Frank Ceravalli

speaker

5,777 appearances 50 recordings 5 series first heard Aug 2023 last heard 7 Jul

Frank Ceravalli’s voice in public audio — every appearance, attributed to the second.

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Recordings per month over the last 12 months — 35 in all, peaking in Jun 2026 with 11.

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Halford & Brough in the Morning · The Best of Halford and Brough 6/17/26 · 17 Jun 2026 podcast

Yeah, pretty surprised.

I mean, if you were to look at the coaching landscape heading into this and all the different people that the Toronto Maple Leafs had available to them, both experienced and completely inexperienced, it's just really interesting that they decided to go with a guy in Jim Hiller who, coming off of his very unimpressive run in Los Angeles, didn't really grab anyone's attention as a great head coaching candidate to dive right back in without missing a cycle.

And that part kind of surprised me.

I mean, again, not advocating for anyone in particular, but you've got Jay Woodcroft on one hand, who has the best points percentage of any coach that's only ever worked in one tenure in league history, who then went and did a great job in Anaheim, getting that team back into the playoffs with Joel Quenville's staff.

And he sits out the entirety of this cycle.

And Jim Hiller, who, I mean, no one can forget the coach's challenge from

the first round series against Edmonton two years ago, plus basically some chirping from Kings players along the way about their boring system and structure, that this is the guy that ultimately gets selected as the next Leafs head coach.

I think it's a few reasons.

One, one of the Toronto Maple Leafs mandates

was to get experience.

I believe with John Chayka's relative lack of experience and having not worked in the game in six years and the fact that Matt Sundin hasn't worked on this continent in a while and never in a front office role, that they needed someone who had been there and done it before.

So Hiller checks one box, but at the same time, I think the Leafs were very careful after having the style of coach that Craig Gruby was

and some of his predecessors, including Mike Babcock, that they wanted someone who provided a more gentle approach.

And I think everyone's sort of looked at Jim Hiller as a gentleman and someone that is very respectful.

So I think that box gets checked.

And then also there's history here in our relationship.

It's not an accident to me that

Dallas Aikens, for instance, is one of the guys that was reported till the very end.

He had a previous long interview with John Chayka when Chayka was running the Arizona Coyotes.

Jim Hiller had a long interview that obviously left a lasting impression on John Chayka going back to the Arizona days.

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