Toronto Maple Leafs Set To Announce Calgary Flames Marc Savard As New Assistant Coach

Marc Savard and the Calgary Flames have amicably decided to part ways, therefore he might be sitting behind the Toronto Maple Leafs bench come playoff time.

While Marc Savard’s tenure with the Boston Bruins in the Atlantic Division may be well-known among Toronto Maple Leafs supporters, his role as Calgary’s assistant coach during the previous season may not be as well-known. You might not have known that he was a coach with the Flames last season because of how bad their team was and how little he seemed to be able to do.

After enjoying great success with the Windsor Spitfires in the Ontario Hockey League, Savard moved to Calgary. However, in his first season, he saw a decline in the power-play leadership of the Flames. Under his leadership, the team’s power play dropped from 19th in the NHL in 2022–2023 to 26th.

Savard might take full responsibility for that decline, but ultimately, the Flames offence wasn’t all that strong to begin with. Given that a coach can only do so much with the players at his disposal, it should come as no surprise that their power play performed poorly, ranking in the bottom half of the NHL in terms of goals scored. That probably would have happened regardless of the team’s previous coach.

Anticipate Savard’s Appointment as the Toronto Maple Leafs’ Assistant Coach

Despite having the eighth-best power play at the end of the previous season, Guy Boucher’s tenure in Toronto should come to an end as a result of his 1-for-21 performance in the First Round, making room for Savard.

Savard’s connections to Craig Berube have led to links between him and the Leafs. During the 2019–20 season, Savard was Berube’s assistant coach with the St. Louis Blues, where he enjoyed great success. The season was prematurely ended by the pandemic, but the Blues had the third-best power play in the league before it happened.

There's one assistant for Berube… https://t.co/WRnKtYhgNI

— James Mirtle (@mirtle) May 22, 2024

More importantly, his friendship with Berube will help him land this position, even though it’s easy to point at his performance with the Flames last season as evidence that hiring him was a mistake idea. He has demonstrated that he can perform well when working with quality players. In relation to Berube’s past coaches, Mike Van Ryn, the team’s current assistant coach, also worked with him at the Blues, so there’s a high chance he will stay.

Based on the Leafs power-play performance, you can hold Boucher accountable for the team’s defeat, but Van Ryn is innocent of all wrongdoing. In the playoffs, Toronto’s defence looked better than ever. They made great play despite having a weak defence. His task will get significantly simpler if they are able to acquire a top-pairing defenseman.