After five seasons as the head coach of the Toronto Maple Leafs, Sheldon Keefe was dismissed from his duties on May 9, 2024. This came less than a calendar year after signing a two-year contract extension.
During his time with the Maple Leafs, Keefe only won one playoff series in 2022-23 but lost in the second round in just five games to the Florida Panthers. Following Toronto’s third exit in the first round in the past four seasons, this time a heartbreaking overtime loss in Game 7 to the Boston Bruins, his time was up.
Overall, three of the last four teams Keefe has been eliminated by have gone on to the Stanley Cup Final. If the Bruins do the same in 2024, it would be all four. A path to success was there, but the Maple Leafs lacked a killer instinct when all was said and done; Keefe is partially to blame for that.
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Keefe finished his time with the Maple Leafs having a 212-97-40 record in 349 contests, standing as the sixth-most games coached in team history. Interestingly, the coach he succeeded, Mike Babcock, had 351 games coached in Toronto. Both of their tenures ended up pretty similarly, neither doing much with a core of Auston Matthews, William Nylander, Mitch Marner, and John Tavares. Those last two are in the final season of their contracts, so there could be more major changes to come.