Keefe signs 2-year contract to remain Maple Leafs coach

Sheldon Keefe signed a two-year contract to remain coach of the Toronto Maple Leafs on Wednesday.

The contract begins next season and runs through the 2025-26 season. The 42-year-old is in the final season of a two-year contract he signed Oct. 1, 2021.

"Coaching this team has been a great privilege and I'm truly excited at the opportunity to continue building towards our ultimate goal," Keefe said. "I'm thankful for the support from MLSE (Maple Leafs Sports and Entertainment) and its ownership along with (president) Brendan Shanahan and (general manager) Brad Treliving, who I've really enjoyed getting to know and work with this offseason.

"We have so many great players and people within our organization that I'm grateful to work with, and together our commitment to team success remains steadfast."

Treliving, who was hired by Toronto on May 31, said signing Keefe now eliminates any question about Keefe's future. But it also secures a coach he believes is the right one for the Maple Leafs.

"As a manager, you are always trying to eliminate distractions," Treliving said. "But I want to be clear, that's a by-product of this. This gets done because I think we have a really good coach here. His record in the regular season has proved it. What he's done in his young career here puts him with some real good company in terms of coaches past and present.

"The more I went through this process with Sheldon, the more it made a whole lot of sense to get something done, get him looked after and get that behind us. It gives him some peace of mind and gets everything focused where it needs to be which is the start of camp and getting our team up and going."

The Maple Leafs were 50-21-11 and finished second in the Atlantic Division last season. They defeated the Tampa Bay Lightning in six games in the Eastern Conference First Round, the first Stanley Cup Playoff series victory for Toronto since 2004.

Keefe replaced Mike Babcock as coach Nov. 20, 2019, and he is 166-71-30 in his four seasons. The Maple Leafs have reached the playoffs in each season.

"It's my belief having watched him from the outside and then having spent a lot of time with Sheldon over the summer, I think Sheldon is a top coach," Treliving said. "I think he's a really, really good coach. He's dug in with this group. I think he's smart, a great communicator and I think he relates well with the players.

"When you've got good people, you want to keep them, so it made sense to me."

Treliving said input from players as he got to know them during the offseason went into the decision to sign Keefe.

"I do take feedback from the players, no question," he said. "It's a little bit interesting because I'm still getting to know the players so it's a little bit of a unique situation, and at the end of the day you have to be careful sometimes with the player piece (of the feedback). It's a popularity contest but you can tell when a coach has had an impact on them and when they believe the coach has had an impact on the team. They get pushed and that was one of the things that came back to me real consistently. It's not they were going to bat for their buddy as much as they believe they've grown as a group.

"There's uncomfortable times because he's demanding and he pushes these guys, but there is a real trust factor. What I gathered from the players is that they trust him, they trust he is doing the right thing by them."

NHL.com independent correspondent Dave McCarthy contributed to this report