Could Joe Pavelski be an NHL head coach candidate for Maple Leafs?

Wisconsin native and former NHL player Joe Pavelski is a surprise candidate as the Toronto Maple Leafs search for their next head coach, according to SportsNet in Canada.

Pavelski, 41 and a Plover native who attended Stevens Point Area Senior High and played for the University of Wisconsin, retired from NHL hockey after the 2023-24 season, having played 18 seasons with the San Jose Sharks and Dallas Stars.

He’s also a silver medalist in the 2020 Winter Olympics and has the record for most NHL playoff goals by an American-born player, with 74. He starred for the Badgers hockey team from 2004 through 2006, winning the NCAA championship his last year.

Pavelski has been coaching his son, Nate, in Madison-area youth hockey.

“It also shows the deep respect so many in the sport have for Pavelski,” SportsNet’s Elliotte Friedman wrote. “It’s hard to handicap his chances of getting the job, but they are interested in him, and those same sources indicate he’s not shying away from the possibility,”

The Maple Leafs fired coach Craig Berube in May after two seasons with Toronto. The franchise finished 32-36 this season, missing the playoffs and snapping a streak of nine consecutive playoff appearances.

Toronto hasn’t won the Stanley Cup since 1967 and hasn’t been to the finals since 2002. No Canadian team has won the cup since Montreal in 1993, with teams from our northern neighbor going 0-8 in the finals since.

There is precedent for a player quickly becoming a coach in the NHL, though perhaps not this quickly. Some players became assistants immediately, like Adam Oates and Manny Malhotra, on their way to head-coaching jobs.

Martin St. Louis played through 2015 and became head coach of the Montreal Canadiens in 2022, where he just led his team to the conference finals. with another Stevens Point alumnus, Cole Caufield, among his best players. St. Louis didn’t have prominent coaching experience when the Canadiens hired him.

This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Wisconsin’s Joe Pavelski a possible candidate for Maple Leafs coach