Treliving, speaking to The Athletic's Pierre LeBrun at the NHL Draft Combine on Tuesday, acknowledged there are issues on the roster that he needed to address.
Treliving, speaking to The Athletic's Pierre LeBrun at the NHL Draft Combine on Tuesday, acknowledged there are issues on the roster that he needed to address.
As NHL prospects, agents and team staff meet congregate in Buffalo this week for the annual NHL Draft Combine, it gives people like Toronto Maple Leafs GM Brad Treliving some time to chat with agents face-to-face.
One of those meetings that took place for the Leafs GM was with Mitch Marner's agent, Darren Ferris, who made it known on Monday that his client intends to play out the start of next season in Toronto.
Treliving spoke to The Athletic's Pierre LeBrun and cautioned not to believe everything that is written out there between the Maple Leafs and Marner, but didn't dismiss any notion of moving on from the star forward, either.
"We’re not going to do play-by-play on it. We’ve got to look at every possible way for our team to be better," Treliving said. “Mitch controls a lot of this whole thing. If there’s a way to make our team better, we’re going to do it. But we’re certainly not going to make a trade just so we can pound our chest and say, ‘Look, we’re different.'”
Marner has one year remaining on his contract and is eligible to sign an extension with the club on July 1. He also has a full no-move clause in his deal that prevents any trade from occurring without his consent. There's been no indication from either side of the equation that an extension is anywhere close to happening.
After a disappointing first-round playoff exit last month exit that saw the star forward underwhelm in the series, Marner has been the topic of much speculation over his immediate future with the club.
It's not likely that any clarity over his status is going to come before July 1. On that date, Marner will receive a $7.25 million signing bonus. After that, there will be just $775,000 remaining owed to the talented forward before he becomes an unrestricted free agent in 2025.
Treliving wants Bertuzzi and Domi to stay but has priorities
The Leafs' GM confirmed the team's interest in looking to retain wingers Tyler Bertuzzi and Max Domi after both players expressed an interest in returning to the club at their end-of-season availabilities last month.
“But it’s got to work for them and it’s got to work for us,” Treliving told Lebrun “We’ve got, certainly, some issues that we have to address on the roster. There’s a pie and there’s only so much to go around."
The Leafs have approximately $19,380,333 in salary cap space to work with this season with 14 players under contract under a maximum 23-player roster, per PuckPedia.com. Toronto will be looking to shore up their defense and goaltending as part of that spending. It'll just be a matter of if they can afford to keep one or both while figuring everything out.
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