Confirmed with Link: Leafs Hire Jim Hiller as Head Coach

[Suntouchable13]

Hope he is not just buddy buddy with Matthews and Nylander and just coach the best way for the team. Appeasing them is asinine.

 

[Daisy Jane]

who is this guy?

 

[HamiltonNHL]

We got a boatload of capspace

More Popular destinations have just as much

 

[HockeyVirus]

So are the Leafs.

We finished last in D.

Unless we clone Bobby Orr and Larry Robinson we’ll be around the same last year.

Trading Benoit isn’t a D upgrade as well.

You have been a hockey fan for too long to be this simple. The Leafs problems were systematic. Coaching system didn't work and we lacked the mold of player on the backend to overcome it as we lacked puck movement.

The Kings also have no one even close to what we have up front once their forwards have the puck. Knies is as good as the Kings best forward. We have Matthews, Nylander, Tavares better than him and Cowan and McKenna who are right there.

 

[ToDavid]

This is a pretty exagerated depiction.

Yes, he's defense focused, but he isn't Craig Berube. His teams were analytically elite defensively and still held their own offensively with very limited offensive talent on the roster.

He did take it slow with Clarke/Spence, especially in 2024-25. And his love for Edmundson that year is concerning. But his team was also dominant through the regular season so it's kind of hard to argue with the results (and none of their defensemen looked very good in the playoffs). In 2025-26, it seems like he was adapting to their disappointing offensive production because Clarke moved up through the depth chart over the course of the season and was 2nd on the team in total ice time by the time Hiller was fired.

Given that Chayka went out and got a small analytical darling depth defenseman a day before Hiller was hired, and has preached speed and puck moving all summer, I assume it's something they've discussed with him.

 

[Fogelhund]

Pelley said the Leafs are rebuilding and many use that as proof they aren’t.

Did you mean aren't?

 

[Ianturnedbull]

Because the list of other options was particularly inspiring?

Do you know the official list of every single coach they interviewed?

My little acronym post is making light of this situation. There are still too many questions as to where this team is going. For all we know Toronto might be selling off all their best players. Why hire a coach that is expected to do a deep playoff run?

Hiller presents a lot of information for fans. Perhaps it represents a re-build. Who knows?

 

[centipede2233]

So the off the board hire chayka hired the off the board hiller. Makes sense

 

[dubey]

A question for people - why are people happy or see it as a good thing that there are no leaks in the organization? How does that help us or hinder us?

I only ask because in football (soccer) everything is known by journalists or released by agents well in advance of clubs actually making their moves.

What leverage do you have in negotiations if everyone knows all of your business

 

[seventieslord]

It's just so meh.

It's not a well-known retread whose coached in four other NHL cities over the last 20 years.

It's not a fresh, younger coach with big new ideas who maybe had success in junior or the minors or college.

It's like they couldn't decide which direction to go so they went in the middle

 

[Orfieus]

Are Tweets showing for anyone else?

 

[HamiltonNHL]

Did you mean aren't?

Yes. Fixed.

 

[ACC1224]

A question for people - why are people happy or see it as a good thing that there are no leaks in the organization? How does that help us or hinder us?

I only ask because in football (soccer) everything is known by journalists or released by agents well in advance of clubs actually making their moves.

I asked that before with no response, I'm curious as well.
As a fan I want more leaks not less.

 

[AllHeartNoSkill]

It's just so meh.

It's not a well-known retread whose coached in four other NHL cities over the last 20 years.

It's not a fresh, younger coach with big new ideas who maybe had success in junior or the minors or college.

It's like they couldn't decide which direction to go so they went in the middle

The ultimate compromise. Nobody likes it.

 

[Leaf Fans]

who is this guy?

Former Leafs assistant coach. A Babcock assistant even in Detroit. King Head coach.

 

[shortfuze]

It’s about winning not fun.

You sound like a fan who thinks the Leafs could squeak into the playoffs and then a lightning in a bottle happens.

SORRY. That’s not a plan. That’s a lack of a plan

you have no idea of what youre talking about. i asked you how Woll ditched the team? none of that other crap. if youre going to just bitch and complain at least read other posters question properly.

 

[Leaf Fans]

I asked that before with no response, I'm curious as well.
As a fan I want more leaks not less.

It's good for the team ad for the fans

 

[Mickey Marner]

I can’t tell if this is a retooling hire or a rebuilding hire.

 

[Leafsfan74]

I read a few pages of this hiring and it just crept into my head, that all familiar song..."Hello darkness, my old friend".

 

[Hellcat]

He doesn't play the 1-3-1 apparently that was mandated from management and out of need because they were so bad defensively.

Before that his reputation was an offensive minded coach. He also ran our PP under Babcock.

This dooming of being a 1-3-1 is just ignorance. It might be a bad hire but 1-3-1 isn't why

1-3-1 is not a bad system, every system has it's flaws, every system has it's benefits. How do you know that system was mandated by "management"?

 

[Menzinger]

Mirtle says when Leafs were negotiating extension with Stolarz, they pushed really hard to get his cap number down to as close to the maximum burial amount under LTIR - they didn't expect him to stay healthy for the duration of his contract.

It's interesting that the Leafs have made him their big bet - probably means Woll was the only one that had any sort of value?

Though different front office may value things differently, or maybe their sports sciences guys were less optimistic about Wolls health consistency. Or maybe the Flyers just really wanted Woll. Who knows

 

[ACC1224]

It's good for the team ad for the fans

No leaks or more leaks?

 

[nuck]

who is this guy?

Babcocks old assistant and later Troz' assistant in NY. Two very different HC and then a big regular season coaching the Kings two years ago.

 

[Hellcat]

U

unemployed people want to work for a few million.

I wont get out of bed for less than a few million ...

 

[Tie Domi Esquire]

This was the best guy out of the 150 they interviewed