The Sheet with Jeff Marek - On the Sheet: David Alter on the Toronto Maple Leafs Firing Craig Berube

Episode Date: May 14, 2026

David Alter joins Jeff Marek to break down the Toronto Maple Leafs firing Craig Berube, what it means for the organization and Auston Matthews, and moreSHOUTOUT TO OUR SPONSORS!!👍🏼 Fan Duel: https://www.fanduel.com/👍🏼 Ninja: https://www.sharkninja.ca/ninja-crispi-pro-6-in-1-countertop-glass-air-fryer-rose-quartz/AS101CRS.html?utm_source=Meta&utm_medium=Paid+Social&utm_campaign=H1NinjaCrispi&utm_content=NinjaEN&dwvar_AS101CRS_color=cdb9b8Reach out to [e-mail] to connect with our Sales Team and discuss opportunities to partner with us!If you liked this, check out:🚨 OTT - Coming in Hot Sens | https://www.youtube.com/c/thewallyandmethotshow🚨 TOR - LeafsNation | https://www.youtube.com/@theleafsnation401🚨 EDM - OilersNation | https://www.youtube.com/@Oilersnationdotcom🚨 VAN - CanucksArmy | https://www.youtube.com/@Canucks_Army🚨 CGY - FlamesNation | https://www.youtube.com/@FNBarnBurner🚨 Daily Faceoff Fantasy & Betting | www.youtube.com/@DFOFantasyandBetting____________________________________________________________________________________________Connect with us on ⬇️Link Tree: https://linktr.ee/daily_faceoff💻 Website: https://www.dailyfaceoff.com🐦 Follow on twitter: https://x.com/DailyFaceoff💻 Follow on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/dailyfaceoffDaily Faceoff Merch:https://nationgear.ca/collections/daily-faceoffReach out to [e-mail] to connect with our Sales Team and discuss opportunities to partner with us! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Anyhow, in the meantime, we're talking about the Toronto Maple Leafs with David Alter from the hockey news, who joins me now. More on this story. First of all, David, thanks so much for stopping by. And on a day like this, you make sure the batteries are charged and the phone and the phone doesn't burn out. But quick thought on this one, I don't think anybody should necessarily be surprised. But has anything caught your eye here that you would say, well, I didn't expect that? not necessarily i thought there might be some detail into the thinking as to why the leaves decided to move on from broubae but chika offered little to nothing just kind of sticking to kind of a

corporate speak organizational vision all that kind of stuff and not really kind of getting to why he did kind of mention that they didn't solicit player feedback as to as to if they should bring broubay back or not which i thought was pretty interesting but other than that i mean i think this This is kind of shaping of what it's going to be like where whenever we do hear from some of the organizational principles here, you're just not going to get a lot of detail and everything's going to be assessed by what they do as opposed to what they say. Everyone understands a rationale behind it, but some insight as to why they made this decision, why they did it now, why they didn't let Burbé kind of go through maybe a month or so to see if they can kind of get things back. we didn't really get any of that. Right. I asked Brian Burke this earlier before he came on.

It said, is this sea change? And he said, no, this is revolution. He said it's even more than just sea change for this organization. Do you believe that, that this is more than just a sea change for the Toronto Maple Leafs, that this is indicative of something even greater that is going to start to play itself out in the not too distant future? It's possible. It's just kind of hard to really get a sense of to where that's going to be.

We do know at some point this year, the ownership of the franchise is going to change from 75% Rogers to 100% Rogers. And then, you know, maybe everything organizationally might completely change in terms of who's at the top of a lot of different sports properties. So I see something along those lines. Maybe it makes sense there. But outside of that, it's kind of hard to gauge what's really going to change. Is this a long-term vision? Are they going to more of a rebuild than a retool? There wasn't really a lot of details as to what Austin Matthews thinks of this yet.

It sounds like they haven't met and they're still trying to nail down a date as to when Chaka and Matthews will meet. So there's still a lot to kind of wade through here in terms of the messaging and what the Leafs are going to do. But if fans were kind of looking at this and kind of looking for an answer, they didn't really get any sort of clarity as to what's going on, apart from the obvious that a change that they probably would have made eventually got made today. And, you know, to that, I say good for them. You know, if you made your mind up on an individual, the best thing you can do is do it early this way. At least Barubi has a chance to interview for other positions,

unless the Maple Leafs decide to go Vegas and block them, which I can't see happening. Just throw that one in there. A quick couple of thought. You mentioned Austin Matthews. Is that the next? I guess there's the draft. to with Gavin McKenna or whatever they,

whatever they do with the pick. But is that the next sort of order of business now for John Chacon? Now they made the decision. The GM decision was made. The coaching decisions made is now the next decision. What happens with Austin Matthews? I think so. It just depends on when they both can kind of agree to kind of meet.

Like it sounds like that they still haven't figured out a logistical timetable as to when that can happen. You know, if there was an urgency for it, you would have thought it would happen already, right? It's not that hard to hop on a jet, go down to Arizona, or do whatever you have to do to meet with someone. So clearly there's something going on there. And with all the reports out about what Austin Matthews wants to see, he's probably reacting the same that we reacted, which is he wants to see and not hear.

Like, I don't think hearing is going to be enough for Austin Matthews at this point anymore. I think he needs to actually see what John Chaka does. It could explain the vaguerities of the details that are kind of being kind of pushed forth towards a media in terms of what the vision is. And as far as what they're going to do, it's just kind of making that happen. I imagine it's high on the priority list. Like when you talk to Bradtree living a few years ago, it was the number one thing he had to do is go down and meet him and figure things out there. because there was questions about his future, not to the same magnitude, but there was. And so it's really strange as to kind of what's going on here, but they are dealing with a lot in a short period of time.

And I think they will kind of figure that part out at some point or another, but it does kind of speak to why there aren't a lot of details being revealed at this moment in time. And so there's a lot of guessing going on as to exactly where things align in terms of the priority of who they're going to meet with. with and when. Is it going to be difficult to hire a coach until the Matthews decision is made? I'm just trying to think, like, if I'm Jay Woodcro, Mani Malhotra, like all the sort of hot button names that are out there, Mike Van Rine, Steve Sullivan, like all the names that are already out there, before I take this job, do I not need to know what the direction of this team is?

And even moreover, until you know from Austin Matthews, you're John Chaka, how do you make a coaching decision? Like, David Carl is different than Dallas Aiken's. Yeah. You know what I mean? I know what you mean. I think it comes down to some of those names you mentioned. I think it just depends on how much interest there are in these guys.

Like, if it's Bruce Cassidy, then, you know, you're Bruce Cassidy, you can ask those kind of questions and maybe buy your time a little bit. But if you're Jay Woodcroft, who hasn't been around for a little while and, you know, there's an opportunity with someone with serious interest. I think you believe in yourself in terms of what you can provide and you make the best of the cards that are dealt with. Because as you know, these head coaching positions don't come around for everybody all the time. So I think it's going to be situational. You know, guys like David Carl who like have had opportunities and sniff to kind of come back in here and go into the NHL and have decided not to, you know, it all depends on what you're comfortable in the situation you think.

But if there's a chance to coach in the NHL and you don't think it's going to happen again, and there aren't multiple teams talking to you, I think at that point, you're just jumping right into it. Like a lot of people weren't talking to John Chaker and he got this job, right? So it's interesting to see where it goes. Do you have a couple of names in your hip pocket? Again, we'll stick with the college coaches and whether it's, you know, Pat Furschweiler or Brandon Nerato, we already mentioned David Carl. I threw a couple out, a couple of the more obvious ones.

I don't know that John Gruden is going to get the bump here. I do wonder about someone not necessarily for the head coaching position, but for an assistant coaching position, and that's UCO Hocus with the Kitchener Rangers, just won the J. Ross Robertson Cup last night. They're going to the Memorial Cup. And if Kitchener wins in Colonna, all of a sudden, what happens to his future, CHL coach of the year, etc.

but who are some of the names in your mind, David, that we should be keeping in front of mind? Yeah, I think some of the lesser known names out there could be the one, but I'm still waiting to see what the Leafs do with someone like Bruce Cassidy. Like, I do think that that's a bit of a wild card. I don't think the timing is necessarily a coincidence.

Like if the decision was made, like the decision was made, and then there was some holding on I really, I don't think, I mean, whether they get him or not is another question. But, like, I mean, I would look at him as someone that's number one on their list. But if it's not that, it's going to be someone completely off the board and someone new and maybe pulling into the play the playbook of what Pittsburgh did with someone like Dan Mew is like a lesser known that that that that the Leafs feel or Cheka feels can kind of be groomed

into that spot and can see some success. but, you know, the number one thing I took away in terms of timeline stuff is that Chika didn't want to say there was an ideal of having someone ready by the draft. I think a lot of this is going to be dictated by where the Leafs stand with Austin Matthews, where they go, and you're going to have a bucket of retool, vision, future, pluck from out of nowhere coaches for the future like a Dan News or Matthews that's in, we've got to go short term, let's load up and change and move the puck fast. and get the current core nucleus with someone like a Cassidy in there. There really is like it really can kind of go from one or the other based on what the indicators are within management. Give us a sense of what the Maple Leafs reporter barking chain feels about the Maple Leafs having the first overall pick.

Is the sort of whispering class saying hang on to it? Is the whispering class saying they got to get rid of it and pick up assets? What's the barking chain saying here? It's all over the board. Like, it really is. Like, everyone's kind of saying that, you know, there's the, Gavin McKenna is the pick, but if you're not 100% certain,

you can hit a home run outside of that. Then you should kind of, no one's going to fault you for going into that number one spot, even though by some standards, he may not be the consensus number one. At the same time, if you're rebuilding, maybe you go for picks one and two. if you can work out some other pieces that you need if your core guys are not part of the factor.

The problem is there's just so much not answered right now. And there's a lot of different ways this can go wrong for the Maple Leafs. If the timing doesn't align with what they want to hear from their players. And if the players are of the mind that actions speak louder than words at this point and they can't move on that impetus, then as your GM, you're going to have to do what you feel as best. and then make adjustments as you go onwards. But, like, you know, in a lot of ways, Vancouver kind of lucked out moving down to number three

because I don't think anyone's going to fault them at number three if Stemberg and McKenna are not there. Like, there really isn't a wrong decision at that point in that spot where if you're in one and two and you don't make that wrong decision or you want to trade down for pieces and then those guys look like elite players. You're wearing egg on your face. So there's a lot of debate.

about where this can go. The Leafs definitely need a blue chip defenseman, and that's not necessarily the need-based opportunity for the Leafs right now at number one. So it's really all up in the air in terms of where it can go and hear a lot of different things, but nothing concrete. You know, most years, well, most years, we all say, oh, it's a luxury having the first overall pick.

I don't know whether I want to be the GM that makes a decision on Gavin McKenna. I don't want to be the one that makes the decision. Yeah, but at the same time, if you're a new GM, you come in here, you inherit number one when you have a pick where you were, it was either that or you weren't going to have a pick at all if you fell outside of the top five. Good point. I think you get scrutinized more if you try to galaxy brain it a bit

and add a lot of pieces to move down. And then that player ends up being the key to Kuturov. And you aren't better off as a result of it. That's the bigger risk. That's the fear. So like it almost seems like, hey, you were given number one, you kind of have to go this way. Unless there's some sort of crazy Quinn Hughes type opportunity that falls in the Leafs lap,

that they're going to get a lot of pieces to kind of go long term instead of short term. And your best player is saying the grass is greener for me to kind of, of being my win now moments somewhere else and you can swing that kind of deal, it's tough. You're going to have to take the pieces as they may. It's not going to be easy for Jacob. That's for sure. Glad we have you to break it down. David, excellent.

As always, thanks so much for taking time out of what is a very busy day for you. So we appreciate it. Be well. Keep that phone charge, pal. You'd be good. Glad to be on, Jeff. Thank you.