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New Maple Leafs head coach Craig Berube will be adding a second assistant after the club announced Saturday that Guy Boucher will not return.
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Boucher, who had joined Sheldon Keefe’s staff just a year ago and was most notably in charge of the power play, was not thought to be secure in his post after the unit struggled in the playoffs. Despite having NHL goal leader Auston Matthews, the fleet William Nylander, playmaker Mitch Marner and the net presence of John Tavares, it struggled late in regular season and was 1-for-21 in a seven-game opening series loss to Boston.
Berube, named as Keefe’s replacement last month, retained his former St. Louis assistant Mike Van Ryn to work with the defence, while assistant Manny Malhotra left his eye-in-the sky game night tasks to take the head coach position with Vancouver’s AHL farm team.
Lane Lambert was later hired by the Leafs on June 5 with the beefed-up title of associate coach, the same day Toronto announced Dean Chynoweth, a long-time Keefe aide, would not be back. Lambert had been head coach of the New York Islanders when let go at mid-season.
No reason was stated in Saturday’s release.
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Boucher was the one-time head coach of Tampa Bay and later Ottawa. His departure puts Berube ally Marc Savard back in the Toronto bench picture. An assistant in 2019 under Berube, Savard was not retained by the Calgary Flames this spring. He had worked with the Flames’ power play.
There could be other assistants around the National Hockey League who become available as the end of the contractual year approaches June 30.
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