Maple Leafs Part With Mike Van Ryn as Jim Hiller Reshapes His Bench

Mike Van Ryn Is Out as Jim Hiller Puts His Own Stamp on the Maple Leafs Bench

The Maple Leafs coaching staff is changing shape, and the first clear signal came this week: Toronto has parted ways with assistant coach Mike Van Ryn. The move, reported as new head coach Jim Hiller finalizes his group, ends Van Ryn's three-season run with the club and severs one of the last direct links to the Craig Berube era. It is exactly the kind of housekeeping a new head coach does when he is given the room to build a bench in his own image.

For a team that has overhauled its front office, its goaltending and a chunk of its blue line this offseason, a reshaped Maple Leafs coaching staff was always coming. Hiller's hiring in June was a surprise, and surprises tend to bring change behind them. Van Ryn becoming the first domino fits the pattern of a season where John Chayka has shown little sentimentality about clearing out what came before.

Why Van Ryn Was the First to Go

Van Ryn's most significant tie in the coaching ranks runs to Berube, the head coach Toronto fired on May 13. The two worked closely with the St. Louis Blues, where they were part of the staff that captured the 2019 Stanley Cup, and Van Ryn stayed closely aligned with Berube's systems during their overlap in Toronto. When the head coach who brought you in is gone, and the new bench boss arrives with his own ideas and his own people, that alignment can quickly become a reason to move on.

None of this is a referendom on Van Ryn as a coach — he is a respected defensive voice with a Cup on his resume. It is simply the reality of a coaching change. Hiller inherited a staff assembled by someone else for a different head coach, and part of finalizing his own group means deciding which holdovers fit his structure and which carry too much of the previous regime's fingerprints.

Who Stays on the Maple Leafs Coaching Staff

For now, the rest of the bench has held. Assistant coaches Derek Lalonde and Steve Sullivan remained from the 2025-26 staff, as did goaltending coach Curtis Sanford. Lalonde brings prior NHL head-coaching experience, Sullivan is a respected developmental and skills voice, and Sanford steps into a crease that just got busier after the Joseph Woll and Samuel Ersson moves reshaped the goaltending picture.

That said, the wording around the situation has been careful — anything can still happen between now and the start of the 2026-27 campaign as Hiller continues to finalize his staff. In other words, Van Ryn's departure may be the first change, not the last. New head coaches often want at least one or two of their own trusted lieutenants, and there is still time before training camp for another move or an outside hire.

The Systems Question Behind the Staffing

Coaching changes are never just about names on a depth chart; they are about systems. Berube's Toronto teams were built on a heavy, defend-first, north-south structure, and Van Ryn's defensive responsibilities were tied closely to that identity. Whatever Hiller installs — and the early read is that he wants a faster, more puck-possession-oriented group to match the personnel Chayka is assembling — it will look different on the back end and on special teams. Keeping a coach whose teaching is rooted in the old structure would create friction in the very areas a new bench boss most wants to control.

That is the practical case for the move. Defensive-zone coverage, breakout structure and the penalty kill are areas where a head coach needs his assistants speaking the same language he does. Lalonde and Sullivan staying suggests Hiller is comfortable with their fit; Van Ryn leaving suggests the opposite. None of it is dramatic, but it adds up to a bench being quietly rebuilt to run one coherent plan rather than a patchwork of inherited philosophies.

The timing matters too. Making this call now, before development camp and well before training camp, gives Hiller runway to add a voice he trusts and to align the staff before any players arrive. A new head coach who waits until August to reshape his bench is already behind. Hiller is not waiting.

What This Says About the Hiller Hire

The Van Ryn decision is a small but telling data point about how much authority Hiller has been given. This is a head coach the organization chose over bigger names, and the fact that he is already moving holdovers suggests the front office is letting him build the bench he wants rather than handing him a pre-set staff. We laid out the logic behind that decision in our look at why Chayka chose trust over star power, and this is the first concrete evidence of that trust in action.

It also fits the broader theme of the offseason. From the day he took the job, Hiller has represented a clean break from the Berube approach, and removing the staffer most associated with the old systems is a logical next step. The Leafs are not just changing the man behind the bench; they are changing the philosophy the bench runs on.

The Stakes for 2026-27

The bench reshuffle matters because Hiller's margin for error is thin. He inherits a team that missed the 2025-26 playoffs, a remodelled roster and a fan base that has run out of patience with early exits. The assistants he keeps and the ones he adds will shape Toronto's penalty kill, its defensive structure and how it develops a wave of incoming youth. Getting the staff right is not a footnote — it is part of whether the Hiller bet pays off.

The goaltending side is especially worth watching. With Sanford overseeing a crease that now leans on Anthony Stolarz and a reshuffled depth chart, the coaching staff's handling of the position could decide a chunk of Toronto's season. Pair that with a defence corps in transition after the Brandon Carlo trade, and the systems Hiller's staff installs carry real weight.

There is a development angle, too. Toronto just added 10 prospects at the draft and is leaning harder on internal growth than it has in years. The assistants who run the power play, the penalty kill and the defensive structure are the ones who will shape how quickly the next wave of young players is ready to contribute. A bench aligned around one clear teaching philosophy makes that climb smoother; a fractured one slows it down. That is part of why getting the staff settled early, rather than carrying lingering questions into camp, is more than a cosmetic concern for a team trying to get younger and faster at the same time.

What's Next for the Bench

Watch for whether Hiller brings in an outside assistant before training camp — that would be the clearest sign of how much he wants to personalize the group. For now, the Maple Leafs coaching staff is Hiller at the top, Lalonde and Sullivan as holdover assistants, Sanford in goal, and one fewer link to the Berube years. It is a quiet move on a loud offseason, but it tells you the new head coach intends to run his bench his way. For the full offseason picture around the staff changes, see our post-draft to-do list.