Leafs coach: Don Cherry and Paul Bissonnette among possible bets

In recent days, the GM situation has been the talk of Toronto. With Kyle Dubas out of the picture, the club needs to find a successor, and it needs to do so fairly quickly, given the big issues facing the city this summer.

That said, the whole affair is a bit like forgetting the case of Sheldon Keefe, who was mainly Dubas’s man. In reality, the coach is still in place, but it’s more than likely that the next GM will want to find his own person to run the club.

Think of what happened with Dominique Ducharme when Kent Hughes and Jeff Gorton came to town: it’s much the same thing.

The Sports Interaction platform played along and compiled a list of candidates who, in their eyes, have a chance of succeeding Keefe. At the top of the list (and therefore among the most likely in the eyes of the platform) are names that come up frequently, such as Joel Quenneville, Spencer Carbery and Gerard Gallant.

However, if you look at the bottom of the list, you’ll find some rather unusual names, such as Don Cherry and Paul Bissonnette.

Imagine the scenario if the colorful Don Cherry were to return behind the bench of an NHL team after an absence of more than 40 years, and he were to do so in Toronto. It would be quite a story.

Remember that since his departure from Hockey Night in Canada, Cherry has been keeping busy at the helm of a podcast that bears his name.

In Bissonnette’s case, we’re talking about a guy who’s been making a name for himself in the media for a few years now. He’s a big part of the Spittin’ Chiclets success story, and has been seen on TNT in recent years.

And he even responded to all this via his Twitter account, claiming (jokingly) that “his time had come” to run the club.

Of course, while these are probably the two most unusual names on the list, there are others that raise a few eyebrows: Jon Cooper, Wendel Clark, Tie Domi and even Kevin Bieksa are other names that raise eyebrows for all sorts of reasons.

Let’s just say that the chances of Cooper leaving the Lightning for Toronto seem pretty slim to none.

Clearly, we’re talking about names that are extremely unlikely, but are betting options nonetheless. I wouldn’t put an old $2 on any of these possibilities, but I must admit that the mere idea of Cherry being hired by Toronto made me laugh for a while.

In brief

– Patrick Roy isn’t one of the options, by the way. And yet, he’s not a more far-fetched option than Cherry.

Imagine Marc Bergevin as GM and Patrick Roy as head coach in Toronto.
Some men just want to watch the world burn 🔥

– Nicolas Cloutier (@NCloutierTVA) May 22, 2023

– What do you think?

Drawing comparisons with the 1993 edition of the Habs and some of the greats of his era, Serge Savard criticizes the Oilers’ and Leafs’ way of doing things, which he feels don’t play enough as a team. 🔵⚪️🔴

To hear his interview with @MartinLemay: https://t.co/FFSStHMN7R pic.twitter.com/lSWpMIuAwB

– BPM Sports (@BPMSportsRadio) May 22, 2023

– Zach Benson would be my pick of the three.