Chayka Fires Craig Berube: The Maple Leafs Just Tore It All Down
One year ago, the Toronto Maple Leafs finished first in the Atlantic with 108 points. Now Craig Berube is unemployed and the roster is in shambles.
The Leafs fired their head coach Wednesday, ten days after John Chayka took over as general manager.
That timeline says everything about where this franchise is headed.
Chayka wasn't going to wait.
He wasn't going to give Berube a graceful exit. He drew a line and erased everything on the wrong side of it.
Craig Berube fired: what happened in Toronto
Let's sit with how badly this went sideways.
The 2024-25 Leafs won the Atlantic, beat Ottawa in six, and took Florida to seven in Round 2.
They looked like a team finally breaking through.
Then the same franchise dropped to 78 points.
Dead last in the division. Finished the year on an 0-6-1 streak no one in the organization has fully explained.
Goaltending was a big part of it.
Joseph Woll posted a 3.22 GAA this season. That's up from 2.89 the year before. Anthony Stolarz went from 2.14 to 3.29. Those aren't minor swings. Those are full collapses that put the defense in a hole from puck drop every night.
The Leafs allowed 3.60 goals per game. Worst in the NHL. You can't win like that.
You can't even keep fans awake.
The goaltending collapse
Woll started 41 games. Stolarz got 29.
Neither gave the Leafs anything reliable.
Woll's save percentage sat at .892.
Stolarz finished at .880.
That's not a coaching problem. That's a personnel problem, and it predates Berube.
The defense wasn't good enough either, but bad goaltending makes every problem worse.
John Chayka's ten-day power move
Chayka was announced as GM on May 3.
Berube was gone by May 13. Ten days.
The Sporting News reported Berube had two years and roughly $4.5 million per season left on his deal.
Chayka didn't care.
He's 36. He ran the Arizona Coyotes from 2016 to 2020 and has spent the years since waiting for another shot. He's not here to be liked.
The payroll was irrelevant next to the message: this is my room now.
Mats Sundin came in as senior executive adviser the same day Chayka took over.
The new regime is already stacking its infrastructure. Berube was the first domino. He won't be the last.
Chayka's GM track record
Coyotes fans will tell you Chayka knows how to build a roster under a cap crunch. He also butted heads with ownership in Arizona and left with a reputation for being difficult.
That reputation is exactly why someone like him gets hired now. The Leafs need someone who won't flinch.
Chayka hasn't flinched yet.
The Matthews problem no coach can fix
And then there's Auston Matthews.
He finished this season with 27 goals and 53 points in 60 games. Career lows across the board for a full season.
On March 12, a knee-on-knee hit from Radko Gudas ended his year. Grade 3 MCL tear. Quad contusion. Season-ending surgery.
He's 28. Two years left at $13.25 million per. Matthews can sign an extension whenever he wants. He hasn't.
That's not an accident.
The next coach inherits a franchise center coming off the worst statistical season of his career, coming off major knee surgery, on a team that just finished last in the division. Berube couldn't fix this. It's not entirely his fault.
But someone has to answer for it.
The question isn't whether the next coach can get more out of Matthews.
It's whether Matthews wants to be here when his contract runs out.
The knee complicates everything. Recovery from a Grade 3 MCL takes six to nine months. Matthews could be back for training camp, or he could be starting the season on the shelf. That uncertainty is worth tracking.
A franchise center entering the final year of his deal coming off major surgery is the kind of situation that defines a general manager's tenure.
The Shanahan playbook looms over everything
The last overhaul that looked like this was 2014, when Brendan Shanahan took over and fired everyone in sight. That launched the decade-long playoff streak that just ended.
The difference is that 2014 felt like hope. This feels like the end of a long, frustrating chapter.
Berube came to Toronto with a Stanley Cup ring from St. Louis. That was supposed to matter. It didn't. The Leafs cratered anyway.
And now he joins a coaching carousel that's gotten crowded. Columbus, Los Angeles, Vegas, and New York all made changes this season alone, per TSN. The next coach will face the same problems: a goaltending room that needs answers, a center who may not want to stay. And a fan base that hasn't seen a Stanley Cup since 1967.
Chayka isn't done. The coaching hire is just the start. Watch for his next move within the week.
---
Meta description: John Chayka fired Craig Berube 10 days after becoming GM. How the Toronto Maple Leafs went from 108 points and an Atlantic Division title to last in the division in one season.
```json { "@context": "https://schema.org", "@type": "NewsArticle", "headline": "Chayka Fires Craig Berube: The Maple Leafs Just Tore It All Down", "author": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Curly" }, "datePublished": "2026-05-13", "about": [ { "@type": "SportsEvent", "name": "Toronto Maple Leafs coaching change" }, { "@type": "SportsTeam", "name": "Toronto Maple Leafs" } ], "sportsTeam": { "@type": "SportsTeam", "name": "Toronto Maple Leafs" }, "sportsEvent": { "@type": "SportsEvent", "sport": "Ice Hockey", "name": "NHL" } } ```