🏒 Maple Leafs Next Head Coach Odds: Betting Favorites, Long Shots & Prediction

We have a new major head coach opening for the 2026 NHL offseason. Craig Berube is officially out as the head coach of the Toronto Maple Leafs after the team missed the playoffs for the first time in a decade. Toronto will now look to hire its fourth head coach of the Auston Matthews era.

I'm exploring the Maple Leafs next head coach odds, analyzing the top betting favorites and offering my prediction for who will be behind the bench for Toronto to begin the 2026-27 campaign.

📊 Maple Leafs next head coach odds

Maple Leafs next head coach odds courtesy of FanDuel as of May 13. Follow all of our NHL analysis and expert predictions this season.

🍁 Who will be the Maple Leafs' next head coach?

There are currently four candidates with odds shorter than +500 who are considered to be the favorites in the Maple Leafs' coaching search. Let's break down their cases.

Bruce Cassidy

Bruce Cassidy is the hottest name of this coaching cycle, and he's priced as the most likely candidate to land with the Maple Leafs ahead of next season at +184 odds.

The former Golden Knights bench boss, who led the franchise to its first Stanley Cup championship in 2023, was shockingly fired by Vegas less than a month before the playoffs this year. Cassidy has coached 829 games in the NHL, split between the Golden Knights, Bruins, and Capitals. He's led two different teams to the Stanley Cup Final, won the Jack Adams Award as the league's best coach in 2020, and his teams have never missed the playoffs in seasons he's completed as head coach.

The Maple Leafs wouldn't be alone if they are interested in bringing in Cassidy. The Oilers reportedly wanted to interview Cassidy but were denied permission by the Golden Knights, while the Kings have submitted a request of their own to speak with him.

Todd Nelson

Todd Nelson has paid his dues across several levels of professional hockey. He spent this past season as an assistant coach with the Penguins, a playoff team that finished with nearly 20 points more than the season prior.

Nelson has only served as an NHL head coach in an interim capacity for 51 games with the Oilers in 2014-15. The majority of his coaching career has come in the American Hockey League. Nelson has won three Calder Cups as a head coach in the AHL, including back-to-back championships from 2023-24 with the Capitals' affiliate, the Hershey Bears. That development background could interest the Maple Leafs, who are expected to use the first overall pick in this year's draft on elite talent Gavin McKenna.

Jay Woodcroft

Jay Woodcroft enjoyed success during his limited run as an NHL head coach with the Oilers. He led them to the first Western Conference Final of the Connor McDavid era in 2022, and had his interim label removed as a result.

Woodcroft coached another full season with the Oilers, winning his third playoff series in two years. But the team fired Woodcroft in favor of Kris Knoblauch after the Oilers started slow in 2023-24, and Edmonton went on to make two straight Stanley Cup Final appearances without him. He served as the Ducks' assistant coach this season under Joel Quenneville and has received head coach buzz after helping spearhead a turnaround in Anaheim built around a core of young star forwards.

Manny Malhotra

Manny Malhotra is destined to be an NHL head coach at some point, but are the Maple Leafs the right landing spot for a first-timer? And is now the right time for him?

There's a ton working in Malhotra's favor, including the four seasons he spent as an assistant coach with the Maple Leafs from 2020 to 2024. While the regime overseeing the franchise has changed dramatically since then, Malhotra was well-regarded throughout his time in Toronto. At just 45 years old, Malhotra is the youngest coach among this group of candidates. He's someone who can grow into his role long term alongside the Maple Leafs' core, a group that's already worked with him.

On the flip side, Malhotra only has two seasons of experience total as a professional head coach. Both of those came over the last two years in the AHL as the bench boss of the Abbotsford Canucks. He won the franchise's first Calder Cup in 2025 before missing the playoffs this season. Toronto’s media market is brutal for any head coach, let alone a first-timer.

Long shot candidates to keep an eye on

• John Gruden (+1260)
• Patrick Roy (+1300)
• Peter Laviolette (no odds available)

🔮 Maple Leafs next head coach prediction: Bruce Cassidy (+184)

Cassidy is the sure thing here for a team that wants to compete and win now. This past season was a mess for the Maple Leafs, and as exciting as a candidate like Malhotra is to some, now isn't the time for Toronto to gamble behind its bench.

Auston Matthews and William Nylander are still squarely in the prime of their careers, though both were reportedly questioning their futures with the franchise after 2025-26 went off the rails. Cassidy is the coach to bring in if you need to right the ship and have this team back playing meaningful hockey next May.

For Cassidy, the Maple Leafs are likely to be the most talented team with a coaching vacancy this summer. He won't have to stare down the barrel of a rebuild in Toronto, though the bench boss can also benefit from adding this year's No. 1 talent in the draft.

This marriage makes too much sense for both sides not to come to an agreement sooner rather than later. FanDuel's +184 odds for Cassidy to become the Maple Leafs' next head coach carry an implied probability of 35.21%, per our odds converter, with a winning $10 bet bringing home $18.40 in profit.