The Leafs' latest coaching interview says more about Toronto than the candidate
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Daniel Lucente
May 20, 2026 (1:38 PM)
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Photo credit: Dan Hamilton-Imagn Images
Derek Lalonde is now in the Leafs mix after head coach Craig Berube was fired, turning Toronto's search inward.
David Alter reported that the Maple Leafs will interview Lalonde for the vacant head coaching job, and the timing is not casual.
Toronto is not looking for polish after a strong year.
The Maple Leafs finished 32-36-14 and sat last in the Atlantic Division with 78 points.
Their final stretch made the decision feel unavoidable: a 2-7-1 close and a 7-game losing streak.
Lalonde is a test of Toronto's reset
This is where the Lalonde interview gets interesting.
He is not an outside savior walking into the locker room with a new voice and no fingerprints on the season.
He knows the bench, the players, the pressure points, and the daily noise around this market.
That can help him. It can also hurt him.
The post frames Lalonde as more than a background name in the search.
Toronto scored 253 goals and allowed 299, which points straight at structure and buy-in.
A Lalonde promotion would say the Leafs believe the answers were already partly in the room.
That is a hard sell after the organization fired Berube.
It would also put John Chayka under immediate scrutiny.
Hiring from inside can look smart when the candidate has earned trust behind the scenes.
But in Toronto, it can also look like a reset without enough bite.
Lalonde's case is simple: he offers continuity without Berube.
The question is whether that is enough for a team that just bottomed out in its own division.
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