It’s not official, but it appears that the Leafs search for a new general manager has landed where most predicted, with Brad Treliving.
Here’s a little rundown of what to expect:
Trades:
Obviously Treliving is best known for trading Matt Tkachuk last season, in which he garnered Jonathan Huberdeau, Mackenzie Weegar, Cole Schwindt and a 1st round pick in the 2025 draft. He then signed Huberdeau and Weegar to long term extensions. He made the best of a bad situation to say the least, as Tkachuk made it clear that he wasn’t willing to return to the Calgary Flames. We’ll give him an “A” on the trade, because this part of the conversation isn’t about the signings. Weegar is a solid top 4 defender, while Huberdeau had just registered a 115pt season, so, while he gave up the best player in the deal and youngest of the stars, he added two very good players. The draft pick is a long way off, but adding extra currency on top of the players is a tidy bit of business as well.
Unfortunatley one of the trades that he is most judged on is the deal that never happened. Johnny Gaudreau walked out of Calgary for nothing and that, as a Leafs fan that sees two of their star players preparing to become UFAs a calendar year from now, is concerning to me. It would be a shame to lose players like Auston Matthews and William Nylander for nothing.
Some other Treliving trades include dealing Sam Bennett for prospect Emil Heineman and a 2nd round pick and trading for (and away) Dougie Hamilton. He also made a big swing for Travis Hamonic some years ago, ultimately giving up the chance to take Noah Dobson at the draft. Most of his trades outside of these were moderate to small deals with mixed results. That’s going to be the case with any GM, as nobody wins every trade they make, which earns Treliving an above average grade as far as trades go.
Signings:
We’ll stick with talking about the big signings, as there are simply too many minor contracts to speak of.
Before the ink was dry on the Jonathan Huberdeau contract everybody knew it was a deal he could never live up to late in his tenure. What I don’t think anybody expected was such a sudden drop in point production. Huberdeau went from 115pts in Florida in 2021-22, to 55pts in Calgary this season.
The next biggest contracts he signed during his career are Mackenzie Weegar (8 years, 50M) and Nazem Kadri (7 years, 49M). With Weegar being 29 years old and Kadri 32, it appears that Brad hit a point where he couldn’t give a flying rats ass about the future and went into “win now” mode. That’s a bold choice for a team lacking a true #1C. We can add the James Neal, Blake Coleman and Sean Monahan contracts to the “oopsie” pile as well, with Monahan’s standing out a little more, as he had to pay a 1st round pick to rid himself of the final year of his contract, which seems like something that Brendan Shanahan admires in his GMs.
There were some wins in there as well, as Jacob Markstrom, Rasmus Andersson, Elias Lindholm and Noah Hanifin have more than lived up to their billing, but overall I think we should prepare ourselves for some albatross contracts being added to the fold.
I would like to add that I fully realize that Calgary isn’t exactly a preferred destination among free agents, so adding a little to a contract is sometimes necessary, but thats kinda flimsy at the same time. If you build a team that is truly a contender, players will want to join for a chance to win. That didn’t happen under Treliving in my opinion.
Draft:
This is where Brad appears to get the most praise and it’s tough to argue. He drafted Matt Tkachuk at 6th overall in the 2016 draft and it was a fantastic choice. Tkachuk is exactly the type of player that the Leafs are lacking, so if there is extra value placed on players that can bring that physical edge I’m very willing to be living with Treliving as he makes a killing at drafting….. lost it at the end, sorry.
His other 1st round picks are a mixed bag, with Sam Bennett (4th overall, 2014) never taking off with Calgary, or really living up to his draft position and Juuso Valimaki now in Arizona. The rest of his 1st round picks are all still young enough to not warrant a grade.
He has made up for his few 1st round misses with some solid picks in rounds 2 and 3, where he pulled all of Adam Fox, Dillon Dube, Rasmus Andersson, Oliver Kylington and puckinleafs fan favourite (Ingy’s, anyway) Topi Ronni (no joke!!) from. Meanwhile, Andrew Mangiapane (6th round, 2015) is playing well for Calgary and Matthews Phillips (6th round 2016) and Dustin Wolf (7th round, 2019) are expected to push for spots this year.
Like every team, there are a ton of misses at the draft floor, but overall Brad’s record is good.
Overall:
It’s no secret that GMs tend to make their biggest mistakes in free agency, which appears to be the case as far as Treliving is concerned. I also find that GMs make even bigger mistakes towards the end of their tenure’s. Be it from a mix of feeling the heat as far as needing to win is concerned, or from knowing that their time is drawing to a close and simply not caring as much because they know it will be somebody else’s job to clean up what they leave behind, I don’t know, but leaving Calgary with all of those terrible contracts to deal with down the road was certainly a decision.
Also of concern is the fact that his best asset appears to be his prowess at the draft table, where the Leafs simply can’t be active right now unless they trade a star player and receive picks as part of the package. They don’t possess a 2nd round selection until the 2026 draft and they don’t currently pick until the 3rd round of the 2025 draft.
What this all means is where the new GM will be most active is at the negotiating table, where he is largely hit or miss. He’ll have to improve the edges of the roster through free agency and/or trade, while negotiating future contracts for star players that have no intention of giving up a penny as easily as they give up an inch of ice in the playoffs.
It’s a tall task, to say the least and we’ll hope for the best, but I can’t say I’m all that optimistic at this point in time.
**Update**