Opinion: In First Year As Maple Leafs GM, Treliving Has Improved Team In Many Areas
Toronto Maple Leafs GM Brad Treliving has been on the job for nearly 14 months, and Adam Proteau says Treliving's work over the past year has led to a Leafs team that is now significantly better than the one that disappointed fans last season.
It’s been nearly 14 months since Brad Treliving was hired as GM of the Toronto Maple Leafs. And while the Buds have once again failed to get out of the first round of the Stanley Cup playoffs in the first year of Treliving’s watch, a comparison of the lineup he inherited from Kyle Dubas last summer to the roster he has today proves that – as new Leafs defenseman Oliver Ekman-Larsson noted in a recent interview – Treliving has done solid work in his first year running the Leafs. Indeed, when it comes to the current Leafs squad, there’s no question Treliving has improved the team’s goaltending and defense, and not by a small amount.
In net, the tandem of Joseph Woll and UFA signing Anthony Stolarz is significantly better than the Woll/Ilya Samsonov combination the Buds relied on this past season. It’s accurate to say the switch from Samsonov to Stolarz takes away slightly from the franchise in terms of NHL experience, but the up-and-down performance from Samsonov in 2023-24 is now a thing of the past. And while the 30-year-old Stolarz has only seen limited action in parts of seven NHL seasons, the performance Stolarz gave with the Florida Panthers this past season (including a 2.03 goals-against average and .925 save percentage) was better than any season in Samsonov’s NHL career. Clearly, that’s an upgrade between the pipes.
Similarly, Toronto’s defensive corps is now much better after this summer’s wheeling-and-dealing by Treliving. At this time last year, the Leafs had Morgan Rielly, Jake McCabe, Timothy Liljegren, Simon Benoit, Conor Timmins, Mark Giordano, and John Klingberg on ‘D’. But after a slew of signings this summer, the Leafs’ blueline has been bolstered by veterans Chris Tanev, Ekman-Larsson, and, very probably, Jani Hakanpaa.
While Rielly, McCabe, Liljegren, Benoit and Timmins are still on the roster, Timmins and Liljegren could be traded by or before training camp. And even then, the Leafs’ group of D-men would still be stronger, tougher and more experienced than it was last year. This is another upgrade orchestrated by Treliving.
If there is an area of concern under Treliving's tenure, it’s the state of Toronto’s forwards. Treliving hasn’t added any new faces to his forward group, and there are legitimate questions about the Leafs’ depth at center and on the wings. But this is where Treliving is counting on internal competition for opportunities and in-house improvement from Leafs youngsters including Matthew Knies, Fraser Minten and Easton Cowan.
Knies is a lock to play in Toronto’s top-six collection of forwards, while Minten and Cowan would be NHL rookies this coming year, but rookies who’ve enjoyed stellar careers in major junior.
Sure, Toronto’s overall capabilities on offense took a bit of a hit with the free agent departure of 21-goal-scorer Tyler Bertuzzi, but it’s not like the Leafs will be hurting for offense production given that their top four forwards combined for 164 goals and 355 points last season. And as Mitch Marner, Auston Matthews and William Nylander settle into their prime, they’ll be delivering just as much offense, if not more than they did in 2023-24.
So, there you have it – a Leafs team that is markedly better in net and on defense, and a team that’s slightly worse on offense, yet still is one of the most potent teams in the league. By just about every metric, Treliving has taken what he was given by Dubas and improved on it. Toronto is far from a perfect team, but if the name of the game is getting better over time, Treliving has done very well.
It’s all but assured that the Leafs will continue tweaking the lineup before or at next year’s trade deadline, but the team they’ll begin the 2024-25 campaign with will give opponents a much tougher time than Toronto’s 2023-24 roster did. For now, that should give Leafs fans real hope that, finally, they’ll be cheering for a Buds squad that can go on a deep post-season run.