Maple Leafs Reportedly Tied to Recently-Fired NHL Head Coach, Per Elliotte Friedman

The Toronto Maple Leafs have already lost assistant coach Lane Lambert from Craig Berube's staff, as he was hired by the Seattle Kraken to fill their vacated role following the termination of Dan Bylsma after only a single year on the job.

There is now an opening behind the bench for the Maple Leafs to oversee their penalty killing units as Lambert did, and they may not be looking very far to fill it.

Per a report from Elliotte Friedman, the Maple Leafs could show interest in Joe Sacco, a longtime assistant coach with the Boston Bruins who took over on an interim basis for the rest of the year following the November termination of Jim Montgomery.

Friedman also confirmed that Sacco will not be back next year for the Bruins as coach after they missed the playoffs for the 1st time since 2015-16.

Following the coaching change from Montgomery to Sacco, the Bruins went 25-30-7 the rest of the year and made the painful decision to sell off multiple assets at the Trade Deadline.

Gone was longtime Bruins forward Brad Marchand, who was dealt to the Florida Panthers. Additionally, Charlie Coyle, Trent Frederic, and Brandon Carlo were also dealt out of town.

Bruins general manager Don Sweeney, who was recently re-signed by the club to a new contract, has his hands tied conducting the search for Boston's new full-time head coach.