After four seasons as Maple Leafs head coach, leading Toronto to the playoffs each year, winning over 160 games and having a points percentage of .678%, Sheldon Keefe is looking to build off of that 2023 first-round playoff victory against the Tampa Bay Lightning and carry that into his fifth season as the head coach of the Toronto Maple Leafs.
Whether you agreed with Sheldon Keefe keeping his job as the bench boss once Brad Treliving got hired after the firing of Kyle Dubas or not, it’s too late now, and we have to shift our focus to the 2023-24 season and hope he and this team can build off of that first-round victory that they finally got last playoffs.
Keefe, 42, is already among the top coaches in franchise history with his 166 wins in 267 games and also has the highest points percentage in franchise history at .678. Despite the playoff success not being there, we can all agree the regular season success is, but now it’s time to carry that into the postseason and go on a deep run with this team.
The oddsmakers even like Keefe’s chances at winning the Jack Adams Award for the 2023-24 season. They aren’t among the very best, but they do have him around the middle of the pack.
However, our friends over at Betano currently have him sitting with the sixth-best odds at +1400, along with seven other coaches, to win the 2024 Jack Adams Award.
2023-24 Jack Adams Award odds:
Rod Brind’Amour: +600
Lindy Ruff: +800
Don Granato: +1000
Jay Woodcroft: +1000
Bruce Cassidy: +1200
D.J. Smith: +1400
Sheldon Keefe: +1400
It’s no surprise to see some of these names above Keefe in the odds to win the Jack Adams Award, especially Lindy Ruff who coached the Devils to an incredible season last year, Don Granato who is looking to coach that Sabres team to a playoff spot after a good season last year, and even D.J. Smith with a Senators team hungry to make the playoffs as well and signing Tarasenko in free agency.
