The Toronto Maple Leafs require daring decisions and Treliving is willing to make them
Betting on who will fill general manager’s chairs has been much easier this spring than picking winning teams in the Stanley Cup playoffs.
When the Calgary Flames and Brad Treliving parted ways, the obvious move was that Craig Conroy would be promoted from his assistant position and take the reins.
Treliving had an obvious destination as soon as Kyle Dubas was fired by the Toronto Maple Leafs just before his contract was to expire, and it happened on Wednesday.
Toronto is a perfect place for him after nine years in Calgary — where he is the second-longest tenured GM in franchise history.
(What restrictions will be placed on him at the coming draft, normal procedure in this situation, will be part of the signing.)
It remains to be seen whether Treliving can architect a championship for Toronto for the first time since two years before he was born. However, if his time in Calgary can be used as a guide, he certainly will provide the Maple Leafs and their rabid fans with plenty of intrigue.
In the short term, Treliving has a lengthy list of pending unrestricted free-agents this summer, with Ryan O’Reilly the biggest name. He also will be tasked to find a way to give a raise to restricted free-agent goaltender Ilya Samsonov, who supplanted Matt Murray from the starter’s job.
The real work, though, will be with Auston Matthews and William Nylander due to become UFAs in the summer of 2024.
Historically, Treliving has done a very good job of re-signing his key players. Obviously nobody has a 100 percent record in that regard, but Treliving was very good at that task in Calgary, starting with the long-term deals with Mark Giordano, Johnny Gaudreau and Sean Monahan in his first two years at the helm.
His efforts on the free-agent front in Calgary were filled with big hits in the likes of Michael Frolik, Jacob Markstrom, Chris Tanev and even Derek Engelland. However, there were some disastrous misses in Troy Brouwer and James Neal as the club tried desperately to find a scoring power forward.
What Toronto fans and media will likely most enjoy with Treliving, outside of his candidness and approachability, is his willingness to go for the big deal.
Treliving has never been afraid of a daring trades. Unquestionably, some of his trades have been busts (acquiring Travis Hamonic and, so far, the Matthew Tkachuk deal with the Florida Panthers come to mind), but some have been home runs, too, such as the swaps that brought in Dougie Hamilton from Boston and the subsequent swap that sent him to Carolina that brought in Elias Lindholm and Noah Hanifin.
The Toronto Maple Leafs are staring at quite of few decisions that must be bold. Treliving has the courage to make them.