Star power attracted Craig Berube to Maple Leafs, but who will remain?

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The star names on the marquee are a big part of what lured to Craig Berube to Toronto.

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How many of those players the new Maple Leafs head coach has at his disposal when training camp gets underway in September, well, general manager Brad Treliving is going to have to get back to him on that.

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“The core player group is great, they have some great players here, it was definitely one of the attractions to coming to coach this team,” Berube said on Tuesday morning at the Ford Performance Centre, where he was formally introduced after his hiring was announced on Friday.

“Watching the playoffs this year, I thought there was already a change going on with how they wanted to be built and play … That was one of the big attractions, is we’ve got some really good players here.”

That group would include Auston Matthews, William Nylander, Mitch Marner, captain John Tavares and defenceman Morgan Rielly.

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The majority of speculation since the Leafs’ season ended on May 4 with a Game 7 loss against the Boston Bruins — and speculation that went into overdrive when president Brendan Shanahan acknowledged a week later that he questioned the group’s ability to “get it done in difficult times” — was that Marner, and perhaps Tavares, each would be asked to consider waiving his no-move clause. 

When queried on Tuesday about Marner and Tavares specifically, as well as soon-to-be free agents Max Domi and Tyler Bertuzzi, Treliving couldn’t give a clear answer.

“We’ll see, I guess, is what the answer is,” Treliving said. “We haven’t got to that.

“From the day I last saw all of you (May 10), I went to work on the coaching search and that file has been all-encompassing until this past weekend.

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“We’re going to look at everything. We’ve got some really good players and we don’t want to lose sight of the fact of that. I’ll sit down and we’ll start to dig into all the other areas, roster construction, all those types of things.” 

Speaking of speculation, it heightened on Tuesday when the Nashville Predators traded defenceman Ryan McDonough to the Tampa Bay Lightning, perhaps to clear some salary-cap room to add a player of Marner’s ilk.

For the record, Nashville general manager Barry Trotz had this to say to reporters: “I don’t think Mitch is a free agent … I read the same stuff as you. Just rumours.”

Among our takeaways once the news conference at the Leafs’ practice facility wrapped up: What Berube had to say about how his team will play was nothing out of the ordinary.

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Competitive. Never out-worked. Play fast, play heavy. Strong on pucks and win puck battles. And structure, which Berube called “huge,” is going to be a priority in all three zones.

One would hope that in any of the other 31 markets in the National Hockey League, the head coach would have a similar philosophy.

Holding players accountable, which Berube will do, is par for the course. Some might not have agreed with how Sheldon Keefe went about it in Toronto, but the country-club notion that has become part of the narrative since Keefe was fired is, at best, funny.

So no, as much as Treliving has talked about having a different voice behind the bench, there was little said by the 58-year-old Berube on Tuesday that screamed headlines in all caps. 

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How will Berube make the kind of changes to a Leafs team that, under Keefe, posted three consecutive 100-point regular seasons to ensure that it gets over the hump in the playoffs?

Berube didn’t have a definitive answer.

“I’m focused on now and the future,” Berube said. “I’m going to bring my own style and how we want to play the game. Brad and Brendan are on board with that. They think a lot similar to myself. All I need to do is focus on now and going forward, how we want to build a team here and how we want to look on the ice.”

If success for a team starts in net, there’s no clear picture of who will be tending goal for the Leafs in 2024-25. We can pencil in Joseph Woll, for sure, but we will need an eraser handy considering his history of injuries. 

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After Woll, there are question marks. The Leafs don’t yet have any other NHL-ready goalies under contract for next season. Even if Dennis Hildeby makes it clear he can take on some minutes in the NHL, Treliving will have no choice but to sign a veteran netminder.

“That’s something that Brad, myself, Brendan are going to discuss and we’re going to look at all areas,” Berube said, again not bothering with much insight. “That’s not for today to discuss. Those are discussions that we’re going to have going forward and hopefully we’ll figure that out soon.”

Judgment on whether Treliving’s choice in Berube was wise can’t be made now. We have no idea whether Berube will be successful with the Leafs and that success should really only mean winning the Stanley Cup.

At this point, Berube can’t even say with certainty how the Leafs stars will align when he fills out the scoresheet for the regular-season opener in October.

tkoshan@postmedia.com

X: @koshtorontosun

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