Brad Treliving: 'DNA has to change'

[TD Charlie]

Oddly enough, I thought their defense (and even the goaltending!) was mostly fine. Good enough to compete at the very least.

Big guns failed to do big gun things when they needed it.

 

[Chel Guy]

Aka they need an elite #1 D-man. You either draft one or get lucky and sign one like Vegas did with Pietro. Gonna be hard to draft one without any 1st round picks for the next 3 years. This team was built wrong from the start.

 

[thegazelle]

Hopefully what Treliving thinks DNA means is what the rest of us understand it means. The Leafs aren't going to change their ways by merely a mindset change. The constitution of the team has to change, and that means changing the players. There are players who are innately skilled, but have no heart, grit and leadership. Unless that changes, anything else is window dressing. Leafs have too much money tied up in too few players and even then, despite the raw talent, that does not organically translate to team chemistry and the intangibles that all Stanley Cup winning teams have.

 

[Goatlender]

Did Laughton do anything for the Leafs?

Doesn’t matter, I was responding to a post about roster changes.

 

[General Fanager]

"We can and we will"

He tried but Shanny said no.

 

[WetcoastOrca]

Letting Marner walk to free agency should be a fireable offense. The comment that he was an ‘own rental’ is just an attempt to cover up the mistake. He should have been traded for a good return at least a couple of years ago.
Letting him walk for nothing means next year is a step back year.

 

[Leafshater67]

Serious question but what’s wrong with the D?

I thought they were one of the best blue lines in the league. Obviously a top pairing, elite puck mover would be nice but 27 other teams at least wish for the same thing.

Their blue line is not an issue at all IMO, although Morgan Reilly losing a step this season is concerning.

I’d much rather see them let Marner walk and pick up Sam Bennett. They need a 2C and some nastiness so he would get two birds with one stone. They’re gonna have to overpay to get him though

I agree the DNA has to change

But finding 100 points in the free agency and with trades …… good luck

i’d rather have 20 points in the post season than 100 in the regular season. 50 x 2 = 100, they could pick up Sam Bennett with an overpay and drastically and instantly change their culture and fill that 2C position though. They could also wait around deadline or draft time and dump some future capital for a top 6’er with some bite and be much better off.

I’d love to see Tanner Jeannot in this group’s bottom 6, to pick up Bennett and to find a third guy too although who’s available is hard to say.

 

[Vukotal Recall]

Truly hilarious, as always. DNA? The Toronto media and fans are so soft in their expectations, and they lap up the rationalizing rhetoric year after year. Treliving has been the GM for two full years now. The vast majority of players on the roster are already his signings. He also re-signed the stars from Dubas' tenure to long-term contracts and if it were up to him (and Berube), would already have re-signed Marner and Tavares. This is almost entirely a Treliving team, which is just as unsuccessful as a Dubas, Lou Lam, Burke, and JFJ (etc) team. They have no depth and little scoring and are in cap hell with zero wiggle room, and next year will be in tough to even make the playoffs.

 

[wintersej]

Serious question but what’s wrong with the D?

I thought they were one of the best blue lines in the league. Obviously a top pairing, elite puck mover would be nice but 27 other teams at least wish for the same thing.

Their blue line is not an issue at all IMO, although Morgan Reilly losing a step this season is concerning.

I’d much rather see them let Marner walk and pick up Sam Bennett. They need a 2C and some nastiness so he would get two birds with one stone. They’re gonna have to overpay to get him though

i’d rather have 20 points in the post season than 100 in the regular season. 50 x 2 = 100, they could pick up Sam Bennett with an overpay and drastically and instantly change their culture and fill that 2C position though. They could also wait around deadline or draft time and dump some future capital for a top 6’er with some bite and be much better off.

I’d love to see Tanner Jeannot in this group’s bottom 6, to pick up Bennett and to find a third guy too although who’s available is hard to say.

They have no top pair D. Tanev, Carlo and McCabe are all 4s. Reilly a 3.

 

[Leafshater67]

They have no top pair D. Tanev, Carlo and McCabe are all 4s. Reilly a 3.

You’re not wrong but IMO, the result is much better than the sum of their parts. They have 3 reliable pairings now. They lack a high end offensive distributor but most teams do.

Hot take but I would have loved to see Marner tried out on D in the regular season. I think with how the game is going, he would have had success back there. Not 10-15 years ago but today, yeah. He would have been that elite offensive threat they lack and he would be a RD to boot

 

[I am Canadian]

Truly hilarious, as always. DNA? The Toronto media and fans are so soft in their expectations, and they lap up the rationalizing rhetoric year after year. Treliving has been the GM for two full years now. The vast majority of players on the roster are already his signings. He also re-signed the stars from Dubas' tenure to long-term contracts and if it were up to him (and Berube), would already have re-signed Marner and Tavares. This is almost entirely a Treliving team, which is just as unsuccessful as a Dubas, Lou Lam, Burke, and JFJ (etc) team. They have no depth and little scoring and are in cap hell with zero wiggle room, and next year will be in tough to even make the playoffs.

They have made a lot of mistakes but to say they are in cap hell with 25M of space is disingenious.

 

[3074326]

Reads to me like a core shakeup. Losing Marner is part of it, but this feels like he’s talking about more than that considering everyone is assuming Mitch is gone.

Will be interesting. A lot of good puzzle pieces that don’t seem to fit together.

 

[Fatass]

Hopefully what Treliving thinks DNA means is what the rest of us understand it means. The Leafs aren't going to change their ways by merely a mindset change. The constitution of the team has to change, and that means changing the players. There are players who are innately skilled, but have no heart, grit and leadership. Unless that changes, anything else is window dressing. Leafs have too much money tied up in too few players and even then, despite the raw talent, that does not organically translate to team chemistry and the intangibles that all Stanley Cup winning teams have.

Yup. Top paid forwards have the flight dna. Treliving knows the club needs top guys with the fight dna.

 

[WetcoastOrca]

They have no top pair D. Tanev, Carlo and McCabe are all 4s. Reilly a 3.

And Tanev, Rielly, McCabe and OEL are all over 31 years of age. That’s an old group with a lot of miles on it especially Tanev and OEL. Going to need some new blood soon.

 

[Cats2TheCup]

I


How many of their top 6 scorers did they lose from last season to now

now you're talking about losing ones leading scorer

In the 2021-2022 NHL season the Florida Panthers traded their leading scorer, Johnathan Huberdeau. He scored 115 pts in 80 games. His 85 assists lead the NHL that season.

But you’re afraid of losing Mitch Marner lol.

 

[ozzie]

Toronto fans need to change their DNA. The building was usually full during the 80's and onwards. Regular season and profits is all the owners care about. Fans support the team no matter the product on the ice, they can survive during the dark times more than most teams could dream of.

This team needs a major shake-up and letting Marner walk for nothing is terrible. You can't just hold on to hop that McDavid will bolt for Toronto in the future, or any other big stars.

 

[viper0220]

Letting Marner walk to free agency should be a fireable offense. The comment that he was an ‘own rental’ is just an attempt to cover up the mistake. He should have been traded for a good return at least a couple of years ago.
Letting him walk for nothing means next year is a step back year.

Very true, you can’t get an asset that good go to waste, they could have gotten a top 4 D man for Marner.

 

[wintersej]

Very true, you can’t get an asset that good go to waste, they could have gotten a top 4 D man for Marner.

I mean didn’t they try to trade him but he invoked his clause? What can you do?

 

[viper0220]

I mean didn’t they try to trade him but he invoked his clause? What can you do?

They were given everything, money and NTC/NMC, those contracts are awful. They did not win anything to get those type of contracts.

 

[wintersej]

They were given everything, money and NTC/NMC, those contracts are awful. They did not win anything to get those type of contracts.

Agree, but the last GM did that. Although, in fairness, even if the AAV on those contracts was silly, the NTCs are pretty standard practice.

 

[viper0220]

Agree, but the last GM did that. Although, in fairness, even if the AAV on those contracts was silly, the NTCs are pretty standard practice.

They should have said “no NTC/NMC, if you want that, take less” and they have stayed firm on this.

Hopefully they make better decisions with Matthews and Nylander.

 

[syz]

In the 2021-2022 NHL season the Florida Panthers traded their leading scorer, Johnathan Huberdeau. He scored 115 pts in 80 games. His 85 assists lead the NHL that season.

But you’re afraid of losing Mitch Marner lol.

The Panthers made a trade for another very good player. The Leafs are going to lose Marner for nothing with nothing comparable to Tkachuk available in free agency.

 

[viceroy]

If I was him I would take a discount and sign with Tampa or Florida.

He won't sign for a penny less than what his daddy says he's worth.

Also can't wait for the Leafs to refuse to pay 14 million to 100pt Marner and then turn around and pay 10 million to 50pt Bennett.

 

[GoldenSeal]

They lack hunger and the locker room has embraced mediocrity. Take all letters and make moves. It should be an honor to wear the Maple Leaf, not a right and if it isn't worth putting your body on the line to get your name etched into history, you don't deserve to wear it.

Be done with these primadonnas no matter what their stats might say. Keeping some of them won't get that team closer to their goal and that's the name of the game; addition through subtraction.

Wow, you can win a series against a team who is +/- as good as you, but let you find a challenge and immediately roll over and die. Unacceptable. We see who the warriors are and who the pretenders are. Seperate the two.

 

[nhlfan9191]

They should have said “no NTC/NMC, if you want that, take less” and they have stayed firm on this.

Hopefully they make better decisions with Matthews and Nylander.

Canadian teams don’t have the leverage to get picky like that. The mistake was signing Tavares allowing him to set the bar for what they’ll pay star forwards. Look at a team like Montreal for example. Even tho they don’t have the stars Toronto has, they’ve used Suzuki’s contract to keep players in and around $8 million dollars and used that for their internal cap. Cap management has always sucked in Toronto.