Derek Lalonde is firmly in Toronto’s coaching mix after Craig Berube’s exit, and that tells you the Maple Leafs are looking hard at familiar voices behind the bench.
The Maple Leafs have reportedly interviewed Lalonde and Mike Van Ryn as their search moves deeper, with Elliotte Friedman putting both names on the record.«I know they’ve interviewed their internal guys,» Friedman said on Sportsnet’s The Hockey Fan Show. «I think they interviewed (Derek) Lalonde. I think they also interviewed Mike Van Ryn.»
That matters because Toronto hasn’t had many confirmed names surface since Berube was dismissed more than 2 weeks ago. The process has stayed quiet, even by NHL standards.
Lalonde looks like the cleaner internal case. He spent last season running Toronto’s penalty kill, and that unit finished at 81.2 percent, one of the Leafs’ better team results.
He also brings recent head-coaching experience. Before joining Toronto’s staff, Lalonde had a 2.5-year run with the Detroit Red Wings and previously won 2 Stanley Cups as an assistant in Tampa Bay. Van Ryn is a different bet. He just wrapped up his third season as a Leafs assistant and carried over from Sheldon Keefe’s staff into Berube’s room.
Toronto’s search is leaning on what it already knows
That familiarity can help, especially with a roster built to contend right away. The Leafs don’t need a long runway. They need a coach who can grab the room fast and clean up details fast.
Still, Van Ryn’s file comes with a hard question. Toronto allowed 295 goals last season, the second-most in the NHL, and the blue line structure never looked steady enough. He does have history with Berube from St. Louis, and he has been a head coach before at lower levels. But he has never run an NHL bench as the top voice.
That leaves Lalonde as the more obvious internal swing. He checks the head-coach box, knows the room, and has recent special-teams success in Toronto.
Now the pressure shifts to the Leafs. If they stay in-house, they’re betting the answer was already in the room all along.