they fired Craig Berube in May.<\/a> The job ultimately went to former Los Angeles Kings head coach Hiller, but the Leafs reached back out to Alfredsson about a role on Hiller\u2019s staff, leading to an interview with his future boss.<\/p>\n\u201cI think it was the philosophy in the game he has,\u201d Alfredsson said of Hiller. \u201cHis values. Obviously, he\u2019s been a coach for a long time. And I think I just felt that it\u2019s something I can learn a lot from. As we kept talking, it kind of felt that this would be a great next step for my coaching career.\u201d<\/p>\n
In Toronto, Alfredsson acknowledged that working on the power play will be part of his responsibilities. He also has a prior relationship with William Nylander through the star winger\u2019s father, Michael, a 15-year NHL veteran who skated alongside Alfredsson on the Swedish national team at numerous international tournaments.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think he has grown into a very good player,\u201d Alfredsson said of the younger Nylander. \u201cThere\u2019s no question he has some unbelievable tools that are hard to teach. I know he takes his game very seriously, his training very seriously as well. I worked with him at (the 4 Nations Face-Off) for the first time and saw it firsthand as well. So, I\u2019m really excited. Excited to work with him and the whole team, to be honest. But he\u2019s a player that is very important to this team.<\/p>\n
The Maple Leafs boast offensive talents such as Nylander, Auston Matthews and the 2026 No. 1 pick, Gavin McKenna. But Alfredsson joins a team in need of a bump on its power play, which played a part in Toronto missing the playoffs last season. The Maple Leafs fired previous power-play coach Marc Savard last Christmas, when the team ranked dead last in conversion rate, before finishing the season at No. 15 thanks to his midseason replacement, Steve Sullivan.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think they had some really good times last year in the power play, and some tough ones as well,\u201d Alfredsson said. \u201cProbably lost their confidence a little bit, but they have a lot of the tools to be a good power play and a good offensive team as well, so a lot of skill guys that can shoot the puck, so I look forward to working with them and see what we can accomplish.\u201d<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, aside from a single season in Detroit at the end of his playing career, Alfredsson leaves behind the only NHL franchise he has ever known. Senators fans were already having a difficult offseason with team captain Brady Tkachuk requesting a trade before being shipped to the Florida Panthers last month. Now, their most adored player has left for a new coaching venture in Toronto. And it was something Alfredsson, who held roles as a senior adviser and then as a development coach with the Senators before transitioning behind the bench in December 2023, considered when talking to friends and other coaches.<\/p>\n
However, the Ottawa legend knew the development was necessary for his personal coaching ambitions.<\/p>\n
\u201cI knew I had to move at some point. I have to earn my way and get the experience,\u201d Alfredsson said. \u201cI\u2019m sure, in my dreams, would I have loved to stay and then become the head coach of Ottawa? Maybe. But nobody stays as a coach forever in one spot, no matter how popular you are. You\u2019ve got to perform. And for me, to get better as a coach, this is the path. I knew at some point I had to move, and they don\u2019t hand out jobs easily at the NHL.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a tough job to get, and when I had this opportunity, I felt it was the right one for my coaching career, without a question.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It will take some time to get accustomed to, particularly in Ontario. But the most iconic player in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":751610,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[66],"tags":[385,1319,99,1788],"class_list":["post-751609","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nhl","tag-nhl","tag-ottawa-senators","tag-sports","tag-toronto-maple-leafs"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/751609","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=751609"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/751609\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/751610"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=751609"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=751609"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=751609"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}