The Maple Leaf facing the most pressure heading into the 2024-25 season may not even be a roster player
While the core members of the Maple Leafs carry an enormous amount of pressure, Craig Berube may face even more in his first season behind the bench in Toronto.
It's no secret that players like Auston Matthews, Mitch Marner, John Tavares, and William Nylander hold a lot of pressure heading into the new season for a myriad of reasons. They are some of the highest paid players in the entire league and the Leafs haven't tasted any real playoff success during their tenure.
While his hiring was cheered from every end of the city, Craig Berube might be the one carrying the brunt of the pressure as the veteran head coach of a team that feels largely "unchanged" from last year.
Aaron Korolnek and Dave Feschuk discussed this topic on "First Up 1050":
If you can't change the players, you gotta change the tone, you gotta change the mentality, you gotta change the way this team plays hockey in it's biggest moments and that's a lot on Craig Berube to do it in a very short amount of time here. The 6 months of a regular season is not a long time and we hear a lot of teams saying "oh we need a lot more time to gel together with a new coach and a new system" and nobody wants to hear that in Leaf-land, people wanna see it work fast, people wanna see results in the here and now, people wanna see change. I'm not sure you're gonna get it but it's on Craig Berube to deliver it."
Not only does he have to contend with the same core and roster that has failed to deliver in the biggest moments but he's also going to have to face the music of a very tough media and city. A lot of teams have the liberty to ease into a new coaching hire but the Maple Leafs are going to be expected to iron out any and all kinks as soon as possible. Not to mention that he's going to be tasked to change the mindset and mentality of the team as a whole - which can take some time.
With players like Matthews and Marner leading the ship offensively, a slow start out of the gates is assuredly going to bring about a new level of hell for Berube and his coaching staff, which is why the new bench boss might be the one member of the organization facing the most pressure heading into the 2024-25 season.
Source: Hockey DBCraig Berube coaching history
| POLL | ||
26 AOUT | 835 ANSWERS The Maple Leaf facing the most pressure heading into the 2024-25 season may not even be a roster player Which member of the Maple Leafs faces the most pressure heading into the new season? | ||
| Auston Matthews | 140 | 16.8 % |
| Mitch Marner | 440 | 52.7 % |
| Craig Berube | 214 | 25.6 % |
| Other | 41 | 4.9 % |
| List of polls | ||
