Yesterday was Brad Treliving’s first anniversary as the Toronto Maple Leafs general manager, and it’s time to examine what he has accomplished in those 366 days and whether he’s got the Maple Leafs heading in the right direction.
2023 NHL Draft
The 2023 Draft was set in Nashville on June 28 and 29, less than a month after Brad Treliving took over from the dismissed Kyle Dubas. Thanks to Dubas’ trading activities, the Maple Leafs only had three picks on the day in the first, fifth, and sixth rounds. The newly minted general manager was not allowed to join Toronto at the start of the draft since the Calgary Flames had made it a condition when the Maple Leafs hired him that he could only join his new team at the draft once they had made their own pick (which makes perfect sense as he was aware of the players they may want to go after).
Treliving’s first-round pick was Easton Cowan from the London Knights in the Ontario Hockey League. Not only has Cowan had an excellent regular season with 34 goals and 62 assists, which amounted to 96 points in 54 games, but he followed it with a stellar performance in the playoffs with 34 points in 18 games to lead the Knight to the OHL Championship and grab the postseason MVP award. Cowan is currently playing in the Memorial Cup tournament, the Canadian Championship in junior hockey. In three games, he’s got 5 points, and his Knights will be playing in the final on Sunday (June 2) against the Saginaw Spirit, the hosting team they beat on their way to the OHL Championship. Needless to say, Cowan may add a Memorial Cup title to his already impressive pedigree. It remains to be seen how well his game will translate in a professional league, but so far, so very good!
With his fifth-round pick, Treliving opted for center Hutson Malinoski, playing in the Alberta Junior Hockey League with the Brooks Bandits. In his only year with the team, he scored 69 points in 44 games. After being drafted by the Maple Leafs, he moved to Providence College in the NCAA and gathered 18 points in 35 games. He’s currently on Toronto’s reserve list as he has not been signed to an Entry-Level Deal. Treliving has until August 15, 2027, to sign him, or the Leafs will lose his rights.
Finally, in the sixth round, the Maple Leafs opted for Canadian defenseman Noah Chadwick, a six-foot-four, 201-pound colossus. After a solid first half of a season with the Lethbridge Hurricanes, Treliving inked him to an ELC on December 23, 2023. He finished his year with 56 points in 66 games, a remarkable improvement compared to the 20 points he had in the previous season while playing 67 games. The Maple Leafs might just have found themselves a diamond in the rough there.
Treliving’s Free Agent Signings
Having barely been in post for a month before free agency opened last Summer, Treliving had to quickly familiarize himself with the team to figure out its most glaring needs. Clearly, he was well aware that his team was considered too soft by many, and on July 1, he signed enforcer Ryan Reaves to a three-year 35+ contract with a $1,350,000 cap hit. At that point, I thought the GM had lost the plot, as the British would say. For me, the Maple Leafs needed tougher, talented players, not a goon…In hindsight, I guess Reeves had his purpose at times and could give the team energy through his extracurricular activities, but I still believe a three-year pact was too much term for such a player of that age.
Then, still, on the first day of free agency, he rolled the dice on free agent defenseman John Klingberg, giving him a one-year deal with a $4.1 million cap hit. That was a surprising gamble, as his offensive production had been declining in the last few years, and he wasn’t hiring him for his defensive prowess. This experiment went downhill fast, though, as Klingberg only managed to register five assists in 14 games before suffering a season-ending injury that required hip surgery.
Related: Is Brad Treliving the Right Person to Lead the Maple Leafs?
On July 2, he made much better signings, inking forwards Tyler Bertuzzi and Max Domi to one-year contracts. The former agreed to a pact with a $5.5 million cap hit, while the latter signed for $3 million, the same amount he had gotten in his previous contract with the Chicago Blackhawks. The prominent quality of both of these players is that not only can they score, but they can also play with physicality and flirt with the edge of legality, which can drive some other players crazy. In the playoffs, they played on the first line with Auston Matthews and showed how useful they can be when given ice time with top offensive talents. I’m convinced that, as widely reported, he will do his best to extend the two players.
Two of Treliving’s major signings were puzzling moves, but he does get more than a passing grade for inking Bertuzzi and Domi. His grades could improve if he somehow manages to retain both.
While it wasn’t a free agency signing, he still signed a four-year extension with the franchise’s face, Auston Matthews, with a cap hit of $13,250,000, nothing to help the team navigate cap hell in the upcoming season.
Treliving’s In-Season Trading and Signings
Throughout the season and in the run-up to the trade deadline, Treliving pulled the trigger on five deals. He sent Sam Lafferty over to the Vancouver Canucks for a fifth-round pick at the next draft. He acquired some defense stability by entering a three-way deal with the Anaheim Ducks and the Carolina Hurricanes, from which he acquired defenseman Ilya Lyubushkin and the signing rights to Kirill Slepets while giving away a 2024 sixth-round pick and a 2025 third-round pick.
Still, to shore up his defense, he acquires Joel Edmundston for two picks (a 2024 third-round pick and a 2025 fifth-round pick) from the Washington Capitals. Then, he got the signing rights to Cade Weber from the Hurricanes for a sixth-round pick in 2026 and promptly signed him to a two-year deal. Finally, he got a serviceable fourth-line left wing/center in Connor Dewar for prospect Dmitry Ovchinnikov and a 2026 fourth-round pick.
In other words, he got some bits and bobs to give his team some depth, which is essential in the playoffs when the stakes are high.
Signing-wise, he inked William Nylander to an 8-year contract extension with an $11,500,000 cap hit. That kind of cap hit more or less guarantees Nylander is in Toronto to stay, splitting of the core four or not. The contract is assorted with a no-movement clause from start to finish. Perhaps Treliving had already made his mind up that Nylander was going nowhere whatever happened going forward.
Playoffs Performance
Although Dubas assembled the team’s core, Treliving acquired some pieces that turned out to be very important in the series against the Boston Bruins. Sure, the Maple Leafs were once again eliminated in seven games, but what that means is Treliving has got the go-ahead from his bosses to split the core four. If he plays his cards well and can use either Mitch Marner or John Tavares as trade bait, he might just be able to complete this line-up with a few gritty guys, the kind of players who are leaders both on the ice and in the room. Soldiers who will stop at nothing to protect their commanding officer on the battlefield but who can also play hockey and put up points are the kind of guys who help you get far in the playoffs.
Even with the early elimination, I don’t think anyone can say that wasn’t a good first year for Treliving. Now, with the firing of Keefe and the hiring of a no-nonsense coach like Craig Berube, we could see a boost in performance, as is often the case for new coaches. However, Toronto needs to improve not in the regular season but in the playoffs. Let’s hope for the duo that the Berube effect is long-lasting.
