Joe Pavelski learned a lot going through the Toronto Maple Leafs interview process for their head coach position.It probably planted a seed for what comes next down the road for him.“It was great,” Pavelski told The Athletic on Friday morning. “It was awesome. It was interesting. When I got the call, if I had interest in the job, yeah, I mean, it’s Toronto. It kind of takes your breath away to be thought about as a head coach. So it definitely had my attention.”Pavelski coached his son’s AAA team in his native Madison, Wisc., this past season after being an assistant on the staff the year before. He also helped out with the University of Wisconsin men’s team, going on the ice when time permitted to aid the coaching staff.And clearly, people noticed. Other NHL teams had checked in periodically to see what he was up to after he retired from an 18-season NHL playing career two years ago. But this was obviously something else with the Maple Leafs.“After they first reached out, I took a couple of days to think about it,” he said. “It’s a process you definitely want to go through and see how it really looks. I have so much respect for what these coaches do, and that’s one of the reasons you really have to look at it. You know the time they put into it and the care they put into it and everything that comes with it.“I definitely wanted to follow up on the process and see where it went.”Pavelski’s son, Nathan, was drafted by the OHL’s Kitchener Rangers last weekend. As the conversations with the Leafs progressed, Pavelski looked at potential options in the Toronto area for a gap year, for his son to play hockey and continue his development. That was very important, knowing that it was doable just in case.“There would have been an option possibly for hockey in the Toronto area for him, because I don’t have a lot of interest taking away from what he’s doing or going to do this on my own,” Pavelski said.That tells you how far along the thought process was in making this move if the Leafs had decided he was their guy. Instead, Jim Hiller was hired, but the experience of going through it will prove valuable for Pavelski if he decides to take another run at NHL coaching down the road.Would he consider another coaching opportunity if a team called?“You always listen,” Pavelski said. “I think if it happens, it’s probably a few years out.”His old pals with the San Jose Sharks, general manager Mike Grier and AGM Tom Holy, have been asking him to come out and help out at training camp, and he may do that in September.No one would have been surprised during his playing years with the Sharks and Dallas Stars to hear that Pavelski might coach one day. His hockey IQ was through the roof, and he was always willing to mentor younger teammates. He was like another coach on the staff in his later years.“It’s funny as you talk to people, that was a comment I got a few times — ‘Well, you’ve been coaching the last five years of your career,'” Pavelski said with a laugh. “I chuckle at that because I didn’t see it that way. I had tremendous coaches in my career. I loved Pete (DeBoer) and Spotter (assistant Steve Spott). And with Rick Bowness and Todd McLellan, I learned a lot from those guys.”Rod Brind’Amour just won a Stanley Cup — a similar former star player and captain turned coach. Martin St. Louis went from coaching his son to coaching the Canadiens with impressive success. Those are both examples that mean a lot to Pavelski in the event he ever makes the jump.