Is Brad Treliving the Right Person to Lead the Maple Leafs?

While Treliving had only held one GM role in the NHL when he was hired as the Toronto Maple Leafs’ GM, he arrived with a wealth of experience. Over his nine years in Alberta, he pulled many trades; small ones, big ones, and even headline-grabbing ones. Is he the right man to split Toronto’s core and get a good return?

Treliving’s Early Days in Calgary

When he arrived in Calgary, Treliving had the opportunity to draft fourth overall in the 2014 Draft and elected to select Sam Bennett. In his five-and-a-half seasons with the Flames, Bennett never really panned out. The GM decided to trade him, the highest pick in franchise history, to the Florida Panthers for the signing rights of Emil Heineman and a 2022 second-round pick. Heineman never signed with the Flames but proved useful for a future trade. Of the six picks made in 2014, Bennett is the only one who made it to the NHL. The newly appointed GM made one trade on the draft floor, acquiring Brandon Bollig who played two years in Calgary and spent the next three seasons in the American Hockey League (AHL) before retiring.

If 2014 was a bad year draft-wise, 2015 wasn’t, even though the Flames traded their first-round pick. Out of five selections, three made it to the NHL; Rasmus Andersson, Oliver Kylington, and Andrew Mangiapane. On both days of the draft held on June 25 and 26, Treliving made a trade. On the first day, he swung his first major deal as a GM acquiring Dougie Hamilton from the Boston Bruins in return for the current draft’s first-round pick, and two second-round picks in the 2015 Draft. While Hamilton only stayed in Calgary for three years, he was instrumental in bringing two other big names to town a few drafts down the line.

In 2016, the Flames made nine selections at the draft, none more important than their first-round pick and sixth-overall pick Matthew Tkachuk. Furthermore, Calgary also picked up three players who would find their way to the NHL: Dillon Dube, Adam Fox, and Matthew Phillips. Fox let it be known he would not sign with the Flames out of college and Treliving traded his signing rights to the Carolina Hurricanes two years later. The GM was also active on the draft floor, concluding two transactions. The first one brought Brian Elliott over from the St. Louis Blues for a second-round pick at the draft (it could have been two draft picks but as Elliott did not re-sign with the Flames, the condition wasn’t met, and they kept their third-rounder in 2018). His second trade brought Alex Chiasson to Calgary in return for AHL player Patrick Sieloff.

The 2017 Draft wasn’t as productive for Treliving, the Flames only drafted five players. Only two of them ever played in the NHL, Juuso Valimaki and Adam Ruzicka. Valimaki spent the last season with the Coyotes after they claimed him on waivers and will be a restricted free agent this summer. As for Ruzika, he was also claimed on waivers by the Coyotes but his contract was terminated by the team last February after a video on social media showed him with white powder and a credit card on a counter. After the draft, Treliving signed Jaromir Jagr as a free agent and hoped he would add some offensive production. The new addition left Calgary after only 22 games (in which he only had one goal and six assists) to return to his native Czechia and play for the team he still owns today, Kladno.

In 2018, the Flames didn’t have a pick until the fourth round, and they used it to select Martin Pospisil from Slovakia, a player with 63 NHL games to his name so far. He signed a two-year contract extension last winter. The Flames’ other four selections from that draft have yet to make it to the NHL. While Treliving didn’t select many players that year, he did orchestrate two trades. In the first one, he shipped Hamilton, Michael Ferland, and the signing rights to Fox to the Hurricanes for Elias Lindholm and Noah Hanifin. After spending three years in Boston, Hamilton stayed three years in Calgary and spent three years in Carolina before being traded to the New Jersey Devils. He’s spent three years with the Devils already, but he’s done looking for frequent flyer miles. He signed a seven-year contract when he arrived in New Jersey back in 2021. The second trade was a simple pick swap with the Montreal Canadiens.

For the second year in a row, Treliving only had five picks to work with at the 2019 Draft. With his first-round pick, 26^th overall, he selected Jakob Pelletier who has played 37 games in the big league so far and will be a restricted free agent this offseason. In the seventh and final round, he picked up Dustin Wolf, a goaltender who has played 18 games with the Flames and will be a restricted free agent come July. The GM didn’t pull the trigger on any deal at the draft itself, but in the dead of summer, he sent James Neal over to the Edmonton Oilers for Milan Lucic and their third-round pick at the 2021 Draft. Both players had disappointing seasons the year before, but neither went back to their glory years in their new uniform.

Treliving’s Last Four Seasons in Calgary

In 2020, Calgary had eight picks, and Connor Zary highlighted their draft class. He just completed his rookie season this year, playing 63 games and gathering 34 points. Defenceman Ilya Solovyov has played 10 games with the Flames so far and will be a restricted free agent this summer. As for defenseman Yan Kuznetsov, he played his first NHL game last season and completed his entry-level contract. Defenceman Jake Boltmann, who was one of their third-round picks, finished his NCAA career this season and if he’s not signed before Aug. 15, the team will lose his signing rights. Trades-wise, nothing major to report, aside from pick-swapping which allowed the Washington Capitals to select Hendrix Lapierre.

Before the 2021 Trade Deadline, Treliving pulled the trigger on the Bennett trade in which he landed Heineman’s signing rights and sent goaltender David Rittich to the Toronto Maple Leafs for a third-round pick at the 2022 Draft. On the eve of the draft, he acquired Tyler Pitlick for a fourth-round draft pick in 2022. During the draft itself, he made one pick-swapping trade. The Flames made eight selections this draft and only the first-round one, Matthew Coronato, has played in the NHL to date. In 35 games last season, he gathered nine points. Later in the year, a couple of months before the trade deadline, he acquired Tyler Toffoli from the Canadiens in return for Pitlick, the signing rights to Heineman, the Flames first-round pick in 2022 and their third-round pick in 2023.

In 2022, Treliving didn’t make any waves at the trade deadline, or the draft, but he swung perhaps his biggest deal at the Flames’ helm after Tkachuk had made it clear he wouldn’t be signing with Calgary at the end of his contract. He sent Tkachuk, and a conditional fourth-round pick at the 2025 Draft to the Florida Panthers. He received Jonathan Huberdeau, MacKenzie Weeger, Cole Schwindt, and a first-round pick for the 2025 Draft, which was lottery-protected, in return. While the return obtained was criticized by many because of Huberdeau’s age, Treliving wasn’t exactly dealing from a position of strength. Everyone knew he was on a clock, and he wanted to avoid losing another star player for nothing. The deal was concluded on July 22, nine days after Johnny Gaudreau left as a free agent and decided to sign with the Columbus Blue Jackets. To try to bolster his attack, Treliving also signed forward Nazem Kadri, who had just won the Stanley Cup with the Colorado Avalanche, to a seven-year contract.

To ensure he didn’t have to go through another high-profile departure in free agency, he inked 28-year-old Huberdeau to an eight-year deal. Wanting to get some cap room to offer an extension to Weegar too, he sent often-injured veteran Sean Monahan to Montreal, adding a first-round pick for their trouble, thus freeing a little over $6 million of cap space. With the freed-up space, he offered Weegar an eight-year contract with a cap hit of just above $6 million. No one saw that coming right?

That year at the draft, the Flames only selected three times and it’s too early to see how those picks panned out. During his last trade deadline with Calgary in March 2023, he made a few minor deals that were nothing to write home about.

Treliving’s First Season in Toronto and the Challenge at Hand

On May 31, 2023, Treliving was named GM in Toronto to replace Kyle Dubas. In the new GM’s first draft, Toronto only made three picks: Easton Cowan, Hudson Malinowski, and Noah Chadwick. We’ll need some time to see how they pan out since it hasn’t even been a year since they were drafted. In Toronto, Treliving has yet to conclude a major transaction, but he was active at the deadline acquiring minor pieces such as Joel Edmundson from the Capitals for a third-round pick in 2024 and a fifth-round pick in 2025.

What does this overview of Treliving’s work as an NHL GM tell us? Well, he won’t make the same mistake he made with Gaudreau, letting a contract expire and losing a player for absolutely nothing in free agency. That’s relevant information since John Tavares and Mitch Marner will be on expiring deals this season. If no extension is signed, they cannot and will not end the season in Toronto.

It’s also clear his preferred time to do business is over the summer, either at the draft or later. This makes plenty of sense since teams can go 10% over the salary cap in the offseason. Treliving and the Maple Leafs’ brass are currently looking for their next coach. Once that hire is done, they’ll have to do their homework and seriously study which part of the Core Four (or five) should be traded. They’ll also have to consider organizational needs for the upcoming draft. Toronto has seven picks in the first, fourth, fifth, and seventh rounds.  

Could that first-round pick be put in play in a large deal to maximize the return? Perhaps. It’s important to remember that both Marner and Tavares will be pending free agents after the 2024-25 season, but for now, they both have no-move clauses and Morgan Rielly’s starts on July 1. It’s not a full no-move clause, however, as he can only give a list of 10 teams he cannot be traded to.

While Treliving has shown in the past that he can execute high-profile trades, he has a huge task ahead of him. As for his two other stars, Auston Matthews and William Nylander, they also have full no-move clauses. Both of his veteran goaltenders are now unrestricted free agents and while Joseph Woll has shown potential, he has also had a lot of injury issues, something Treliving wants to investigate this offseason.

While prioritizing goaltending stability is a worthy endeavour, it will not guarantee playoff success. Other issues must be addressed if the Maple Leafs are to make any significant progress in the playoffs. Furthermore, this is not a full tear-down of a team, it only requires some tweaking. Every move will have to be made after careful consideration and the certainty it will not interfere with the pieces the organization has decided to keep in place, as much as there can be certainty in the hockey business, of course.

Treliving sure looks like he has the right profile to tackle the challenge he’s facing, but it’s always a roll of the dice to see how new acquisitions will “gel” with an existing core. On paper, Huberdeau looked like he could be the right fit for Calgary, but when it came down to it, both of his seasons in Alberta have been underwhelming. To stay in his post, the major facelift he’s about to give the franchise will have to yield much better results than the biggest move of his tenure in Calgary. Meanwhile, Brendan Shanahan must hope his GM is up to the challenge because sooner or later, he will be the man to walk the plank if the Maple Leafs cannot say “mission accomplished” in the coming years.