- Elliotte Friedman says Joe Pavelski will get a Leafs head coach interview
- Pavelski, 41, spent this season coaching his son’s 15U team in Wisconsin
- Read below for Friedman’s full comments and the video
The Maple Leafs’ coaching search just took a turn nobody saw coming.
Joe Pavelski is going to get an interview for the Toronto job, per Sportsnet insider Elliotte Friedman. Yes, that Joe Pavelski. The 41-year-old retired two years ago and has never coached above youth hockey.
Word spread fast on Sunday morning:
Friedman laid out the reasoning on Sunday’s episode of 32 Thoughts, admitting the name caught even him off guard.
“I’m under the impression that Joe Pavelski is going to get an interview for the job. It flies in the face of what I said the other day. I don’t know all the connections here, about how everybody knows everybody. But number one: this is a player who is hugely respected, hugely respected.”
Catch the coaching search talk in the full video below, starting around the 21-minute mark:
Later in the video, Friedman made it clear this is more than a courtesy call. “I’ve heard Pavelski is legitimately interested, and I’ve heard he will be in that next group of candidates,” he said.
There’s also the Tomas Hertl story. The Vegas forward had gone 29 games without a goal, and Pavelski noticed while watching from home. He called his old Sharks teammate, told him to stop overthinking, and the slump broke.
In his written report, Friedman said one source described Pavelski as a “Martin St. Louis-style candidate.” Pavelski spent this season running his son Nate’s 15U AAA team with the Madison Capitols. St. Louis was coaching his kids in Connecticut when the Canadiens handed him their bench in 2022.
A Pavelski hire would be a sharp left turn from the rest of Toronto’s list. The Leafs have already added Patrick Roy and Peter Laviolette to the interview mix, while David Carle is no longer in play. GM John Chayka isn’t putting a timeline on the decision.
His playing resume isn’t the question. Pavelski racked up 476 goals and 1,068 points across 1,332 games with the Sharks and Stars, plus 74 more goals in the playoffs. He never lifted the Cup, but he dragged teams deep into spring for almost two decades.
If John Chayka hands an Original Six bench to a guy who was coaching 15-year-olds in Wisconsin last winter, it will be the boldest swing of the NHL offseason.
