Toronto Maple Leafs GM Brad Treliving met with the media on Thursday morning to discuss the present and future of the club after losing to the Florida Panthers earlier this month and the departure of Team President Brendan Shanahan. Treliving was asked a number of questions regarding the loss in the second round, where the club needs to improve going forward, and about negotiations regarding restricted free agent Matthew Knies and whether the club will attempt to re-sign pending free agents Mitch Marner and John Tavares.
On why the Leafs failed to advance:
“Champions have the ability to be calm and at their very best when it matters the most, and that is an area that we’ve got to improve. I think there has been steps. I know the history. I’ve been here for two years. We lost a game seven in round one, lost a game seven in round two. I know what’s happened before as well, but we have to be able to find a way to push through at the most critical moments, and that’s the challenge in front of us.”
“We’ve got to continue to change and evolve our mindset, and we’ve got to find a way to create the team both between the ears, personnel. (and) to be our very best at the most critical moments…..Not to dismiss a lot of the good that has happened, (but)when you keep getting the same result, there’s some DNA that needs to change.”
Analysis – Treliving said that some of the changes that will be made will not be just limited to personnel, but the DNA he is referring to and the stuff between the ears is directly aimed at the players who have been here throughout the era of failure.
How much change will there be?
“The margins are really, really thin and when I say that, I don’t believe that you have to go and change 20 players. It’s not always about that. It’s ‘what can we do to help our guys?’ What can we do to find guys that can help if there is change to be made with the team? How do we bring people in that have a mindset like that, but it’s those big moments of really embracing it, but finding a way, whatever that way is, to get through it and have success. And let’s be honest, we’ve gotten to that point. We’ve clumped the whole group together for the last number of years. There’s been a lot of change. This team this year had a lot of change from last year, but when you, when you run up against that wall, and it happens time and time again, that leaves some scars. There’s experience that you get from that, and the more times you go through things, ultimately you may have to change something and those are the things that we have to continue to look at.”
Analysis – Those who are expecting the club to dispatch the core group to the four corners of the earth are going to be disappointed, but there being able to move on from one and pay another significantly less will allow Treliving to bring in the players who can provide the remaining group with enough support to make a difference in the outcome.
On Mitch Marner and John Tavares:
“I think he’s a star…. I had a meeting with all the players individually. Mitch and I had a discussion (when)we (did) our exit meetings. It’s emotional right now, so my discussion with Mitch is, ‘let’s all take a step back. Let’s take a deep breath. I got to decompress a little bit.’ With Brendan’s situation, that was a bit of a curveball that took a couple days here to kind of get through. We’re going to meet as a staff, I’m going to be in touch with Mitch’s representative, and all of our players representatives, and determine what’s best. Mitch has a say in this as well. So this isn’t the world, according to Brad. I think he’s a great player. He’s been a great player here. We’ll have to see. We’ll have to see how this all works.”
“I’m a huge John Tavares fan. Had a really good discussion with him. We’ve got to take a step back, meet with our group. How do we best move forward? What are the costs? All those things that go into the into a contract, and how does it fit within the puzzle? We’ll see how that happens over the course of the next couple of weeks.”
Analysis – The key phrase in this “Mitch has a say in this”, which could be interpreted as ‘Marner may not want to come back’. That is consistent with all the reporting that indicates that he wants to go to market on July 1. Treliving is not going to close the door to anything, because that is the smart thing to do, but besides the fact that Marner wants to hit the open market and possibly become the highest-paid player in the NHL on a big free-agent deal, the Leafs may not want to tie up $13 to $14 million for eight years on a player that Toronto clearly has not been able to win with. The Leafs GM later would not say definitively that Marner or Tavares would be offered contracts.
On Auston Matthews lingering injury:
“He was able to play through it. When he came back and started playing after time off, it was better. There would be times it would flare up. He was able to play with it. It wasn’t something that we felt by playing, he was going to put himself in a really bad position, short or long term. But with anything that you’re dealing with, it takes away some stuff. I give Auston all the credit in the world. I thought he had a really good year in terms of his first year of being a captain…..Everybody feels great day one of camp, and then you feel less great every single day from that. So everybody’s playing through stuff. We were never going to put him in a position where he’s playing through something that became worse and worse and worse. We managed it through the year. But did it have an effect? Certain times. it certainly did.”
Analysis – Matthews refusal to get specific on the nature of the injury may open himself up to criticism, but clearly the lingering injury severely impacted almost every offensive aspect of his game and he toughed through the season. What is also clear is that the Leafs need Matthews to be the Rocket Richard winning version if they are going to have any success.
What happened in Game 7 against Florida?
“I thought they came out…..I know the shot attempts and all that stuff were one sided. I didn’t think we gave up a lot of Grade A stuff. We found our footing, killed a penalty at the end of the first period, (but) even before that, I thought from the 10-minute mark on, we were carrying play. We had some, some grade A chances, we had some breakaways. I thought the turning point was the first goal. I thought when the first goal happened, we almost looked like a team that was (down) 4-0. It’s being able to find your footing. It’s being able to park it and you move on to the next one. There was a tension. I’ll never question the want, the care….these guys want it, they want to be successful. They want to get where we all want to get to. But at that point, one team looked more comfortable than the other in the situation. There’s more things that we can talk about, in terms of the nuances of the game, in terms of our team structure, in terms of position, all that sort of stuff. But from the 10,000-foot view, when it became 1-0, I felt there was a real tightness of our team. There was a real tightness in the moment. Champions are the calmest at the most critical time and that’s an area that we’ve got to get through.”
Analysis – In other words, the club that has folded in nearly every playoff scenario since 2018 folded up again. You don’t say!!!! Here is the failure of recognition that has been present in the organization going back to before Treliving was hired. The lack of recognition on the part of Brendan Shanahan to see that this core group was not capable of winning when it counted is something that was apparent going back to 2021, and at the latest 2022.
On Knies season and a new contract:
“I thought Matthew had a tremendous year. We’re sort of seeing him evolve in front of our eyes. I thought he took a step and it’s a big step for a young player to become a really important player. He can be a good player and have a role. He became a really important player…….I thought he was really good for a guy who hasn’t been through that. This is his second full year, I thought he was really good. He was an impactful player. Matthew is a big part of the future moving forward.”
Analysis – Everything said by Treliving is consistent with getting a Knies contract extension being a top priority before July 1, even though the 22-year-old said he does not want to go anywhere.
How can you ensure that the Leafs do not take a step back if Marner leaves on July 1?
“There’s not a hockey tree out there that you just go and pluck the player off of. Our job is to look at of all the options. That’s what we got to go through here right now. I can’t sit here and give you a definitive answer. We’ve got to number one, go through the process with Mitch. Our staff is in the process now of looking at all different outcomes, but we’ve got to kind of drive what we think is the best outcome, and like I said, in Mitch’s case, he’s got a say in the matter….. I don’t think you’re just going out and saying, ‘Okay, let’s go get this player and he replaces Mitch.’ Maybe that’s where I talked about we have to change a little bit, We have to change the makeup of the team, but that’s speculation right now. That’s hypotheticals that I don’t like to necessarily get into. So we’ll see is the answer. It’s not trying to be elusive, as much as trying to prepare for every potential outcome. It may take some time to figure out the best way that we move forward.”
Analysis – Deferring on this answer is the only thing that Treliving can do right now, but if the Leafs know or suspect that Marner is not interested in coming back, there is not a player that can fill that void in free agency. If Toronto goes in a different direction, like signing Sam Bennett if he reaches the open market, they will be a vastly different club, but it will take time to see if they will be better.
Do the Leafs need to improve the mobility on the back end?
“Craig and I are talking a lot now about some tweaks that we can make. I think in today’s game, I like the length of our defense, I like the makeup of our defense, but you still got to be able to get up and down the ice. I think there’s things that we can do in terms of closing quicker and taking away space and part of how we played will lend itself to you’re giving up some volume. You’re going to give up a little volume, you’re going to take away the grade A’s. What we think are the most dangerous chances. That’s part of what we’ll do this summer, is we’ll sit and talk about. (We) still think in today’s game, you need your D to be active. We need to get more offense from our defense. Not just goals, but creating. I think there’s some of the guys are able. It’s not necessarily going on turning guys into 20 goal scorers, but we can maybe get some more volume the other way. But in terms of personnel, we’ll see. I like the D core. But we can’t be rigid. We fell short. We have to continue to look at ways we can get better.”
Analysis – Berube indicated during the season that he asked Morgan Rielly to play differently that he normally would and that contributed to his worst season in recent memory until the club acquired Brandon Carlo. All the proposed tweaks that Treliving referred to seem to be consistent with adjusting slightly to fitting Rielly’s offensive instincts better and taking advantage of Oliver Ekman-Larsson’s abilities as well. It would be surprising if there are any changes on the blueline prior to next season.
