Greg Moore’s employer rallied for him to get coaching position with the Marlies

It’s not often that your current employer helps someone snag you away for a position elsewhere. But that’s exactly what Greg Moore’s boss did when he heard there was an opening for the head coaching position with the Toronto Marlies.

In a new article from The Athletic, Ryan Hardy, the President of the USHL’s Chicago Steel, said he waited only a day or two after Sheldon Keefe was promoted to the Maple Leafs before contacting Toronto GM Kyle Dubas to ask if he wanted to speak with Greg Moore. Moore, 35, was in his second year of coaching the Steel at the time.

“I knew what Kyle was about,” Hardy told The Athletic, “and it’s very much what we’re about.”

Moore had led the Chicago Steel to an Eastern Conference title in his first and only full year as coach of the team and had an impressive overall record of 52-25-5.

New Toronto coach, and former Marlies coach, Sheldon Keefe is heavy on skill and puck possession, something Moore is also big on. So, it’s sounding like Moore will not deviate from Keefe’s plan a whole lot once he officially takes over the coaching position with Toronto AHL affiliate. After all, if it’s not broken, don’t fix it.

“We shared the same general philosophy in terms of development and the development model with a lot of individual, technical development work and then having that serve the collective and having that hopefully contribute to winning by getting the most out of each individual talent,” said Dubas.

It also didn’t hurt that Moore had served as a guest coach with the Maple Leafs during the team’s development camp in July, so a relationship had already been formed. 

The plan right now is for him to take two weeks to get up to speed on what’s going on with the Marlies, and then officially take over the head coach role on December 16^th. Meanwhile, the Marlies certainly aren’t hurting. They are 15-3-2-1 on the season and 5-1 since Keefe was promoted to the Maple Leafs. The team currenty sits at the top of the North Division and second overall in the league

Moore is stressing that he wants to continue with the culture Dubas and Keefe created previously, treating his players as “people before athletes.”

“Are they happy?” Moore said. “All that stuff translates before you get to the hockey.”