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The Toronto Maple Leafs have officially put pen to paper with new head coach Sheldon Keefe on his first NHL coaching contract.

Keefe will be under contract until the end of the 2021-22 season, meaning the contract includes the remainder of 2019-20 and two more years after that.

Coach Keefe has already gotten down to work on a number of changes in his first practice ahead of tonight’s game in Arizona, rotating Tyson Barrie on to the top power-play unit (in addition to Morgan Rielly) on the half wall in hopes of sparking his game. He’s shifted Zach Hyman to his strong side (the right), moved Ilya Mikheyev up on the left wing next to Tavares, reinserted a returning Alex Kerfoot on the left wing, and placed Jason Spezza at center on the third line next to Kerfoot. Nick Shore has been moved out of the lineup as an extra forward, with Nic Petan taking his spot on the fourth-line RW.

He’s also looking at Andreas Johnsson as a PK option, a role he played for Keefe as a Marlie.

Probably the most surprising development today was the clarity with which Kyle Dubas spoke about the plan under Keefe to evolve the team’s systems and the style of play in hopes of better maximizing the skill and speed identity of the group. Those changes are beginning right in the middle of the NHL season.

The thinking to date has been that Keefe followed the same systems as Babcock’s Leafs to great success with the Marlies. Keefe is now running the entire organizational program, though, and it sounds like he’s going to institute a notable system revamp right away. Among the stated priorities are more offensive creativity and increased stiffness defensively through the neutral zone/at the defensive blue line with the goal of reviving the team’s transition game, lagging offensive numbers, and decrease the number of quality scoring chances against that have plagued the team for years.

That makes it all the more curious that the coaching decision was made now in November instead of in the offseason. Was it Dubas needing more evidence to present to Shanahan and ownership that the Dubas-Babcock marriage wasn’t a lasting fit? Did Dubas decide to take a little more time and find out if Babcock was going to enact the changes discussed in the team’s exit meetings, and didn’t see the progress he wanted to see?

The timing could end up derailing the 2019-20 season, but it all depends on how quickly Keefe can get his message across, achieve player buy-in, and also whether or not this player roster as constructed is strong enough both offensively and defensively to make the Keefe/Dubas vision a reality. Let the Keefe era begin.

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