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Maple Leafs fire assistant coach Marc Savard

Originally posted on Daily Faceoff | By Mike Gould | Last updated Dec 22, 2025 5:49 PM ET

The Toronto Maple Leafs have relieved assistant coach Marc Savard of his duties on their coaching staff, the club announced Monday afternoon.

Savard, 48, had served as an assistant coach with the Leafs since the start of the 2024-25 season, with his primary duty being to run the team’s power play.

The Leafs ranked ninth in the National Hockey League with a 24.8 percent conversion rate on the power play in Savard’s first season with the club, but after scoring just 12 goals on the man advantage through 35 games to start the 2025-26 campaign, they now rank last in the entire NHL with a dreadful 13.3 percent success rate.

The rest of the Leafs’ coaching staff remains unchanged, with Craig Berube leading a group that also includes Derek Lalonde, Mike Van Ryn, and Curtis Sanford. The Leafs have not yet named Savard’s replacement.

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— Toronto Maple Leafs (@MapleLeafs) December 22, 2025

A high-scoring center during his playing days, Savard appeared in 807 games during his 13-year NHL career with the Boston Bruins, Atlanta Thrashers, Calgary Flames, and New York Rangers, winning the Stanley Cup with the Bruins in 2011.

A fourth-round pick of the Rangers in 1997, Savard enjoyed his best offensive season with the Thrashers in 2006-07, scoring 28 goals and 97 points in 82 games. A series of concussions prematurely ended Savard’s playing career midway through the 2010-11 season, after which he eventually turned to coaching.

The Ottawa native spent the 2019-20 season as an assistant coach with the St. Louis Blues before being hired as head coach of the OHL’s Oshawa Generals in 2021. Then, after two years in Oshawa, Savard returned to Calgary as an assistant coach with the Flames in the 2023-24 season.

The Leafs are currently in the midst of a disastrous month of December that has seen them lose three consecutive games and six of their last eight. They currently rank 15th in the Eastern Conference (and last in the Atlantic Division) with a 15-15-5 record through 35 games this season.

This article first appeared on Daily Faceoff and was syndicated with permission.

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