The Maple Leafs just suffered the biggest robbery of the year
Peter Laviolette was reportedly set to become the Toronto Maple Leafs' next head coach - and then Los Angeles walked through the door.
According to a report via @FAN590, cited by @LeafsLatest on Tuesday, Laviolette was spotted in Toronto as recently as last Friday and a press conference was reportedly being lined up for Monday or Tuesday.
Then it didn't happen.
The report suggests the Kings did some fast talking over the weekend, and Laviolette ended up in Los Angeles instead of on the Leafs' bench.
That's a gut punch for a fanbase that has been waiting a long time for this franchise to get it right.
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The Leafs closed the season on a seven-game losing streak, going 2-7-1 in their final ten games to finish 32-36-14, 28th overall in the league.
Leafs' coaching search unravels as season ends in collapse
Toronto allowed 299 goals this season while scoring only 253. That's a -46 goal differential on a roster that includes Auston Matthews at $13.25 million and William Nylander at $11.5 million.
Both of them playing out a lost season behind a coaching staff that couldn't stop the bleeding.
Think about that for a second. Two of the most talented forwards in the league, and the Leafs still finished seven games under .500.
The coaching hire was supposed to be the first real signal that this rebuild in identity was real. Laviolette has won a Stanley Cup, he's rebuilt broken franchises before, he's exactly the type of hard-nosed presence this locker room has needed for years.
Instead, he's heading to the Kings. General manager Ken Holland hired D.J. Smith for Los Angeles back in March, but the moves around the bench continue.
Los Angeles finished 35-27-20 with 90 points. They went 6-2-2 in their last ten games. They're building something.
Toronto is still looking for its coach.
The Leafs went 0-2 against the Kings this season, dropping both matchups in overtime, including a 6-7 loss in Los Angeles on April 4th.
They couldn't beat them on the ice. Now they can't beat them to a coaching hire either.
What exactly does this front office have to do to land the right person for this job? Because this report raises that question loudly and doesn't leave a clean answer.
Matthews is 28 years old. His window isn't going to stay open forever.
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YESTERDAY
JUNE 6, 2026
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| G | A | PTS | ||
| Mitch Marner | 3 | 1 | 4 | |
| Tomas Hertl | 1 | 1 | 2 | |
| Jordan Staal | 1 | 1 | 2 | |
| Shea Theodore | 1 | 1 | 2 | |
| Sebastian Aho | - | 2 | 2 | |
| Brayden McNabb | - | 2 | 2 | |
| Taylor Hall | 1 | - | 1 | |
| Jordan Martinook | 1 | - | 1 | |
| Andrei Svechnikov | 1 | - | 1 | |
| Jackson Blake | - | 1 | 1 | |
| Jack Eichel | - | 1 | 1 | |
| Brett Howden | - | 1 | 1 | |
| Seth Jarvis | - | 1 | 1 | |
| William Karlsson | - | 1 | 1 | |
| Eric Robinson | - | 1 | 1 | |
| Jaccob Slavin | - | 1 | 1 | |
| Logan Stankoven | - | 1 | 1 | |
| Frederik Andersen | - | - | - | |
| Rasmus Andersson | - | - | - | |
| Ivan Barbashev | - | - | - | |
| COMPLETE STATS | ||||