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An unexpected name has popped up in Toronto Maple Leafs' coaching search

The Toronto Maple Leafs might be going off the board in their search for a new head coach. Plenty of names have surfaced since the team fired Craig Berube. Up-and-coming NCAA coach David Carle was reportedly on their radar, as were more veteran options like Peter Laviolette and Patrick Roy. NHL insider Elliotte Friedman recently reported that the Leafs may opt to go with a more experienced head coach, but he backtracked on that during Sunday's edition of the 32 Thoughts podcast. Instead, he shared a surprise candidate with no head coaching experience who could be getting an interview for Toronto's vacancy. "It threw me a bit when I heard it," Friedman teased. "I am under the impression that Joe Pavelski is gonna get an interview for the job. "I have heard that Pavelski is legitimately interested. I don't know how it all started, but I have heard that he will be in that next group of candidates." Pavelski does not have any experience coaching at a high level and has only coached his son's minor hockey team since retiring after the 2023-24 season. Though the experience behind the bench is lacking, he does have a lot of experience with the NHL, having appeared in 1332 games over the course of an 18-year career. If hired by the Leafs, he'd share a lot of similarities with Montreal Canadiens bench boss Martin St. Louis. Like Pavelski, St. Louis also didn't have much head coaching experience when hired, and both were legendary players who were not far removed from playing. The former NHL superstar is also currently coaching his son's minor hockey team, the Madison Capitals, which is a similar gig to what St. Louis was doing before getting the Canadiens job. It worked out for Montreal, but it'll be up to Leafs GM John Chayka and President Mats Sundin if they want to take the gamble. Hiring an inexperienced coach to lead a Toronto team back into contention is a risky bet. Pavelski was drafted in the seventh round of the 2003 draft and spent the majority of his NHL career playing for the San Jose Sharks. During his time on the West Coast, he helped the Sharks turn into a perennial powerhouse, but failed to capture a Stanley Cup with the team. He then moved to the Dallas Stars in 2019-20 and played out the final five years of his career in the Lone Star State. Pavelski got close to a Stanley Cup victory in that first year in Dallas, losing to the Tampa Bay Lightning in the final. Nobody had Pavelski on their radar when the Leafs started their head coach search, but it shows that this new Toronto regime is intent on turning over every stone to find the right man for the job.