Maple Leafs Fire Assistant Coach Guy Boucher

Guy Boucher’s time behind the bench in Toronto will be short-lived.  The team announced today (Twitter link) that the assistant coach will not return to the team next season.

Boucher had been out of coaching since 2019 before GM Brad Treliving hired him last July to serve as an assistant for the Maple Leafs.  More specifically, they were eyeing him to fill the void created when Spencer Carbery left the team to become the head coach in Washington.

With the firepower that Toronto has, there were high hopes that Boucher could help turn what was already one of the top power play units into an even better one.  Instead, the team suffered a bit in that regard during the season, dropping from second-best to seventh while their success rate dropped a little more than two percent to 23.95% overall.  Things were even worse in the playoffs when they scored just once in 21 opportunities against Boston, playing a big role in their first-round exit.

Boucher has parts of six years of head coaching experience at the NHL level, spending parts of three years each with Tampa Bay and Ottawa.  His teams played to a record of 191-186-46 overall.

It has been a busy few weeks for Treliving and the Maple Leafs when it comes to their coaching staff.  Craig Berube took over as head coach following the dismissal of Sheldon Keefe at the end of the first round.  Meanwhile, Lane Lambert was hired as an associate coach earlier this month, taking the place of Dean Chynoweth who was let go.  Manny Malhotra was also an assistant last year but has since been hired as AHL Abbotsford’s head coach.  Now, they have a second vacancy to fill with Boucher leaving the team.  As things stand, Mike van Ryn will be the only assistant from last season to remain on Berube’s staff.