Adedokun Waliyu 
Coach Sheldon Keefe spoke to the media on Monday and took responsibility after another disappointing Leafs season.
The Maple Leafs have fired coach Sheldon Keefe.
Hired Nov. 20, 2019, Keefe was the NHL’s fifth-longest tenured head coach.
“Today’s decision was difficult,” GM Brad Treliving said in a team news release. “Sheldon is an excellent coach and a great man; however, we determined a new voice is needed to help the team push through to reach our ultimate goal.
“We thank Sheldon for his hard work and dedication to the organization over the last nine years, and wish him and his family all the very best.”
Keefe has been a winner at so many levels.
He coached the Pembroke Lumber Kings to a Tier 2 junior hockey championship, the Marlies to the Calder Cup championship and the Soo Greyhounds to deep runs in the OHL playoffs.
And he has no equal among his Maple Leafs predecessors in terms of regular-season win percentage. His .665 points percentage (212 wins, 97 regulation losses, 40 overtime or shootout losses) stands at the top of a long, illustrious list.
Still, it’s playoff success at the NHL level that had eluded him, with just one series win in five trips to the post-season and a record of 16 wins, 21 losses following last weekend’s Game 7 loss to the Boston Bruins.
Keefe fell on the sword when the season ended, taking responsibilty for the first-round exit.
“We’re in the results business here and we didn’t get results and we haven’t met expectations and as a head coach I take responsibility for that,” he said Monday.
“You have a team that has expectations and has goals in mind and you don’t reach them, it’s not a good feeling. My job as a head coach is to find solutions and chart a path ahead for the group to come through and to succeed at the most important time of year and we haven’t done that.”
Keefe had been tied closely to former general manager Kyle Dubas, who hired him in Sault Ste. Marie, hired him to coach the Marlies and fired Mike Babcock to bring up Keefe to coach the Leafs.
GM Brad Treliving gave Keefe a two-year extension that expires in the 2025-26 season, but money matters little to the Leaf brain trust and the coffers of MLSE. Treliving had praised Keefe’s ability to get offence-centred forwards to contribute defensively.
“This gets done because I really think we’ve got a good coach here and, you know, his record in the regular season has proved it,” Treliving said when the extension was announced. “What he’s done in his young career here puts him with some real good company in terms of coaches, you know, past and present.”
Keefe rewards his players with the human touch, never forgetting to put the local player in the starting lineup in his hometown.
He manages to be both intense and cerebral, though his name never gets thrown around as a Jack Adams contender when folks start talking about the best coaches in the NHL. In part, that’s because what he’s doing seems unremarkable. His team has top-flight talent and typically ends up in the top five or 10 overall by the time all 82 games have been played.
He continued to have the support of the players even after the season ended.
“I think he’s been great,” said captain John Tavares. “With the team, year in and year out, I think you see improvement in a lot of areas. The consistency of the team has shown throughout his time here and individually as well, the growth in players’ games, and I can speak to that for myself. So I think he’s done a really good job.”
