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Hiller on Maple Leafs' head coaching role, the organization connection and the number one overall selection
25 Jun 2026
Transcript generated automatically by AI and may contain errors.
Chapter 1: What insights does Jim Hiller share about his new role as head coach of the Maple Leafs?
Okay, let's see if we can go back to the phones here. Here's the head coach of the Maple Leafs, Jim Hiller. You got us, Jim.
I got you, yeah. Yes, great to catch up with you.
Thank you for doing this.
You guys got me. That's more important.
That's right.
I got you, you got me.
Exactly. Are you keeping up to date? You must be with everything that's going on in the league right now. What's it like from your standpoint, head coach of the Leafs, one of 32 teams, but it seems like every team in the league is trying to make moves right now.
there is action out there. This is, this is great for you guys. I know we talk about this every year and there's going to be moves leading up to the draft and, you know, oftentimes it never happens. And now we have a year like this. It's pretty incredible, but I have been a little slow on the draw. I'll be honest. Cause I've, you know, I'm wrapped up in my own thing here.
So, so usually I'm a little more dialed into that. Uh, but it's been exciting.
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Chapter 2: How does Jim Hiller plan to foster team spirit among the players?
But there's no question their games have evolved and gotten to where they are now. And they have to continue. But I think knowing that we're starting from a place of trust, I think that gives me an advantage in helping them to push and try to achieve something even more.
We're chatting with Jim Hiller, the new head coach of the Maple Leafs. And when you were here a number of years ago, Austin Matthews was not the captain of the team. He is now the captain of the team. And I'm curious, what you need from him in particular ā to get your message across and to establish the spirit that we continue to talk about here?
How much of the onus begins with Austin and his approach?
Well, I mentioned this before. First of all, everybody has to, in the NHL today, if you want to have success as a team, everybody has to check and work without the puck. It's just a prerequisite. it's too competitive otherwise. So if you don't do that, you don't have a chance. So that doesn't get a lot of people excited, but it is the baseline of any good team.
Now, what I would say to Austin and the other players on the team is when we do have the puck, we have to get really excited and brace and celebrate playing offense. We got to let the skill and these amazing players, the talent that they've shown us,
creating some you know a lot of goals not just highlight real goals we got to really embrace and celebrate that again so we will demand the part one the baseline but I think we really will try to emphasize and work on and maybe a better word is celebrate you know in different ways as a team and getting back to scoring goals and being dangerous. And I think Austin is the epitome of that.
So in terms of celebrating that offense, like what do you, what do you mean by that? The way, the way you utilize them, the way you emphasize the power play, who they play with, like what can you expand on that? Like celebrating the offense?
Well, it's, it's all those things. It's all those things, but it's also in practice. It's also through our video sessions. It's, it's in any ways that we can highlight and emphasize and show just the passion and the skill and the creativity required to score those types of goals or create those types of chances.
So I want to make sure that, yes, we're banging on our structure and our defensive game and our play without the puck, but I want to give equal time and equal respect to the great talents that we have and try to make it, you know,
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Chapter 3: What are the most important factors for the Maple Leafs' success moving forward?
We're really clear on that. There's analytics, which is one way to evaluate players. There's maybe coaches use a different... And I won't say that they don't use analytics, but maybe it's done in a different way or the emphasis is on different types of numbers. And so I just think that everybody has to understand each other's point of view so that...
Not necessarily that you're agreeing all the time, but you understand where both sides are coming from. And I just think there's a lot of information and the communication between the coach and the general manager is critical.
With Jim Hiller. So you guys have the first overall pick tomorrow night. And John said today, you know, keeping the pick. There's consensus on the pick. I think we all know who you're going to take. We know you're not going to tell us. But how does that affect your plan for next year? Where, you know, first overall pick, the hype, the market. You know, there's a lot that comes with that.
How do you intend on coaching a first overall pick next year?
And you can tell us if you want.
Yeah, you can't tell us who you're picking if you'd like, sure.
Sure, sure. Well, let's put it this way. I mean, I was here when we had the good fortune the last time we took a first overall pick, and that was Austin. Now he came in and he scored four goals. I don't have to tell you the history. So I've had experience with that. Now... Every player, every first overall pick that rolls into town is not the same. And we know that.
It's either position or size and strength, physical maturity at that time. They all get there, but they get there at different rates sometimes. So we're just going to have to see. We're extremely excited. We know we're going to get a very talented player. And let's just see exactly where that player fits in. We want them to succeed.
But we want to make sure it's at the right pace and at the right time. We know it's going to be a terrific player, but let's just do our best to balance it. And again, I would go back to lots of conversation between the coach and the manager and players and line mates and teammates and just making sure that we're doing this right.
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