Toronto Maple Leafs assistant coach Guy Boucher will not be returning to the team's coaching staff next season, the club announced on Saturday afternoon.
Boucher joined the Maple Leafs' coaching staff last summer and was brought in by previous head coach Sheldon Keefe to run the team's power play.
Having previously had success on the power play under previous assistant Spencer Carbery, the Leafs saw a drop in their production, going from the top-2 in the league to eight with a 24 percent success rate. But things were especially bad during the 2024 playoffs when Toronto scored just once in their seven-game first-round series with the Boston Bruins. The Leafs power play was 4.8 percent.
On May 9, Keefe was dismissed as Maple Leaf's head coach, and Boucher's future with the club had been questioned. The Leafs hired Craig Berube to become their bench boss a short time later and he began to fill his coaching staff.
When Lane Lambert was brought in as an associate coach, there was some belief that Boucher might be safe, considering the club only announced at the time that assistant coach Dean Chynoweth, who ran the penalty kill, would not return. But Saturday's decision confirms that Boucher will not be back.
Is another assistant coach announcement coming?
With Boucher's departure, it looks like there will be a hole to fill upfront. Currently, the staff is Berube as head coach, Lambert as an associate, and Mike Van Ryn is reportedly returning as an assistant and looking at Lambert as a lead assistant leaving one to two potential vacancies for assistants.
There is still no word on Marc Savard, who had been previously linked to the Leafs after departing the Calgary Flames after one season.
