Brendan Shanahan on upcoming Leafs offseason: 'We will look at everything'

The Toronto Maple Leafs held their final press conference of the season on Friday morning, with Maple Leafs Sports and Entertainment CEO Keith Pelley, President Brendan Shanahan, and General Manager Brad Treliving speaking to the media. The media availability was originally supposed to be held on Thursday, but it was pushed to Friday following the firing of Head Coach Sheldon Keefe on Thursday morning.

After falling short of a round win for the seventh time in eight years throughout the Auston Matthews era, the Leafs face a pressure-filled offseason. It may sound like a broken record considering their continuing trend of seasons ending in disappointment, but with a larger sample size of this type of roster construction not being able to get it done in the playoffs and contract negotiations pending for both Mitch Marner and John Tavares, they find themselves at a crossroads for the first time. There’s no pressure to lock up a young star like there was with Marner and no giant opportunity to bring in a star with hometown ties.

With Matthews and Nylander locked up long-term, they’ve committed to two of their players for at least the next four years. But the same couldn’t be said about Keefe, and the same can’t be said about Marner and Tavares. There’s nothing indicating the Leafs will actively pursue a trade up front, but Shanahan isn’t leaving anything off the table.