- Steve Sullivan named the ninth head coach in Toronto Marlies history
- Mark Giordano elevated to a full-time assistant on Sullivan’s staff
- Read below for how Sullivan landed the job with the defending Calder Cup champs
The Toronto Marlies have their next bench boss.
Toronto’s AHL affiliate named Steve Sullivan its head coach on Thursday, making him the ninth head coach in franchise history. He takes over a group that just won it all.
Sullivan replaces John Gruden, who guided the Marlies to a Calder Cup this past season before getting bumped up to Craig Berube’s staff with the Maple Leafs earlier this week.
Here is the moment the Marlies lifted that trophy back in the spring:
This is Sullivan’s first professional head coaching job. He played more than 1,000 NHL games and started his off-ice career with the Coyotes, first as a development coach and then in the front office.
He worked alongside John Chayka in Arizona and even ran the front office for a stretch after Chayka left. Chayka now runs hockey operations in Toronto, so the two are back in the same building after a busy summer of front-office changes.
Sullivan joined the Leafs organization two years ago as a Marlies assistant. He moved up to Berube’s NHL bench last December before this promotion.
Mark Giordano is coming with him. The former Leafs defenseman, another 1,000-game NHL veteran, was elevated to a full-time assistant coach after spending most of last season as a development coach.
Giordano stepped onto the Marlies bench in December to fill Sullivan’s old spot on an interim basis. Goaltending coach Hannu Toivonen and video coach Nick Biamonte round out the group.
Sullivan inherits a roster fresh off a title. The Marlies open the 2026-27 AHL season this fall.
