Toronto Maple Leafs GM Brad Treliving and Director of Amateur Scouting Mark Leach met with the media at the Ford Performance Centre in Etobicoke, ON on Thursday to provide an update on the club’s pending free agents and to discuss the 2025 NHL Draft in Los Angeles. The Leafs do not have a first-round pick on Friday night, and will not be selecting until the end of the second round on Saturday morning.
Treliving provided an update on talks with Mitch Marner’s agent Darren Ferris and John Tavares’ agent Pat Brisson, and while one sounded pretty much as a fait accompli, the other had a noted hint of optimism that something will get done before next Tuesday.
“I wouldn’t say a whole lot of change (with Mitch) right now. Obviously, we’re approaching free agency. We’ve had communication,” Treliving said. “I probably describe it, unless there’s a significant change here, I would anticipate that he’s going to hit the market, and we’ll see where things go.”
The Leafs GM would not respond to whether Marner’s camp would allow him to trade his negotiating rights before July 1 and although he and Ferris have kept the lines of communication open, there are no plans to meet with the winger. This pretty much is an exclamation point on Marner’s departure from Toronto, but it sounds as if the feelings are mutual that the player does not want to stay in Toronto and the Leafs have little interest in bringing him back and paying him what he could get on the open market. That is not the case with Tavares, who scored 38 goals last season.
“With John, there’s a deadline. We’ve had lots of communication. I would say you’re always a little bit hesitant to frame it. I’m trying to give as much information as can, but it’s been positive,” Treliving said. “As I think we said at the end of the year, we both expressed a shared outcome, which is John wants to stay and we want to keep John, and like any contract, there usually just two little stumbling blocks, term and money. Once you get by those. Usually things flow pretty quick. So we’re moving, hopefully in a direction to bring it to closure.”
Talks with Knies are progressing, but are taking a bit of a back seat to negotiations with Tavares, because he is a restricted free agent.
“(With) Matthew, same sort of thing, lots of communication, but not the same deadline necessarily. It goes without saying Matthew is going to make more than what he’s making now on his next contract, and you also want to protect yourself moving into the summer past July 1.” Treliving said. “We want to make sure we’re protected. I’m sure the next question is going to be (about) an offer sheet. That’s not anything you can operate out of fear with, but you have to do proper business. So we’re very hopeful that we’ll get to a good conclusion. When that is? Time will tell.”
