The Toronto Maple Leafs on Sunday announced they hired former Boston Bruins forward Marc Savard as an assistant coach.
Savard joins the Maple Leafs following one season as an assistant coach with the Calgary Flames after two seasons coaching the Windsor Spitfires, a junior hockey team in the Ontario Hockey League. He will be reunited with Toronto head coach Craig Berube on the bench. Savard served under Berube as an assistant with the St. Louis Blues during the 2019-20 season.
The 46-year-old played 807 NHL games with the Bruins, Flames, Rangers and Atlanta Thrashers. Savard lit the lamp 207 times, and the prototypical playmaker notched 499 assists. He made two All-Star appearances in 2008 and 2009.
Savard’s career was cut short due to lingering effects from concussions he suffered during the 2009-10 and 2010-11 seasons. Despite not playing the required number of games for his name to automatically be engraved on the Stanley Cup when the Bruins won the title in 2011, then-general manager Peter Chiarelli and the Boston front office petitioned the league to have his name included.
Savard formally announced his retirement from the National Hockey League on Jan. 22, 2018; seven years after he played his last game. The retired forward was named to the Bruins “Historic 100” ahead of the Centennial season.
