Toronto Maple Leafs Considering Replacing Jim Hiller?

The Toronto Maple Leafs just completed their worst six-game homestand in franchise history, and have cancelled practice on Monday. There's some rumblings coming from internal sources with the organization that the team is discussing replacing head coach Jim Hiller.

Hiller replaced Craig Berube before the start of the 2026-27 season, and with him being a familiar face to the likes of Auston Matthews and William Nylander, many people felt it was the perfect match. Hiller was the good cop, to Mike Babcock's 'bad cop', and there was a lot of optimism about how things were going to play out.

The Leafs have faced the two best lines in the NHL in consecutive games. Jim Hiller has used his fourth line out against both. At home. With last change.

— Matt Larkin (@MLarkinHockey) November 15, 2026

 

However, after 22 games this season, Hiller hasn't been able to find line combinations that produce consistently, he's fumbled his goaltending tandem of Sergei Bobrovsky and Anthony Stolarz, and with all the injuries piling up on defence, it's gone from bad to worse very early on in Toronto.

The other half of Leafs Nation were not fans of the Hiller hiring, citing his horrible tenure with the Los Angeles Kings, and how many mistakes he made behind the bench, either with key challenges, or lack there of. 

The Maple Leafs will enter the new week 8-12-2 on the season, sitting outside of the Stanley Cup Playoff picture in the Eastern Conference. They've lost six in a row, and the struggle is real right now. They've been under a ton of heat, decided to skip a practice ahead of facing off against Connor McDavid and the Edmonton Oilers, and instead held batting practice at Rogers Centre, and worked out at the Toronto Blue Jays' facilities. They go on to lose to the Oilers 1-0 Saturday night, and decide to cancel their next potential two timeslots for practices. Interesting strategy for a struggling hockey club, no?

Hiller: "You write your stories, but I'm here to tell you, we deserve better than that over that six-game home stand ... we'll move on to the next one." #Leafs

— Terry Koshan 🇺🇦 (@koshtorontosun) November 15, 2026

 

Don't be surprised to see a press conference coming on Monday, as there's rumblings out of Rogers that the Maple Leafs could be replacing Hiller. Paging Bruce Cassidy?

Jim fucking Hiller waiting to call a timeout with 11 seconds left when he had several stoppages earlier to do so. Just a horribly managed game.

— A (@_knilanderthews) November 15, 2026

Still can’t believe the Leafs saw what Jim Hiller did with the Kings and thought, yeah he’ll be a good hire.

— Russell Morgan (@NHLRussell) November 9, 2026

Jim Hiller after the Leafs lose 6 straight: "We're all professionals, they're the athletes, we're coaches and management, we're all professionals. This is a hard thing to go through. But, what's your options? To me, your options are to play your ass off." @sdpnsports

— Jesse Blake (@JesseBlake) November 15, 2026

Auston Matthews on Jim Hiller “he usually doesn’t speak after games” https://t.co/u7UYEihr07

— LeafsRundown (@LeafsRundown) November 13, 2026