Guy Boucher was in Toronto's coaching mix: Report

An interesting name seemed to pop up in some reporting circles Wednesday following the announcement Mike Babcock would be the next head coach of the Toronto Maple Leafs. One Guy Boucher.

The former Lightning coach, who had been in Switzerland since Jan. 2014 was apparently in the running to coach Toronto, until Babs decided to take the reported eight-year $50 million dollar check the Maple Leafs offered him.

In some ways, that tells you how much Toronto didn’t know if Babcock was going to take the Maple Leafs’ offer. Or was using Boucher as leverage?

What are the options out there for Boucher? Detroit maybe? Buffalo? McKenzie notes that Boucher could join Babcock as an assistant coach with the Maple Leafs. Or he could just go back to Switzerland to wait out the next good possibility. Clearly, people around the NHL still respect him.

Boucher has taken the Bob Hartley path of going to Europe to coach in order to find himself to some degree. They’re different people, but Hartley’s success coming back from Switzerland and guiding Calgary to the playoffs has probably made Boucher a more attractive coaching candidate – tacked on to his prior success with Tampa.

As the coaching carousel turns …

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Josh Cooper is an editor for Puck Daddy on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at puckdaddyblog@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter! Follow @joshuacooper

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