Getty Toronto Maple Leafs head coach Sheldon Keefe could be fired if his team gets eliminated.
The Toronto Maple Leafs‘ season came to an end on Saturday, May 4, when they fell to Boston in Game 7 of their first-round matchup against the Bruins.
Off the ice there are still a few critical items of business to be taken care of, and Toronto is “gearing up for a significant announcement” on Friday, May 10, according to Jim Parsons of The Hockey Writers.
Maple Leafs CEO Keith Pelley, president Brendan Shanahan and general manager Brad Treliving will host a press conference that day, and Parsons reported that “a decision to remove [head coach Sheldon Keefe] is expected.”
This year, following their early Stanley Cup playoffs exit, Toronto decided to split its end-of-season media availability into two different sessions.
Leafs players (headlined by Mitch Marner, who wants an extension) and Keefe (who said he wants to stay in Toronto) held the first press conference on Monday, May 6. A second was initially scheduled for Thursday, May 9, but was delayed until Friday, May 10.
Leafs to Fire Sheldon Keefe & Brendan Shanahan on May 10?
Parsons also wrote that speculation leading up to Friday’s media availability included the potential firing of Shanahan.
“There are some rumblings that he should not escape the axe,” Parsons wrote. He added that that seems unlikely: “Since he’s scheduled to be at the meeting, [Shanahan] will likely remain with the team.”
NHL insider Elliotte Friedman discussed the Maple Leafs’ situation on the May 8 episode of his podcast “32 Thoughts.”
Friedman said that he believes the franchise made Wednesday, May 8, an “important day in terms of meeting and planning.”
“Wednesday is a day where they’re really going to start to drill down on where things are going to go here over the next little while,” he said.
Elliotte Friedman on 32TP :
“I think I have a little bit of a better idea of why this week is unfolding as it is. You know, the players and Sheldon Keefe had their availability on Monday…I think Wednesday is an important day in terms of meeting and planning In the organization.…
“Everyone wanted to wait a couple of days but now it’s time to start moving everything forward,” Friedman said.
Friedman also shared two details that might have gone unnoticed by the broader audience and Leafs fans but that could have been important enough to force the franchise into pushing the final media availability of the Leafs one day further down the road.
“Tuesday was draft lottery day,” Friedman said. “I don’t think the league wanted a lot of news on that day … but I don’t think they wanted too much there to interfere with the [Macklin] Celebrini (consensus best prospect in the 2024 draft) celebration.
“Also Sheldon Keefe was inducted into the Brampton Sports Hall of Fame on Tuesday night and I think the Maple Leafs also too are very sensitive of that.”
Those two events, paired with the delay of the press conference, might be a clue pointing toward Keefe’s impending firing.
Will the Toronto Maple Leafs Try to Trade Mitch Marner?
If the Leafs decide to retain Keefe, who has a two-year contract extension that runs through the 2025-2026 season, then it’s expected that Toronto will explore the trade market for superstar forward Mitch Marner.
Marner, however, has a no-move clause baked into his contract and could block any trade through the 2024-2025 season.
On the May 6 episode of “32 Thoughts,” Friedman discussed rumors of Marner’s potential departure via trade as he enters his final season under contract with the Leafs.
Toronto is “going to be in the mix for them,” Friedman said about Chicago Blackhawks’ Seth Jones, Carolina Hurricanes’ Brett Pesce, and Florida Panthers Brandon Montour as potential trade targets in a Marner move.
Marner announced on May 6 that he plans to sign a long-term extension as long as the Leafs offer him a new contract.