There’s a big press availability scheduled for Friday morning, in which Keith Pelley, Brendan Shanahan and Brad Treliving will speak:
While we wait for that to happen, rumours and opinions swirl about the effectiveness and viability of the “Shanaplan.”
While I have also called for Brendan to be relieved of his duties as the president of MLSE, I also wonder if he has earned himself a little more rope than he’s being given credit for recently.
In the beginning he entered the organization and promised to bring skill to the roster. Through drafting William Nylander, Mitch Marner, Auston Matthews and signing John Tavares, that has most certainly been accomplished. His big misstep from there was, in theory, relieving Lou Lamoriello from command and appointing his protege, Kyle Dubas, to lead the team into the future.
The question for me is, who believed the statement “we believe this is where the NHL is heading” more, Dubas or Shanahan?
There were far too many mistakes made by Dubas to go through them all. I’m writing a short article, not a book whose length would rival The Lord Of The Rings. So, instead, I’d rather concentrate on the final year of his tenure as the Leafs’ GM.
On July 7th, 2022, less than a calendar year before the end of Dubas as GM, he dealt Petr Mrazek and a 1st round selection in 2022 (#25 overall, Sam Rinzel) to the Chicago Blackhawks for a 2nd round selection (#38, Fraser Minten). Mixed into that deal were rumours of the Leafs sending Mrazek to Chicago, along with Matthew Knies, in a deal that would have seen the Leafs land Brandon Hagel and future Hall of Fame goaltender Marc Andre Fleury. As the story goes, Brendan Shanahan put an end to the deal, which forced the team to find another way to rid themselves of the Mrazek contract, which was signed by Kyle Dubas.
This has always made me wonder just how long Shanahan had questioned Dubas’ direction of the team before they ultimately parted ways. The nixed deal, in my opinion, would have been similar to the deal that sent Mason Marchment to Florida for Denis Malgin. The insistent belief that smaller, skilled players like Hagel and Malgin would push the organization forward and that powerforwards such as Marchment and Knies weren’t needed was always …….. well, lets be honest, it’s batshit crazy, because the best teams have a mixture of both and more.
Following that season it was leaked that Kyle Dubas attempted to go around Shanahan, as he approached the board and requested autonomy from Shanahan and the ability to make trades without having to ask his boss first. That, ultimately, lead to Shanahan firing Dubas and hiring Brad Treliving.
Many have dubbed Treliving as Shanahan’s puppet, but under a different light it could be looked at as Shanny bringing in a GM that brings a completely different vision…. one that could push the organization forward and the on-ice product into a true Stanley Cup contender. With the signing of forwards Max Domi and Tyler Bertuzzi, defender Simon Benoit, as well as trading for Ilya Lyubushkin and Joel Edmundson, the team most certainly looked bigger and meaner as they entered the playoffs this season. Another 1st round loss aside, it was nice to see a team on the ice that was able to push back in scrums and one that was willing to defend their teammates and themselves. If Treliving is, in fact, a Shanahan puppet, then Shanny has certainly changed what his idea of a contending team should look like in today’s NHL.
I would go as far as to say that if he was the more committed party to the idea of “we believe this is where the NHL is going” then he has abandoned that belief altogether.