The Maple Leafs need the waters round Sheldon Keefe to be as calm as attainable throughout this high-stakes season.
In giving Keefe a two-year extension that places him underneath contract by means of 2023-24, the Leafs eliminated the inevitable questions or hypothesis about their head coach’s future that might have accompanied any three-game dropping streak.
With out the extension, Keefe may have been a lame duck, getting into the ultimate yr of the deal he had been working underneath since changing Mike Babcock behind the staff’s bench in November 2019.
News of the contract was first reported Thursday by colleague Pierre LeBrun on TSN’s Insider Buying and selling. The deal was signed over the summer time, in line with sources.
Whereas the Leafs have did not recover from the playoff hump since Keefe took over — dropping a qualifying spherical series to Columbus contained in the NHL bubble earlier than dropping to Montreal in seven video games in Could — they’ve amassed a .660 factors share with him on the helm within the common season.
That’s per the success the 41-year-old loved at earlier ranges all through his teaching profession.
It helped justify this show-me extension, particularly with it being his first 82-game season with the Leafs. He took over a struggling staff from Babcock and instantly turned its fortunes earlier than guiding the Leafs to a first-place end within the North Division throughout final yr’s COVID-interrupted marketing campaign.
There has been clear progress, notably on the defensive facet of the puck.
Keefe’s largest problem within the months forward can be serving to his core gamers construct an unshakable basis following their repeated playoff disappointments. He’s additionally working with a reimagined ahead group that features free-agent additions Nick Ritchie, Ondrej Kaše and Michael Bunting.
This season carries big penalties for the group, with everybody from president Brendan Shanahan to basic supervisor Kyle Dubas to the $40-million (U.S.) core 4 — Auston Matthews, Mitch Marner, William Nylander and John Tavares — prone to face heavy scrutiny if the Leafs don’t take a step ahead.
Keefe not too long ago advised reporters that his personal job safety wasn’t one thing he spent any time worrying about.
“I recognize and accept the pressure and responsibility that comes with this position, I knew that when I got into it,” Keefe stated on the outset of coaching camp. “There hasn’t been a day where I’ve thought about (my job security). There also hasn’t been a day where I don’t recognize the responsibility that I have towards our fans and our ownership and our management team.”
Keefe was the central determine in Amazon’s “All or Nothing” all-access series, proven pushing his gamers pretty laborious behind the scenes final season even because the wins piled up. Nevertheless, he has additionally developed a fame as a straight-shooter who leaves everybody clear on the place they stand, and he has confirmed to be a lot much less cussed than his predecessor with regards to lineup selections and in-game administration.
He and Dubas have loved super success collectively relationship again to their time in Sault Ste. Marie, and it included a Calder Cup with the Toronto Marlies in 2018.
Keefe amassed more wins throughout his first 100 video games as Leafs head coach than anybody else in historical past — 61, to Hap Day’s 58 — and he’s in an ideal place to see at the least 200 video games on the job now that he’s signed this extension.
This was meant to convey a measure of stability throughout a interval the place issues may rapidly flip uneven if the Leafs battle.
It’s an indication that he’s heading in the right direction, but in addition a nod to the truth that nothing is assured long run for this group with out more progress. Keefe doesn’t look like the type of persona who can be bothered by that state of affairs — “I knew exactly what I was getting into,” he stated earlier in camp — nevertheless it ought to hold issues a little bit quieter across the periphery of the staff with the season drawing nearer.
Between the massive expectations and rising record of doubters, they’re already dealing with sufficient noise as it's.
Chris Johnston is a Toronto-based journalist with a brand new gaming firm. His work can be seen on the web site and app for the brand new gaming firm, and likewise within the Toronto Star. Comply with him on Twitter: @reporterchris
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