Clancy announced his retirement six games into the season. He retired as the top scoring defenceman in NHL history, with 283 career points. In Clancy's last game, he represented the Montreal Maroons at the Howie Morenz Memorial Game in 1937. Post-playing career The season after his retirement as a player, Clancy briefly coached the Montreal Maroons before beginning an 11-year stint as an NHL referee. In 1949, the Montreal Canadiens hired Clancy to coach their American Hockey League (AHL) farm team, the Cincinnati Mohawks. He was released after two losing seasons, and rejoined the Maple Leafs organization as coach of the Leafs' AHL affiliate, the Pittsburgh Hornets. The Hornets had two outstanding seasons under Clancy, winning the Calder Cup as league champions in 1951–52, and nearly repeating the following year, before losing the cup final in seven games. On the strength of that performance, Clancy was made head coach of the Maple Leafs for the 1953–54 season. He held the job for three years, however the team struggled, with each successive season worse than the one before it. He was then appointed assistant general manager by his friend, Conn Smythe, although his responsibilities often involved public relations at least as much as building a hockey team. Clancy was inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame in 1958. He remained assistant general manager-coach through the 1960s, working under Punch Imlach. When Imlach was fired in 1969, Clancy initially said he would leave with him, but was persuaded to stay with the Leafs and was made a vice-president, a decision which did not go over well with Imlach, although the two later reconciled. After Harold Ballard took control of the Leafs during the 1971–72 season, Clancy and Ballard became inseparable friends. Former Leafs player, coach, and assistant general manager Hap Day would say that Clancy was paid to do nothing by both Smythe and Ballard. During the 1971–72 season, Clancy stepped behind the Leafs' bench as acting coach for 15 games while head coach John McLellan recovered from a peptic ulcer. Clancy remained in the Leafs' front office for the rest of his life. In 1986, he had an operation to remove his gallbladder, however infection from the gallbladder seeped into his body during the operation at which he went into septic shock. He died November 10, 1986, at age 83 and was buried in Mount Hope Catholic Cemetery in Toronto, Ontario.