him, with the Leafs looking for their first championship in 57 years.
