Rumor: Two former NHL head coaches being linked to the Toronto Maple Leafs.

The Toronto Maple Leafs are in the midst of some significant changes behind the bench with 2 members of Toronto Maple Leafs' head coach Mike Babcock's staff parting ways with the Maple Leafs organization this summer. 

The Maple Leafs of course have already filled one of the vacancies created by these departures and did so when they hired Paul McFarland to join Babcock's team. McFarland of course was most recently a former Florida Panthers assistant coach and prior to that had been the head coach of the Ontario Hockey League's Kingston Frontenacs for 3 seasons, all of which saw the Frontenacs make the playoffs, before being hired by Maple Leafs general manager Kyle Dubas to fill a spot behind the Leafs behind. 

That leaves now one more move for Dubas to make as there have been very strong reports suggesting that assistant coach Jim Hiller, who has spent the last 5 years with Mike Babcock behind the bench, will also be moving on this summer. There has been plenty of speculation regarding why Hiller and Babcock are parting ways after such a long coaching partnership and when Sportsnet NHL insider Elliotte Friedman tried to get more information his sources made it sound like there was not much there.

“It’s simply time for everyone involved,” said Friedman's source.

So that of course leaves a very big question, who will replace Hiller when he inevitably leaves the organization? Well Friedman speculated on two possible candidates and to be honest both of them seem like excellent choices for the Maple Leafs at this time. The first candidate was former Los Angeles Kings head coach John Stevens.

On the 31 Thoughts podcast, we wondered about John Stevens, who has an incredible reputation for working with [defencemen]. Stevens, who I believe was the highest-paid assistant in the NHL before being promoted in Los Angeles, is expected to resurface.

The other former NHL head coach mentioned by Friedman was former Florida Panthers head coach Bob Boughner. While Boughner would certainly be an interesting option for the Maple Leafs it appears that there may be some significant competition for his services. Friedman believes both the San Jose Sharks and Ottawa Senators could potentially be interested and also added that the aforementioned Stevens may have already spoken to the Blackhawks organization as well.