New questions emerge regarding John Tortorella and two Canadian teams

The Edmonton side of that question is already answering itself.

On 32 Thoughts, Friedman raised the idea that with Tortorella heading out at the end of June and two major coaching vacancies still open, both the Maple Leafs and Oilers were worth asking about.

Toronto fired Craig Berube on May 13 and still hasn't named a replacement.

Edmonton fired Kris Knoblauch on May 14, and that search has moved in a very different direction.

Per Jeff Marek on Oilersnation Everyday, Mike Babcock is on the verge of landing the Edmonton head coaching job pending an NHL investigation expected to result in no action.

Cassidy remains under contract with Vegas for next season, and the Golden Knights have blocked other teams from speaking with him.

If Edmonton cannot get that permission, Babcock is the hire - Bob Stauffer described it as inevitable.

This effectively removes Edmonton from the Tortorella conversation before it can begin. By the time he formally departs Vegas at the end of June, the Oilers will almost certainly have a coach.

That shifts the full weight of Friedman's question onto Toronto and John Chayka's first major decision as Maple Leafs GM.

Cassidy, Patrick Roy, and Joe Pavelski have all surfaced as candidates, and the search has shown no signs of closing.

Toronto is not a roster that needs patient development. It needs a coach who can impose structure on a difficult room under pressure, and Tortorella just handled a Vegas dressing room through a Stanley Cup Final on a compressed timeline.

Chayka's challenge is deciding whether he wants a coach that loud in a market already this demanding.

Friedman didn't frame this as a rumor - he framed it as a question worth asking, and after today's Babcock news, that question only points in one direction.