Brad Treliving reportedly spoke to 9 coaches during search process

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Julien Trekker
May 21, 2024 (2:42 PM)

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In today's press conference, the Toronto Maple Leafs general manger Brad Treliving revealed that he spoke to nine candidates in the search process to find a new head coach.

Less than two weeks after the Leafs were eliminated from the playoffs by the Boston Bruins in the first round, management had already fired Sheldon Keefe after five years of coaching the Leafs and hired Craig Berube to replace him.

Between those two events, Treliving didn't sit around waiting for something to happen.

In a press conference to introduce Berube to the media and the fans as their new coach, held Tuesday morning, the GM revealed that he held a thorough interview process that led him to discuss with nine candidates.

Here's what he said about that process:

"In our year-end press conference, I said at that time that the top priority was to find the next coach and the new head coach of the Toronto Maple Leafs. Really, from that day forward, that's really what I've immersed myself into, and it's been sort of a nonstop process over that time.

First step was really to identify a profile before we started to get out into the field and meet and talk with candidates. It was really to build a profile of the individual that we felt was going to come in and be the best fit.

I met and talked with several individuals. I'm not going to necessarily get into names and whatnot, but I think it was upwards of nine individuals that I met with or spoke with."

Later, he also spoke about why his choice stopped on Berube and why he was the best option to replace Keefe:

"Obviously, during that time, I had a chance to speak and meet with Craig, and [I] spent a lot of time with Craig. And as I went through the process with other individuals, it kept coming back to Craig."

"The homework you do with people that worked with, worked for, and played for Craig � you have players, to me, talked about how they'd go through a wall for him. Ultimately, character matters. Character matters. It matters with your team, and it matters most importantly with your head coach.

I look at Craig, and ultimately what brought me back to him was his leadership, his ability to build teams and have a team-first concept, his ability to connect with players, and his ability to hold people accountable."

Watch the following video to listen to the full press conference: