An NHL bidding war for coaches — and the ensuing game of musical chairs — was averted when Doug Wilson confirmed he wants Todd McLellan back as coach of the San Jose Sharks.

At least four NHL teams, two not necessarily looking to replace their coach, were prepared to make a pitch to McLellan, had he been made available.

One of those teams is believed to be the Maple Leafs, who have been silent on Randy Carlyle’s status since their season ended and Brendan Shanahan was anointed as team president.

And at the same time, had Carlyle been let loose by the Leafs, there were two other teams interested in hiring him to coach.

Now, with McLellan probably staying in San Jose, the likelihood is the Leafs won’t wait long to confirm that Carlyle will return in his position as coach: He has one year left on his contract.

What’s not as certain is the status of Carlyle’s coaching staff. In an NFL-like move, look for the Leafs to replace assistants Greg Cronin and Scott Gordon and what will be interested to monitor is whether Carlyle’s long-time friend and assistant, Dave Farrish, will be maintained.

THIS AND THAT

An NHL executive on James Reimer: “If I’m the Leafs, I don’t make him a qualifying (restricted free agent) offer. The reason, you can’t get much for him in a trade. So by signing him, you’re paying too much for a backup goalie and you may get stuck with the contact. I’d rather cut my losses, let him go, and sign a veteran to backup Jonathan Bernier.” ... Expect other changes in the Leafs front office and scouting staff — not involving general manager Dave Nonis — after the NHL Draft in June ... If Drew Doughty played regular-season games with as much passion as he plays the big games, he would win the Norris Trophy every year. When it matters most — see the Olympics and Stanley Cup playoffs — there’s not a better defenceman in hockey ... Patrick Kane, in his words, is Showtime. But consider these surprising numbers: Over the past five seasons, Phil Kessel, one year older than Kane, has outscored the Blackhawks star 156-132 in regular-season goals. And on a per-game basis, Kessel has scored at 48-goal pace in the playoffs with Kane scoring at 33-goal pace, one of those being a Stanley Cup winner in overtime ... Strange situations in Washington and Vancouver right now: There is all kinds of coach-hiring talk around but neither of these teams have general managers yet ... A rumour that keeps going around that makes some sense: Longtime USA hockey voice David Poile may hire longtime USA hockey coach Peter Laviolette in Nashville.

HEAR AND THERE

No Toronto team in the NBA, NHL or MLB has won a playoff series since April of 2004. By comparison, in that same period of time in Boston, the Red Sox have won the World Series three times, the Patriots have won two Super Bowls, the Bruins and Celtics have been champions and the same teams have lost in four other championship series or games ... No other city with NBA, NHL and MLB ties has gone this long without winning a single playoff round ... How great are the Eastern Conference goaltenders: Well, by Olympic standards we have Carey Price, gold-medal winner; Henrik Lundqvist, silver-medal winner; Tuukka Rask, bronze-medal winner. The only goalie of that quality in the Western playoffs: Jonathan Quick ... You think P.K. Subban wants to send a message to one of his Olympic coaches, Claude Julien, with is absolute dominant play on the power play for Montreal. You think he could have played a little more in Sochi? ... Personally I felt bad when my Stanley Cup pick, the Sharks, went out in the first round. But I could share my pain with Jeff Van Gundy, whose NBA pick, the Houston Rockets went down in Round 1 to Portland ... Every time I watch Damian Lillard and watch Terrence Ross, I can’t help but wonder: Why didn’t Dwane Casey lose two more games in his first season coaching the Raptors?

SCENE AND HEARD

Worth repeating, what David Shoalts of the Globe and Mail hates, from an interview with The Fourth Floor blog: “Most hockey analytics geeks. Aside from having no sense of humour, they all act like they are the true sages of hockey simply because they came up with a few equations to state the obvious. The team that has the puck most usually wins. No kidding, Sherlock. That’s been true since Lord Stanley was talked into spending 35 bucks to buy a certain cup.” ... By my limited calculations, three of the NHL’s Top 10 Corsi teams didn’t make the playoffs and three others were eliminated in the first round ... Did you know the Raptors will be paying Marcus Camby more than $4 million next season, a leftover from the Andrea Bargnani deal ... The Raps will have to pick up the team option on Amir Johnson, though, at $7 million a year ... Certainly gone from the Raps: John Salmons, his contract is up. No real loss ... Moises Sierra reminded me of one of my father’s favourite expressions: “He looked good from far, but far from good.” ... He can play on my team: Shawn Thornton. He can’t play on my team: Joe Thornton. I wish I had a team ... Had a long online argument last winter about why I’d rather have Anze Kopitar than Kessel. Something to do with having a large two-way centreman. Haven’t heard from the man in a while ... Not a good sign: At least one website is selling discounted #WeAreNorth T-shirts.

AND ANOTHER THING

This seems like micro-managing: The Blue Jays have played 30 games. They have made 37 player transactions since the big-league season began ... From the department of this-isn’t-Brandon-Morrow, this stat came courtesy of Marc Topkin of the Tampa Bay Times: In 37 road starts for David Price against AL East teams, Price has a 22-3 record and an earned run average of 3.16 ... Jose Bautista, first in OPS, third in WAR, having another wonderful season for the not so wonderful Blue Jays. At what point does he pull a Roy Halladay? ... Also having a wonderful season, the should-have-been-Jay Troy Tulowitzki in Colorado ... Kyle Drabek turns 27 this summer: At what point does he stop being a prospect? ... Almost every year the first round of the Stanley Cup playoffs trounces the first round of the NBA playoffs for excitement alone. Not this year. The NHL playoffs have been terrific and the NBA playoffs have been just as terrific. The usual, the home team favourite wins, hasn’t been evident in this year’s playoffs ... Just having a taste of playoffs in Toronto, even if it ends Sunday, reminds us of how precious these kind of seasons are and how much Toronto sports teams have stolen from us over the years ... Roberto Luongo, back on his Twitter feed: “I was blowing 2 goal leads way before all the cool kids started doing it.” ... Happy birthday to James van Riemsdyk (25), Mr. Fuji (79), Rory McIlroy (25), Erin Andrews (36) Andrew Raycroft (34), Fred Stanfield (70) and Rick Leach (57) ... And hey, whatever became of Garfield Heard?

ANALYTICS LET DOWN MOREY

Daryl Morey is the chairperson of the annual MIT Sloan Sports Analytics conference. Which is a nice title.

But what would be nicer: If the NBA’s leading advocate of sporting analytics would have some success with his own team.

This is Morey’s seventh season as general manager of the Houston Rockets and he has yet to advance beyond the opening round of the NBA playoffs. Four times the Rockets have been knocked out early: Three times they failed to make the playoffs. Whatever he is doing statistically, isn’t helping his team or the reputation of the analytics community.

In the meantime, Morey traded Kyle Lowry away but kept Jeremy Lin in his spot; he let Goran Dragic leave as a free agent because he preferred Aaron Brooks. Two of the best guards in basketball this season happened to be former Houston players.

Maybe the Rockets are ahead of other teams with their statistical analysis. Maybe. But in basketball acumen department, where wins and losses are the statistics that matter most, they have much to answer for.

SHOULD SUBBAN STAY?

Are the anonymous online racist morons aware that the Boston Bruins’ goalie of the future just might be Malcolm Subban?

Younger brother of the incredible, P.K. Subban.

Or do these ignorant small-minds think at all?

The angry, racist, venomous, Twitter attacks on Subban following his two-goal performance in Game 1 of the playoff series between Montreal and Boston was an embarrassment on so many levels. The Bruins issued a statement apologizing when they, in fact, had nothing to apologize for.

It is impossible, really, to know who these imbeciles are but they are in fact representative of a growing anonymous online hatred through social media. Twitter claims it can put an end to this by cancelling nameless accounts, but so far no real sign of that happening.

And if you were Malcolm Subban, excited about your future, would you want to play in Boston? If that’s where all this is coming from? Would you, really?

LEAFS PROSPECTS LOOK GRIM

I asked an independent scout whom I respect what he thought of the Leafs prospects, draft picks and Marlies players. His view wasn’t necessarily encouraging for the future.

The Leafs, said the scout, have no top-six forwards on the way from their list of draft picks and AHL players. And, according to his assessment, they have only one potential top-four defencemen: Matt Finn of the Guelph Storm.

As for the Leafs’ first choices in 2010 and 2011, the kind of players should be making an impact in 2014-15, there is much doubt. Forwards Tyler Biggs and Brad Ross have not turned out as planned. Both are considered longshots now to ever play regularly in the NHL. Defenceman Stuart Percy, the second first round pick in 2011, he is considered a possible NHL player in the future, but more of a 5-6 defenceman and not a top-of-roster player.

The Leafs need change, but to expect it to come internally is unrealistic.

steve.simmons@sunmedia.ca