Leafs assistant Guy Boucher will not return to the coaching staff

The Toronto Maple Leafs have announced that Guy Boucher will not be returning to the coaching staff for the 2024-25 season.

The Toronto Maple Leafs announced today that assistant coach Guy Boucher will not return to the coaching staff.

— Leafs PR (@LeafsPR) June 15, 2024

Boucher was hired by now-former Leafs head coach Sheldon Keefe ahead of the 2023-24 season. A big part of his role included running the power play, a unit which finished seventh in the NHL this past season with a 24 percent success rate.

Unfortunately for Boucher, the Leafs’ power play went ice-cold in the playoffs, converting on just 1 of 21 opportunities. Those struggles played a big part in why the Leafs lost seven games to the Boston Bruins in the opening round.

Boucher has a lengthy coaching resume. From 2006 to 2009, the 52-year-old spent three seasons as the head coach of the Drummondville Voltigeurs in the QMJHL before landing with the Hamilton Bulldogs of the AHL for the 2009-10 season.

The following season, Boucher became the head coach of the Tampa Bay Lightning, a role which he held until his firing partway through the 2012-13 campaign. After heading over to coach in Switzerland for three seasons, he returned to the NHL in 2016 as the head coach of the Ottawa Senators.

After being fired by the Senators during the 2018-19 season, Boucher wasn’t behind an NHL bench until Keefe chose to hire him last summer.

With Boucher out, newly hired head coach Craig Berube must decide who he wants to hire as a replacement. Ten days ago, the Leafs announced that Lane Lambert had been hired as an assistant while confirming that Dean Chynoweth would not be returning.

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