A little over a week after associate coach Lane Lambert left Toronto to become head coach of the Seattle Kraken, the Maple Leafs announced the hiring of Derek Lalonde as an assistant coach.
There is an interesting distinction in the title alone, as Lambert was previously the team’s first-ever associate coach. Lalonde has been named an assistant, so it’s unlikely that he will assume the exact same responsibilities as Lambert. Based on titles, it’s likely that Lalonde will focus on a particular unit, although all Leafs coaches likely provide input across various files in general.
It would stand to reason that Lalonde will, at minimum, take over Lambert’s penalty killing duties, something he oversaw in Tampa Bay. A story in 2022 quoted Lalonde on the Lightning’s PK strategy, specifically noting:
“What we’ve done here is an aggressive pushdown, which has evolved the past few years. To me, it’s still being aggressive and hitting the pressure points. The last two series, we were up against it with two of the best power plays in the league. It’s about owning the middle.
“These teams feed off east-west passes. All the numbers, analytics — our (goalie coach Frantz Jean) preaches to me, just eliminate the east-west. That’s been our biggest thing.”
In Tampa Bay’s four seasons with Lalonde on the bench, the Lightning finished tied for first, tied for 13th, fourth, and 11th on the penalty kill. In total, Tampa owned the third-best penalty killing rate in the league over Lalonde’s four seasons with the team.
In terms of overall team results, the Lightning won the President’s Trophy with a record-setting campaign in Lalonde’s first season and won back-to-back Cups in his final two years before he was hired away by the Red Wings.
As a head coach in Detroit, Lalonde didn’t fare nearly as well, as he was fired after 2.5 seasons while the Red Wings stretched their playoff-less drought to nine seasons and counting. In Lalonde’s second season, Detroit missed the playoffs on a tiebreaker.
Needless to say, the Leafs are not hiring Lalonde as a head coach; they are hiring him to be an assistant, a role in which he has proven very adept. He’s done it for four seasons in the NHL, and the Lightning won the Cup twice in those years, to go along with one of the best-ever regular seasons in the other one. Those results are about as good as it gets, and the team’s penalty kill was elite over his time with the Lightning.
More recently, Leafs fans will remember Lalonde for his appearances on the Sportsnet panel during the 2025 playoffs. On those panels, he was fairly critical of the Leafs and constantly heaped on the Ottawa Senators — unrightfully so at times. The Leafs were notably better than the Senators in the series, and Lalonde was heard flagging more noise than substance during the intermissions. The Leafs raced out to big leads and locked games down, giving up a ton of shots in the process but not much of quality, and Lalonde spoke about the Sens’ success establishing a forecheck in a series where they fell behind 3-0. There were some dubious takeaways on the panel at points in the series last month, so it’s undoubtedly fresh on fans’ minds in this market. I won’t defend it, either; it is what it is.
Looking past those panel discussions, though, it’s a great hire on paper based on Lalonde’s record in the league, and that’s certainly what matters more. He has experienced great success in the league as an assistant, and some coaches are ultimately better in the AC role than they are at the HC job (examples like John Stevens and Kirk Muller spring to mind).
While Lalonde’s Detroit teams suffered from substandard penalty-killing results, it’s a lot different when he’s a head coach managing the overall team and staff. As an assistant, he can focus on a specific task/unit and dig into the Xs and Os.
In April, Lalonde joined the JD Bunkis podcast and spoke about the Leafs at length. I’d recommend giving it a listen. Lalonde noted the Leafs running an old-school, top-down penalty kill compared to the Panthers’ high-pressure diamond. I’d imagine this is something he would look to shift and mold in Toronto.
Lalonde also noted the discrepancy in zone time between the Leafs and the Panthers in the series, which came home to roost and was something we talked about a million times in this space during the series and since the playoffs ended. This will be a critical area for the Leafs to address, and Lalonde will know from his time with the Lightning that the team needs to create and sustain zone time more consistently.
Lalonde also specifically noted that one area where the Leafs needed to lock it down ahead of the playoffs was getting the puck out of their own zone. Against Florida, the Leafs clearly weren’t close to good enough in that part of the game. Lalonde noting this issue ahead of the playoffs was telling in terms of what he’s seeing from the Leafs and what he would want to address in Toronto.
Funny enough, Lalonde also talked about winning Cups in Tampa Bay and explicitly mentioned that the Lightning needed to “learn how to win” and change their DNA. Brad Treliving made it clear this is an area the Leafs are looking to address this summer, and they’ll be hoping Lalonde can be one piece of the puzzle behind the bench under a head coach with a Cup ring of his own.
