Maple Leafs make their call on Craig Berube after another painful ending
Auston Matthews is heading back to Craig Berube, with the Maple Leafs set to keep their head coach after a season that went off the rails.
That’s the decision taking shape in Toronto after a major front-office reset, and it says plenty about how the organization sees this mess.
The Leafs aren’t blowing out the bench.
They’re keeping Berube in place and betting that one ugly year won’t be the final read on his first season behind it.
That call is going to split the fan base fast.
A lot of people watched this team fade and saw the coach as part of the problem, not part of the fix.
The frustration is easy to understand.
Toronto finished 32-36-14 and never looked stable enough for a serious push.
The bigger issue is what came after that.
Once the front office changed, many expected the coach to be next.
Instead, the Leafs appear ready to stay with Berube and see whether a second year brings more structure, more push, and a cleaner identity.
Toronto is choosing continuity over another reset with Craig Berube decision
This isn’t just about patience.
It’s about deciding that another coaching change might create even more drift for a team that already looked lost late in the year.
Toronto closed the season on a 7-game slide, which only added to the heat around the bench.
That kind of finish usually drags a coach straight into danger.
But the Leafs also gave up 299 goals, and that points to something deeper than one voice behind the bench.
A roster that loose in its own zone wasn’t going to get fixed by line shuffling alone.
That’s why this move matters.
Keeping Berube means the organization still believes the room can respond to him, even after a season filled with tension and second-guessing.
It also puts more weight on the core.
Matthews, the top six, and the blue line won’t get the easy out of another fresh start behind the bench.
Now the pressure flips.
Berube gets another shot, but the leash will feel shorter, the spotlight hotter, and every bad stretch will bring this decision right back into the conversation.
The Leafs made their choice.
They’re sticking with Craig Berube, and now they need that decision to look smart in a hurry.
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YESTERDAY
MAY 3, 2026
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| G | A | PTS | ||
| Devon Toews | 1 | 3 | 4 | |
| Cale Makar | 2 | 1 | 3 | |
| Quinn Hughes | 1 | 2 | 3 | |
| Nathan MacKinnon | 1 | 2 | 3 | |
| Martin Necas | - | 3 | 3 | |
| Artturi Lehkonen | 1 | 1 | 2 | |
| Sam Malinski | 1 | 1 | 2 | |
| Kaiden Guhle | - | 2 | 2 | |
| Valeri Nichushkin | - | 2 | 2 | |
| Nick Blankenburg | 1 | - | 1 | |
| Jack Drury | 1 | - | 1 | |
| Marcus Foligno | 1 | - | 1 | |
| Ryan Hartman | 1 | - | 1 | |
| Dominic James | 1 | - | 1 | |
| Marcus Johansson | 1 | - | 1 | |
| Nazem Kadri | 1 | - | 1 | |
| Alex Newhook | 1 | - | 1 | |
| Nick Suzuki | 1 | - | 1 | |
| Vladimir Tarasenko | 1 | - | 1 | |
| Mats Zuccarello | 1 | - | 1 | |
| COMPLETE STATS | ||||