When NHL teams are searching for a new head coach, just like the Toronto Maple Leafs are after firing Craig Berube, there’s a common theme of a range of candidates coming from a coaching carousel.
Typically, veteran coaches who get relieved land on their feet with another team in short order. It happened to Peter DeBoer when he was fired by the Dallas Stars last off-season, and hired by the New York Islanders at the tail-end of the past regular season.
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Former Vegas Golden Knights coach Bruce Cassidy would be the example for this situation this off-season.
However, with the Maple Leafs not considered a Stanley Cup contender after missing the post-season last season, GM John Chayka may look in a different direction in hiring a bench boss.
Here are three candidates who aren’t considered veterans in terms of being a head coach in the NHL, but do have some experience and deserve another opportunity to get behind the bench in the league.
Jay Woodcroft
Jay Woodcroft spent this past season as an assistant coach of the Anaheim Ducks. He has played a role in the young Ducks having a breakout season, especially offensively.
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Woodcroft has looked after the Ducks’ power play and is an offense-minded coach. That would explain the rapid and impressive growth of Anaheim’s young star forwards, such as Leo Carlsson, Cutter Gauthier and Beckett Sennecke.
Before joining the Ducks at the start of this past campaign, he was the head coach of the Edmonton Oilers for parts of three seasons.
He was hired by Edmonton midway through 2021-22 and was let go 13 games into the 2023-24 campaign. Therefore, Woodcroft only led the Oilers for one full year in 2022-23.
Nonetheless, he had a good year with the Oilers, leading that team to a 109-point finish and a 50-23-9 record.
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He has experience in managing superstars in Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl, which would translate to coaching Auston Matthews and William Nylander. Woodcroft also got to work alongside a future Hall of Fame coach in Joel Quenneville this past year.
It’s also worth noting that Toronto is Woodcroft’s hometown.
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Dean Evason
Dean Evason has much more experience as an NHL head coach compared to Woodcroft, but the 61-year-old isn’t exactly a veteran, as he’s coached 378 regular-season games in his career.
Nonetheless, he’s spent parts of seven seasons as a coach in the NHL, with his time shared between the Minnesota Wild and Columbus Blue Jackets.
Evason’s first stint was with Minnesota, which lasted three full campaigns after leading the Wild bench for 12 games in 2019-20 as the successor to Bruce Boudreau. Since then, Evason led the Wild to the post-season in every campaign, except in 2023-24 when he was fired after a 5-10-4 start to the year.
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In 2024-25, he joined the Blue Jackets and coached them to a very respectable fourth-place finish in the Metropolitan Division. Columbus missed the playoffs by just a pair of points in the standings, but the team’s effort following the loss of Johnny Gaudreau was inspiring.
Blue Jackets GM Don Waddell felt that he needed to make a coaching change 45 games into the following season, and Rick Bowness came in to replace Evason.
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Drew Bannister
Drew Bannister wasn’t a head coach in the NHL for a very long time. In fact, he only coached the St. Louis Blues for 76 outings between 2023-24 and 2024-25.
Bannister’s tenure as the head coach of the Blues started when he was named the interim bench boss when Berube was fired, and coached the final 54 games of that season. He ended that year with a respectable 30-19-5 record.
When the next season rolled around, Bannister stayed on board after inking a two-year contract extension, removing his interim tag. But just 22 games in with a 9-12-1 record, Jim Montgomery became available after losing his job with the Boston Bruins, and Blues GM Doug Armstrong jumped on the opportunity to bring him in.
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That move came at the cost of Bannister’s job, before he really had the chance to coach at the NHL level.
Before becoming the head coach in St. Louis, Bannister led from behind the bench for the AHL’s Springfield Thunderbirds. In his stint with the Thunderbirds, he guided them to a Calder Cup final appearance in 2021-22.
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