The Toronto Maple Leafs have added to their coaching staff to fill the gaps lost during the offseason. Toronto has hired Derek Lalonde as an assistant coach. Lalonde will assist head coach Craig Berube in the team’s efforts to chase the Stanley Cup.
Lalonde Comes in as Assistant Coach
The Maple Leafs have made a big addition to their coaching staff, bringing in Lalonde. Lalonde is a former head coach and a long-time assistant coach in the NHL. His last gig was with the Detroit Red Wings , where he was the bench boss for parts of three seasons. He was fired by the Red Wings on Boxing Day this past season. In his three campaigns, he mustered up a 89-86-23 regular-season record, and never qualified for the playoffs.
Lalonde did get close to seeing the playoffs in his second season. They tied with the Washington Capitals in points for the final wild-card spot. However, the Caps were given the playoff berth because they had more regulation wins. That was Lalonde’s best season with the Red Wings.
However, Lalonde was very successful as an assistant coach, He was a back-to-back Stanley Cup champion with the Tampa Bay Lightning alongside Jon Cooper . Therefore, his championship pedigree will pair up nicely with Cup champion Berube.
His Specialties
Lalonde comes in to replace Lane Lambert , who was Toronto’s penalty kill coach this past season. Lambert has moved on to bigger and better things as he was hired to become the head coach of the Seattle Kraken . Therefore, the Leafs believe that Lalonde would be a great fit to fill Lambert’s shoes.
When he was the coach of Detroit, the team’s penalty kill and goals-against averages weren’t outstanding. However, in his tenure as assistant coach with the Lightning, Tampa Bay were the third-best team on the penalty kill. Between September 2018 and July 2022 , the Bolts were 82.7 percent on the PK in the regular season. They were only behind the San Jose Sharks (83.1 percent) and the Carolina Hurricanes (84.8 percent).
Given Lalonde’s previous roles and experience, hiring him should play out to be a great decision for Toronto.
Main Photo Credit: James Guillory-Imagn Images
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