from Frank Seravalli of TSN,

Keefe, now 39, is the first Leafs’ bench boss without any prior NHL head coaching experience since Hockey Hall of Famer George Armstrong more than three decades ago in 1988-89.

But there was little doubt Keefe would be Dubas’ man for the job.

Dubas and Keefe have been tied together since 2012. They reunited in 2015 when Dubas, then the assistant GM of the Maple Leafs, demoted Gord Dineen and hired Keefe to coach the AHL’s Toronto Marlies.

Keefe was the 2014-15 OHL and Canadian Hockey League coach of the year. Dubas described Keefe at that 2015 analytics conference as “very progressive and very open to learning everything that our analytics department could generate and give to him,” someone who “incorporated those things in.”...

Current Montreal Canadiens forward Nick Cousins finished third in the OHL in scoring that season in 2012-13 for the Greyhounds when Keefe took over.

“He’s not a constant barker, he just held me accountable,” Cousins said Wednesday night after the Habs hosted the Sens. “If he didn’t like a play I made, he would let me know how he felt right away. His attention to detail is what makes him so good. He likes things done a certain way.”

more