Jim Hiller’s first months with the Maple Leafs have been enough to spark opinions, but not enough to settle them.
That’s the real takeaway here: Toronto has changed in a lot of ways, and it’s still hard to separate what belongs to the coach from what belongs to the roster, the injuries, or plain old timing. Auston Matthews looks healthier and happier than he has in some time.
Gavin McKenna has arrived and looks like he could be something special. The addition of Marchenko, along with the rebuilding of the bottom six, has given the team some new life.
Special teams have been particularly encouraging.
And yet the bigger questions haven’t gone away. Five-on-five play remains a concern.
The defence has been downright messy, and the addition of veteran goaltender Sergei Bobrovsky hasn’t exactly looked like the answer so far. Some of that falls on the coaching staff.
Some of it is just bad luck, including the early injuries. Untangling those threads is the hard part.
Hiller does have one thing going for him: he isn’t a total stranger to this organization. A few players remember his earlier run in Toronto as an assistant coach under Mike Babcock, and that kind of familiarity can help build trust.
But trust only goes so far. Eventually, the results and the decisions have to back it up.
That’s why the early read on Hiller feels incomplete. His press conferences can be a little unusual, and a few of his on-ice decisions have left me scratching my head. Even so, it’s far too soon to stamp a verdict on him.
The cautionary tale is easy to see. Remember when Craig Berube’s first season behind the Toronto Maple Leafs bench looked pretty good?
Toronto won the division, and things seemed to be heading in the right direction. Then came the second season, and just about everything went sideways.
Granted, there were injuries, the loss of a 100-point player, and plenty of other explanations. But what stood out was how much the team’s overall performance seemed to drop.
Players who had looked comfortable under Berube suddenly looked like different players. Did they stop believing in the system?
Did the message wear thin? We probably don’t know the whole story.
That’s something worth keeping in mind with Jim Hiller.
A full season, and probably playoff hockey too, may be the only real way to judge him properly. That doesn’t mean he gets a free pass. John Chayka will be watching, and the coaching staff will be under scrutiny too.
For now, the best approach is simple: give Hiller a fair chance and see whether his message lasts. The Maple Leafs need a coach whose ideas can survive the rough patches, not just the easy stretch at the start. Whether Hiller is that coach is still an open question.
In Other News...
Leafs Win Still Came With The Problem Fans Keep Seeing
The win in Vancouver gave the Maple Leafs a clean result to take home, but Jim Hiller still spent much of his postgame talking about the parts of the game that need to settle in. After the 4-2 finish, the coach pointed to the teams uneven play through 16 games, while also noting encouraging signs from Anthony Stolarz in goal and the way Torontos forecheck took over in the second period. With a busy road trip behind them, the Leafs are now looking at practice time as a chance to tighten up some of the details that have kept the group from looking fully connected.
Hiller also touched on the ongoing adjustment for Gavin McKenna, whose transition to the NHL level remains a work in progress, even as the coaching staff keeps searching for the right combinations. The returns of Dakota Joshua and Chris Tanev were part of that broader picture, too, as Toronto continues to sort out how its lineup pieces fit together after time away. For a team that can still bank points while leaving questions on the table, the next stretch may say as much about its growth as the final score did. [Read more 🡒]
Maple Leafs Are Waiting On A Kirill Marchenko Recovery Twist
Kirill Marchenkos status has become one of the quieter concerns hanging over the Maple Leafs, with the forward currently sidelined by a lower-body injury and the team still without a clear timeline for his return. For a club trying to keep its forward group intact, the uncertainty matters just as much as the injury itself, especially when a players availability can shape how the lineup is managed night to night.
Marchenko has at least offered a small glimpse of progress away from the rink, appearing on social media in a knee brace while working through stickhandling exercises at home. It is the kind of update that suggests he is staying engaged, but it still leaves Toronto waiting for the next real sign that his recovery is moving toward a return. [Read more 🡒]
Maple Leafs Face A Goaltending Decision Fans Wont All Agree On
The Maple Leafs are weighing a familiar kind of early-season question in goal: stick with the hot hand or go back to the veteran who was expected to carry more of the load. Anthony Stolarz has given them a strong start, and the club is also trying to be smart about how it manages workloads with a busy schedule coming up, which makes the decision feel bigger than one game.
Sergei Bobrovskys uneven start has only sharpened the debate, because Toronto knows it cannot afford to let the position become a nightly guessing game. For now, the Leafs are still sorting out whether the safest path is to keep riding Stolarz or give Bobrovsky another chance to settle in, and it is the kind of call that can shape both the short-term rotation and the mood around the crease. [Read more 🡒]