The Maple Leafs have parted ways with assistant coach Guy Boucher as new head coach Craig Berube continues to overhaul the team’s staff.
The Leafs posted the news to their social media account on Saturday.
Boucher handled the forwards under former coach Sheldon Keefe, was largely responsible for the power play — which ran very hot and very cold — and designed six-on-five set plays for when the goalie was pulled for an extra attacker.
The Leafs had the seventh-best power play in the regular season, scoring 24 per cent of the time. But they scored just once on 21 opportunities in the first round of the playoffs against the Boston Bruins, a key reason they lost in seven games.
Boucher, previously a head coach with the Tampa Bay Lightning and Ottawa Senators, isn’t the only assistant to move on since the Leafs were eliminated.
Manny Malhotra, who worked mostly with the centres, left to become head coach of the AHL’s Abbotsford Canucks. And the Leafs had previously announced Dean Chynoweth, primarily a special-teams coach, will not be returning. There has been no announcement about the status of Mike Van Ryn, the assistant in charge of the defence. He had previously worked with Berube in St. Louis.
Last week, the Leafs signed former New York Islanders coach Lane Lambert as an associate coach. His specialty is the penalty kill.
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