If they do fire him, it'll be interesting to see who the replacement is. Obviously they'll look for a long-term solution, but will they do that right away or wait until the off-season when there's potentially more options available? Riding with Hakstol as the interim head coach could make Leaf fans wish the season was already over.
The expectation is that they'll promote the current Marlies head coach, Sheldon Keefe. He and Dubas go all the way back to the OHL and the assumption is that he is Kyle's guy. I certainly hope they don't go with Hakstol as the interim, the hope is to still salvage the season. Ideally Keefe is ready to go and they can get the big club humming. With two teams in the last four years having fired their coach and won the cup the same season, the Leafs are certainly not ready to call the season a total write-off. Different scenarios of course, but we're not looking to waste a year when we were hoping to contend or at least win a round.
I don't understand this logic.
1. The changes were not some attempt to re-tool. The changes were necessary due to the massive new contracts to Nylander, Marner and Matthews.
2. Why does Babcock get zero credit for the pair of 100 point seasons? Did he suddenly change his system and stopped coaching?
I think in the quest to "we can and we will" sign the RFAs, Dubas hurt the balance of his team and made Babcock's job much more difficult. If anyone should go, it should be Dubas first and give Babcock a GM that help retool the team.
1) You're right, the changes weren't an attempt to re-tool and were necessary because of the contracts. But the point stands that how much more retooling around the edges and on defense can actually be done? They've replaced just about every single depth player and 4/6 defenders, so until they hold their noses and make a blockbuster trade they've tried just about everything. Re-jigging the bottom six and the defense again is just running around in circles doing the same thing over again and hoping for new results. Perhaps they should make a blockbuster trade, but I'm hoping that they attempt a new coach first.
2) I never said that Babcock has been awful his entire tenure. For example, the Leafs were fantastic in his second year with all the rookies and going to the playoffs against Washington. Babcock was a part of those 100 point teams, but coaches have expiration dates. I think this is a rather strange point, since even Quenville and Sutter were fired after winning three and two cups with their teams. Even great coaches have their messages get stale and sometimes switching the guy out is the jolt that players need to get their butts in gear. Those players deserve criticism, but it's still the step to take.
Furthermore, the system has changed and where things were once dominant they have fallen flat. A great example is the Leafs powerplay, which has gone from 2nd in the league in 17-18 to 8th in 18-19, to 21st today. The PK has gotten worse as well. The Leafs were playing a lot of run and gun to start last year but switched to more defensive low event hockey I think around February and they've been mediocre to dismal ever since.
As to firing the GM first, it's possible, but the coach has to go too. I think just about anyone with an objective eye can see that the Leafs roster is not terrible and should at least be making the playoffs. If there's enough good players and they're not getting it done, the coach is the guy who gets blamed for that. Perhaps balance is a problem in team construction, but that's a problem that prevents a good team from being elite, or an elite team from winning it all. Balance does not make a team suddenly suck ass in the regular season. HFboards has been pointing out that the Leafs are imbalanced for years. We've been soft as hell since Burke and our defense has been bad pretty much my entire life. Balance is not what turned a 100 point playoff team into an 80 point suck fest.