Leafs fan in peace. I think this is an excellent hire and easily the best coach available.
Very smart coach, he actually got a lot of results out of a poor roster on paper defensively for many years. Leafs were bottom 5 defensively when he took over and had several years where the team was in the top 15, including a top 7 finish and a year where all metrics were top 10 aside from goaltending.
Players love to play for him. When he was hired in Toronto and they interviewed Marlies who he had coached and won a Calder cup with, the general consensus is guys want to play hard for him.
Strengths:
- X and O type coach who seems to be able to get a lot out of different types of players.
- Extensive experience coaching stars. Both Marner and Matthews were Selke finalists under him.
- Constantly adapting his system each year to fix flaws from the year before.
Weaknesses:
- Large sample size of failing to adapt in a playoff series until it is too late.
- A pattern of the team taking nights off, especially against bottom feeders.
- Some critiscm of being too easy on players when they needed a firm hand
Overall, he will basic guarantee playoffs every year and I would expect to see large leaps in your star forwards specifically in all 200 feet of the ice. Great hire for you guys.