from Jonas Siegel of TSN,

... Jeff Blashill, hired a night before the draft that previous summer, was their first-year head coach. An assistant for nearly a decade in the U.S. college ranks, Blashill had never been a head coach before. Success came quick, as it did a few years later when he captured the Calder Cup in his very first season with the Grand Rapids Griffins.

Two championships in two leagues in his first four seasons behind a bench of any kind.

There will certainly be more experienced candidates for Brendan Shanahan and the Maple Leafs to pursue in their search for a new head coach – Mike Babcock, perhaps, above all – but if they want to look outside the box just a little, they'd be wise to consider the 41-year-old from Sault Ste. Marie, currently coaching against the organization in the first round of the AHL playoffs.

"He doesn't have [NHL] experience, but if you look at his resume, he just wins," Skjodt said of Blashill in an interview. "Has he been a coach before in the NHL? No. But he's certainly ready. If there's anyone in this country that's ready right now, it'd be Jeff Blashill."

Blashill may just be next in a line of fresh faces to emerge onto the NHL landscape, a movement fronted at the moment by Jon Cooper, who hadn't coached a day in the league when Steve Yzerman promoted him to coach the Lightning a few years back.

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