When you look at the Maple Leafs’ roster — from William Nylander to Pierre Engvall and all sorts of players in between — it’s fairly easy to conclude that Sheldon Keefe set a fairly high bar in terms of player development while coaching the Toronto Marlies.
Those are the shoes Greg Moore has to fill as he takes control of the Leafs’ top farm team.
“I hope they set a high bar,” Moore said. “I think that’s what’s special here … everyone has a high standard and expectation. I would want to carry that high standard and expectation. We’ll just keep pushing to keep developing hockey players and help them get to where they want to go.”
Moore, though hired two weeks ago, coaches his first game behind the Marlies bench Saturday against the Belleville Senators. Leafs GM Kyle Dubas decided it would be better for Moore to spend time with Keefe and the Leafs coaching staff to learn how they like things done, what language to use, and what the organization’s philosophy and culture are all about. It was an unusual arrangement but Dubas does like to break the mould in terms of how things are done.
“I thought it was a creative and progressive idea, it made sense to me,” said Moore, who was with the Leafs during their four-game road trip out west. “It made sense to me. “I got to know Sheldon and the staff there. I thought it was really positive to get to know the details of how they’re teaching the game and playing the game, so that I have an idea of how to communicate and work through things here with the Marlies.
“I also thought it was really positive to see Sheldon work in his environment, how he handles all the resources that are available.”
The Marlies have been a model of consistency since Keefe was installed as head coach in 2015. They won the Calder Cup in 2018 and have been in the post-season every year. Now the players will have to get used to a new voice, a new leader.
“I don’t think there’ll be too big of an adjustment,” centre Adam Brooks said. “His message to us was there’s not going to be a lot of changes, although he is putting a little bit of a spin on a couple of things, some of the terminology.”
For example, Moore doesn’t talk about “dumping” the puck into the offensive zone. His word?
“Deposit,” said Brooks. “You’re not just using an ugly word — dumped — where stuff doesn’t happen. You want to deposit it to an area and make positive plays off it instead of throwing the puck away. So just little things like that.”
Moore seems to be the model of a young coach for today’s modern player, one that thrives on communication rather than commands.
“I approach my job as caring about the individual and the person first, and the athlete second,” he said. “I know the Toronto Maple Leafs and Toronto Marlies treat their athletes in that sense, that the resources they have here are to care for them, their mental health, their physical health. All that is first before the athlete and I’m in line with that.”
The 35-year-old Moore just found a place for his family in Oakville. Born in Maine, he was drafted by the Calgary Flames in 2003. He got into 10 games in the NHL — no goals, no assists, no penalties — while having a journeyman’s career through the AHL and the top league in Germany.
He won two gold medals as a member of the U.S. national development team (one with the under-18s, the other with the under-20s), where he became lifelong friends with Detroit Red Wings goalie Jimmy Howard. And in a six-game call-up to the New York Rangers in 2007-08, he was teammates with Leafs president Brendan Shanahan.
The Leafs hired Moore away from the Chicago Steel of the USHL, the top U.S.-based junior league. There will be some adjustments as he goes from dealing with teenagers to dealing with men.
“Some of it’s all the same, it’s still the same sport, but definitely some of it’s a little different. These guys are men. So in terms how you communicate and your energy and (how you) handle certain situations, I definitely think you have to have a different approach. But at the end of the day, it’s still a lot of the same stuff we want to teach and communicate.”
One big difference: Those teenagers have big hockey dreams ahead of them. For some of the men on the Marlies, the dreams aren’t coming true and the NHL may be out of reach. Moore thinks he’s well situated to deal with all the players in the minors.
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“I played at this level for five years,” he said. “I was a rookie. I was a guy in the middle of my career and I was a guy that was a veteran that wasn’t getting called up anytime soon. I’ve lived through those stages.
“Hopefully, I can lean on my past experience to help guys stay motivated and be successful with where they’re at in their careers and what their goals are. There’s definitely going to be a feel-out process for me to work through all that and getting to know the guys as people as part of that process.”
