Kevin Weekes stuns Oilers and Maple Leafs fans with latest head coach report
Kevin Weekes dropped the ???? on Monday afternoon, and in hockey circles that means something is coming.
The veteran NHL insider posted a photo of Peter Laviolette on X with nothing but two eye emojis and #HockeyX, the kind of signal Weekes has used before when a deal is close.
Two teams are coachless heading into this offseason. Edmonton and Toronto both need a bench boss, and Laviolette's name has been connected to both situations.
The Oilers finished the season at 41-30-11 with 93 points. Respectable. But they did it without a head coach listed in their organization, and GM Stan Bowman needs that answer before the summer really gets going.
Toronto's situation is bleaker. The Maple Leafs went 32-36-14, ranked 28th overall, and finished on a seven-game losing streak.
That's not a team that needed a lineup tweak. That's a franchise that needed a full reset at the top of the bench.
Laviolette fits one of these jobs better than the other
Laviolette has won a Stanley Cup, coached in multiple Conference Finals, and has never been afraid to demand accountability in the locker room.
He is the kind of presence you bring in when you need a team to fear the bench again.
Edmonton still has Connor McDavid. The core is competitive. What they need is structure, discipline, and someone who can manage a contender-level roster through an 82-game grind.
Toronto is the more complicated read. Their -46 goal differential last season suggests the problems ran deeper than coaching alone, and dropping a Cup-winning coach into a talent gap does not fix the talent gap.
Think of it like putting a Michelin-star chef in a kitchen with no ingredients. The pedigree is real. The results still depend on what's in the fridge.
Weekes has not specified which team. He just posted a face and let the hockey world do the math.
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Both front offices know the clock is ticking. Free agency opens in weeks, and neither team can properly build a roster around a coaching philosophy they do not yet have.
Wherever Laviolette lands, the other team will still be answering questions about its vacancy well into July.
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1 HOUR AGO | 278 ANSWERS Kevin Weekes stuns Oilers and Maple Leafs fans with latest head coach report Is Peter Laviolette the right hire for the Edmonton Oilers or for the Toronto Maple Leafs? | ||
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YESTERDAY
JUNE 6, 2026
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| G | A | PTS | ||
| Mitch Marner | 3 | 1 | 4 | |
| Tomas Hertl | 1 | 1 | 2 | |
| Jordan Staal | 1 | 1 | 2 | |
| Shea Theodore | 1 | 1 | 2 | |
| Sebastian Aho | - | 2 | 2 | |
| Brayden McNabb | - | 2 | 2 | |
| Taylor Hall | 1 | - | 1 | |
| Jordan Martinook | 1 | - | 1 | |
| Andrei Svechnikov | 1 | - | 1 | |
| Jackson Blake | - | 1 | 1 | |
| Jack Eichel | - | 1 | 1 | |
| Brett Howden | - | 1 | 1 | |
| Seth Jarvis | - | 1 | 1 | |
| William Karlsson | - | 1 | 1 | |
| Eric Robinson | - | 1 | 1 | |
| Jaccob Slavin | - | 1 | 1 | |
| Logan Stankoven | - | 1 | 1 | |
| Frederik Andersen | - | - | - | |
| Rasmus Andersson | - | - | - | |
| Ivan Barbashev | - | - | - | |
| COMPLETE STATS | ||||