Maple Leafs Allow Teams to Contact Two Staff Members

The Toronto Maple Leafs might soon be saying goodbye to two key figures in their organization, as both team president Brendan Shanahan and associate coach Lane Lambert are drawing interest from other NHL teams.

The New York Islanders have their eyes on Shanahan. They’ve already gotten permission to talk with him about potentially taking over for Lou Lamoriello, who’s leaving after seven years as the team’s president and GM.

Shanahan’s possible departure would mark the end of an era in Toronto. He’s been running the show there for 10 seasons, turning what was once a struggling team into a playoff regular.

That’s actually putting it mildly – the Leafs have made the postseason nine straight years under his watch.

And this year might’ve been his best yet, with Toronto finally breaking through to the second round of the playoffs.

But Shanahan’s contract is up, and the Islanders aren’t the only ones interested. They’re also looking at Marc Bergevin, Mathieu Darche, and Jarmo Kekalainen for the job.

Meanwhile, the Seattle Kraken want to chat with Lane Lambert about their head coaching vacancy. They’re hunting for their third coach since joining the NHL in 2021, having just shown Dan Bylsma the door.

Lambert’s been running Toronto’s penalty kill this season, working alongside power-play coach Marc Savard and head coach Craig Berube. While the team’s regular-season penalty kill was middle-of-the-pack (17th with 77.9%), they really stepped it up in the playoffs, finishing fifth best at 81.5%.

He’s got some head coaching experience too. Lambert ran the Islanders’ bench from 2022 until January 2024, even getting them to the playoffs in his first year with a pretty solid 42-31-9 record.

The Hurricanes knocked his Islanders out in six games during the 2023 playoffs, and this season Patrick Roy took over for him in January.

For the Leafs, losing both these guys would mean some serious changes ahead. But that’s life in the NHL – success tends to make your people pretty attractive to other teams.