The Toronto Maple Leafs fired head coach Paul Maurice on Wednesday after a 12th place finish in the Eastern Conference and another year of missing the playoffs. Maurice is the second person to be let go after general manager John Ferguson, Jr. was fired in January.

"This is a start of a new era for the Maple Leafs," interim general manager Cliff Fletcher said at a news conference at Air Canada Centre. "This is all part and parcel of that."

After being fired by the Carolina Hurricanes 30 games into the 2003-04 season, Maurice was hired by the Maple Leafs to coach their AHL affiliate Toronto Marlies in 2005-06. After Ferguson fired Pat Quinn on May 12, 2006, Maurice was promoted from the Marlies to the Maple Leafs.

Both Ferguson and Maurice claimed before the season began that the Maple Leafs would make the playoffs and contend for the Stanley Cup after missing the playoffs the two previous seasons. Toronto finished the season with a 36-35-11 record and missed the playoffs for a third straight season.

"You know the way the season ended up and the changes that are going to take place on the team," Maurice told The Canadian Press from his Toronto home. "So I was very aware that it was a possibility."

When the team decided to let Ferguson go in January, it was thought that Maurice might also receive the axe, but his job was spared for the remainder of the season. In two seasons with Toronto, Maurice compiled a 76-66-22 record. His best season was last year when Toronto finished 40-31-11, but missed the playoffs by one point. Maurice will now look for another coaching job either in the NHL or AHL.

The Maple Leafs also announced that assistant coach Randy Ladouceur was fired while assistant Dallas Eakins was offered a position elsewhere in the organization. Keith Acton will remain as an assistant.

Toronto is now heading into a new era that will allow new management to being in their own coaches. The Maple Leafs last won the Stanley Cup in 1967 and they haven’t been back since. The off-season is going to be an active one in Toronto, and the firing of Maurice is just the beginning.