The Toronto Maple Leafs are interviewing former New York Islanders head coach Patrick Roy for the team’s vacant head-coaching gig.
TSN’s Darren Dreger reported on Wednesday that the Leafs will speak to both Roy and longtime NHL head coach Peter Laviolette for the team’s open HC job.
“The Toronto Maple Leafs coaching search is getting more interesting. Sources say Patrick Roy and Peter Laviolette are a part of this weeks stage of the interview process,” Dreger wrote on X.
Patrick Roy is a Hockey Hall of Famer
Roy was one of the best goaltenders in NHL history for the Montreal Canadiens and the Colorado Avalanche. He won four Stanley Cups as a player, three Conn Smythe trophies as the playoff MVP, three Vezina Trophies as the league’s best goaltender, and he was inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame in 2006.
After retiring as a player, Roy went into coaching, first in the junior ranks and then in the NHL. He was the head coach of the Avalanche from 2013 to 2015, winning the Jack Adams Award as the NHL’s best head coach in his rookie season when he helped lead the Avs to the postseason, but was fired after the team missed the playoffs the next two years.
After going back to junior hockey, Roy returned to the NHL in 2023 with the Islanders. He led the team to the playoffs in his return to the league, but the Islanders missed the playoffs in his second season as their head coach. With the Islanders tracking to miss the playoffs once again this season, the team fired him with just four games to go in the regular season and replaced him with Pete DeBoer.
That made Roy one of the top head-coaching candidates on the open market, and the Maple Leafs are apparently interested in bringing him in to coach their team.
Peter Laviolette is a Coaching Legend
In addition to Roy, Laviolette is also someone the Maple Leafs have an interest in hiring as the team’s head coach.
It was 20 years ago that Laviolette won the Stanley Cup when he led the Carolina Hurricanes to the Stanley Cup. He has also been to the Stanley Cup Finals with the Philadelphia Flyers and the Nashville Predators.
He was out of the league this past season after the New York Rangers fired him the previous season, but Laviolette remains one of the most highly respected and winning coaches in hockey. He has also expressed an interest in returning to the league and coaching the Maple Leafs specifically, so we’ll see if Leafs GM John Chayka ends up hiring him.
The Leafs are interviewing tons of different head coaching candidates as Chayka wants to make sure he gets this hire right after the Craig Berube era came to a crashing halt after just two seasons. Both Roy and Laviolette have their pros and cons, so we’ll see if the team ends up choosing one of them as their next head coach or if someone else gets hired instead.
Maple Leafs Interviewing Patrick Roy for Head Coaching Job