Brad Treliving is doing a great job.

[rumman]

Treliving was a poor choice from the beginning imo. Leafs deserve better. This guy is terribly bad.

I’m not convinced Tre can be effective based on what he’s done thus far, but the guy was parachuted into this mess, he needs more time imo. Lets see what the team looks like by next season’s opener before we get the pitchforks out………

 

[DarkKnight]

For years, Dubas was praised for all these little cheap depth signings,, like he was some genius. Within that lens, I’d argue Treliving’s off-season deserves serious props. Jones has turned into an incredibly important add. Benoit looks like he’s here to stay, the guy is only 25 and has been a revelation. Free wallet Gregor continues to impress. Lagesson held the fort admirably when we were decimated on D. His quiet moves are speaking loudly.

 

[LeafSteel]

For years, Dubas was praised for all these little cheap depth signings,, like he was some genius. Within that lens, I’d argue Treliving’s off-season deserves serious props. Jones has turned into an incredibly important add. Benoit looks like he’s here to stay, the guy is only 25 and has been a revelation. Free wallet Gregor continues to impress. Lagesson held the fort admirably when we were decimated on D. His quiet moves are speaking loudly.

Well said. I gave Dubas a lot of credit for the little pieces and finds along the way, but Treliving deserves credit.

Benoit has been an impact addition and Jones has been better than anything Dubas did in net.

Klingberg was a misstep but people are forgetting that he was actually very good at the start of the year for us. Injured Klingberg wasn’t what Treliving had in mind.

The only mulligan thus far is for Reaves. Would have been better to keep Acciari.

Gregor has been a pleasant surprise as well.

 

[4thline]

For years, Dubas was praised for all these little cheap depth signings,, like he was some genius. Within that lens, I’d argue Treliving’s off-season deserves serious props. Jones has turned into an incredibly important add. Benoit looks like he’s here to stay, the guy is only 25 and has been a revelation. Free wallet Gregor continues to impress. Lagesson held the fort admirably when we were decimated on D. His quiet moves are speaking loudly.

Gregor, Beniot, Lagesson, Jones, are definitely solid depth moves. I hope Benoit and Gregor grow, and getting UFA's that expire to RFA is an underrated savvy move. But at the end of the day it's a 4W and 3LD making 4W and 3D money. That's table stakes for survival. Like a ZAR signing.
Imo the thing that is/was the difference is that this offseason didn't yield a "steal" (someone playing an impact role for depth money), and doesn't have locked in long term benefit.

Moving forward, if we're going to re-sign Nylander and later Marner, we need real wins- UDFA Mikheyev's, multi-year bottom basement contracts to breakout candidates like Bunting, great value term deals like Jarncrok etc.

The summer of 2023 was our most flexible off-season in years, and we're not going to have much of anything to show for it in 2024.

 

[The Hanging Jowl]

I was just thinking, I'd love to hear an honest assessment from Teliving about where the Leafs are vs. the Flames when he left. How does a GM see the team with a new look at them?

 

[Shooter2x]

Gregor, Beniot, Lagesson, Jones, are definitely solid depth moves. I hope Benoit and Gregor grow, and getting UFA's that expire to RFA is an underrated savvy move. But at the end of the day it's a 4W and 3LD making 4W and 3D money. That's table stakes for survival. Like a ZAR signing.
Imo the thing that is/was the difference is that this offseason didn't yield a "steal" (someone playing an impact role for depth money), and doesn't have locked in long term benefit.

Moving forward, if we're going to re-sign Nylander and later Marner, we need real wins- UDFA Mikheyev's, multi-year bottom basement contracts to breakout candidates like Bunting, great value term deals like Jarncrok etc.

The summer of 2023 was our most flexible off-season in years, and we're not going to have much of anything to show for it in 2024.

Anyone here miss playoff Bunting? Anyone here miss playoff Mik? Engvall? Kerfoot? Anyone going to cry if we lose Jarnkrok? The zero skill and Grit around the net injected into the defence for 2023 playoffs?

With Dubas you're forced to try again with depth of this caliber over and over again (with a bad goalie at that...how embarassing is it that our last 2 cup run goalies got chased out the league, were we really serious about winning?). I'm enjoying the glimpse of Tre's ideas so far. Definitely going to enjoy playoff Bertuzzi over the usual depth squad. I'd rather try again on depth with 1 year deals every season than run with what Dubas gave us.

 

[DraftSchmaft]

Burke was coming off a Stanley Cup when he came here and was more or less mediocre for his Leafs tenure. Most of his usefulness came when he was gone via the depth he left our 3 rookie stars (Rielly Kadri Bozak JVR and for some stretches Gardiner).

So I find it funny reading people writing Treliving off for things that occurred in Calgary. These same people most likely dislike Burke. Logically they should then admit that past circumstances on different teams shouldn't hinder a fresh slate of judgement i.e Burke was fresh off a cup but sucked.

Pens fans are doing the same for Dubas even though his playoff history and a lot of his moves were horrendous. They are unbiased and giving him a fair chance. His record is nice but isn't all that exciting. Any GM can have a winning regular season record with this core.

 

[Shooter2x]

Burke was coming off a Stanley Cup when he came here and was more or less mediocre for his Leafs tenure. Most of his usefulness came when he was gone via the depth he left our 3 rookie stars (Rielly Kadri Bozak JVR and for some stretches Gardiner).

So I find it funny reading people writing Treliving off for things that occurred in Calgary. These same people most likely dislike Burke. Logically they should then admit that past circumstances on different teams shouldn't hinder a fresh slate of judgement i.e Burke was fresh off a cup but sucked.

Pens fans are doing the same for Dubas even though his playoff history and a lot of his moves were horrendous. They are unbiased and giving him a fair chance. His record is nice but isn't all that exciting. Any GM can have a winning regular season record with this core.

The new cool thing to do is blame everything bad on Shanahan.

Dubas was only a puppet. Anything bad he did was planned and forced by Shanny. He had historically great things planned for the Leafs but was thwarted by the evil President.

In a world that actually turned out to be true however, you would have to accept that perhaps Treliving was a victim of his environment too...so you still end up in a biased contradiction.

 

[DraftSchmaft]

how embarassing is it that our last 2 cup run goalies got chased out the league, were we really serious about winning?

How about your 2C going down and your contingency plan is 100 year old Joe Thornton or Jason Spezza. Really makes you scratch your head even further over the Kadri trade. We clearly weren't in a position to lose the Captain of our bottom 6

Thornton, Spezza, Simmonds, Kerfoot, Galchenyuk, engvall, mikheyev, broken back Foligno and a fraud goalie to back up the core 4 in a year we're spoon fed the easiest division of all-time that makes the ECF look all but guaranteed. I urge others to type those names out. You'll feel like you're tanking for the 1st overall pick.

His last splash finally brings in someone good....only problem is O'Reilly is 34 and regresses to Joe Thornton by round 2.

 

[Shooter2x]

How about your 2C going down and your contingency plan is 100 year old Joe Thornton or Jason Spezza. Really makes you scratch your head even further over the Kadri trade. We clearly weren't in a position to lose the Captain of our bottom 6

Thornton, Spezza, Simmonds, Kerfoot, Galchenyuk, engvall, mikheyev, broken back Foligno and a fraud goalie to back up the core 4 in a year we're spoon fed the easiest division of all-time that makes the ECF look all but guaranteed. I urge others to type those names out. You'll feel like you're tanking for the 1st overall pick.

His last splash finally brings in someone good....only problem is O'Reilly is 34 and regresses to Joe Thornton by round 2.

That list gets even worse because he goes and splits Hyman into a package that includes Nick Ritchie and zero IQ Kase. Slow, dumb, old or zero skill seemed to be Dubas' go-to moves to end his time here.

Thank god he at least left us Knies.

 

[Sypher04]

That list gets even worse because he goes and splits Hyman into a package that includes Nick Ritchie and zero IQ Kase. Slow, dumb, old or zero skill seemed to be Dubas' go-to moves to end his time here.

Thank god he at least left us Knies.

Bunting was clearly the Hyman replacement. And for two years he did an admirable job at less than $1M per

Ritchie and Kase had pretty well nothing to do with Hyman.

 

[Shooter2x]

Bunting was clearly the Hyman replacement. And for two years he did an admirable job at less than $1M per

Ritchie and Kase had pretty well nothing to do with Hyman.

Bunting is included in that package. It's not a literal package. Just pointing out what the cap space was used on.

 

[DraftSchmaft]

Bunting was clearly the Hyman replacement. And for two years he did an admirable job at less than $1M per

Ritchie and Kase had pretty well nothing to do with Hyman.

I mean it's not that difficult to pick out cost effective players that can put up points beside two of the best players in the league.

Come playoff time, Bunting is a liability. Dazed and confused in playoff hockey.

That list gets even worse because he goes and splits Hyman into a package that includes Nick Ritchie and zero IQ Kase. Slow, dumb, old or zero skill seemed to be Dubas' go-to moves to end his time here.

Thank god he at least left us Knies.

I agree with Pierre Lebrun that Marner was logically the next victim after Dubas' words about the core and Tkachuk trade.

The target was most likely a defenceman. After the Kadri trade, thank god Dubas was fired before he could play around with Marner.

 

[Shooter2x]

I mean it's not that difficult to pick out cost effective players that can put up points beside two of the best players in the league.

Come playoff time, Bunting is a liability. Dazed and confused in playoff hockey.


I agree with Pierre Lebrun that Marner was logically the next victim after Dubas' words about the core and Tkachuk trade.

The target was most likely a defenceman. After the Kadri trade, thank god Dubas was fired before he could play around with Marner.

Thinking you don't have to re-sign Hyman because the NHL has Buntings lying around is why Dubas had to go. It falls within the trends of his mediocre depth design. His trends do suggest he's capable of botching a Marner trade.

We got what we paid for in Bunting come spring time.

 

[DraftSchmaft]

Thinking you don't have to re-sign Hyman because the NHL has Buntings lying around is why Dubas had to go. It falls within the trends of his mediocre depth design. His trends do suggest he's capable of botching a Marner trade.

We got what we paid for in Bunting come spring time.

So Bunting is a player worth taking a flier on, especially at his age.

The issue is that we took the flier after getting rid of Hyman. It's so stupid. You're supposed to take that flier when you don't find yourself in a position to obtain a guaranteed Hyman / Hyman equivalent depth. Hyman was literally our asset to re-sign yet we played darts instead?

 

[Shooter2x]

So Bunting is a player worth taking a flier on, especially at his age.

The issue is that we took the flier after getting rid of Hyman. It's so stupid. You're supposed to take that flier when you don't find yourself in a position to obtain a guaranteed Hyman / Hyman equivalent depth. Hyman was literally our asset to re-sign yet we played darts instead?

Don't fret my friend, when it's all said and done, we didn't need any success. It all lead to us having the privilege of Jarnkrok being on term. Everything was for the best.

 

[Havoc]

So Bunting is a player worth taking a flier on, especially at his age.

The issue is that we took the flier after getting rid of Hyman. It's so stupid. You're supposed to take that flier when you don't find yourself in a position to obtain a guaranteed Hyman / Hyman equivalent depth. Hyman was literally our asset to re-sign yet we played darts instead?

There's a 3rd and better scenario where you keep Hyman and still throw the dart at Bunting, then let the Bunting walk when they need a raise and keep the Hyman. Lots of ways we could have made it work (If someone truly wanted Bunting in this scenario I mean). Majority of our non-star players could have been dropped whenever necessary. None were critical.

 

[Shooter2x]

There's a 3rd and better scenario where you keep Hyman and still throw the dart at Bunting, then let the Bunting walk when they need a raise and keep the Hyman. Lots of ways we could have made it work (If someone truly wanted Bunting in this scenario I mean). Majority of our non-star players could have been dropped whenever necessary. None were critical.

Moving away from the point.

The point is Hymans raise was deemed to be not worth it overall...but then we use it on THAT (package of players) instead? Why not just keep Hyman if that was the plan?

It's consistent with the depth design overall ever since Dubas took over. Having to "?" Is a common theme when it comes to Dubas.

We bring in Mrazek. Pay to get rid of him. Then we bring in Murray whose cap hit is even larger and would require us to pay to get rid of if he wasn't on LTIR.

Campbell turns out to be too mentally fragile to lead a team in net. We waste a few series on him. Then we sign another goalie who turns out to be another head case. How many series in a row did we start a head case then? These 2 goalies can't even stay in the league at this point.

I can sit here and go on for hours.
Its sabotage. How can there exist people who aren't angry at how Dubas mangled our team?

 

[TheMadHatTrick]

So far Tre has had some good moves and some bad moves, so overall he's been ok. I'd give him a B-minus with the potential to move up to a B+ with a good deadline.

Good:
Taking Samsonov to Arb
Sending Murray to Robidas Island
Putting poison pill in Jones' contract
Signing Benoit, Laggesson.
Signing Bertuzzi
Signing Domi

Bad:
Signing Reaves
Signing Klinberg
Trading Lafferty to keep Mintin up for 5 games.
Resigning Kampf and giving him a NTC.

It's complicated:
Signing Matthews without getting term
Signing Nylander for 11.5 million average into age 35.

 

[4thline]

Anyone here miss playoff Bunting? Anyone here miss playoff Mik? Engvall? Kerfoot? Anyone going to cry if we lose Jarnkrok?

The whole exact group? No. But one capable two-way forward that can play in the top 9 and pk at ~1.5-2 or less under multiple years of team control is exactly what the F group is missing to change it from Cup contending Top 6 + an "I guess we have to ice 4 lines" bottom 6, to a strong group top to bottom.

Maybe Steeves or Nick A could be that guy if we give them a chance, or maybe Nick R can thrive in the top 6. But right now we have two 1st lines and two 4th lines. The Domi line isn't quite there to thrive and give us a major advantage in soft minutes , and the Kampf line isn't quite there to give us safe shutdown minutes. We need at least of those lines to be able to thrive in those roles.

xxx/Jarncrok-Matthews-Marner
Knies-Tavares-Nylander
Bertuzzi-Domi-xxx/Jarncrok

Could go a long way to solving that- if we had/have the xxx.

 

[LeafGrief]

Win the little moves, lose your shirt on the big moves. Seems to be the Leafs GM way.

Sign your guys to big money deals in the middle of hot streaks and get smug when the goalie is hot.

 

[DarkKnight]

One point on Klingberg, I feel we never really saw what we had there. He injured himself in NY, was awful awful after that, but is it fair to judge the deal based on an asterisk? I’m not saying I liked the deal, because I didn’t, but I can’t judge it based on what we saw, because the guy could barely move by the end here.

 

[showtime8]

One point on Klingberg, I feel we never really saw what we had there. He injured himself in NY, was awful awful after that, but is it fair to judge the deal based on an asterisk? I’m not saying I liked the deal, because I didn’t, but I can’t judge it based on what we saw, because the guy could barely move by the end here.

From the get-go the Klingberg move was destined to fail. It's easy to judge it. Everyone saw that he had fallen apart and his play in the last couple seasons did not reflect the salary.

The benefit is that it was only 1 year and they are able to move on.

 

[Dekes For Days]

We got what we paid for in Bunting come spring time.

The same point production that Hyman had given us?

 

[Sypher04]

Moving away from the point.

The point is Hymans raise was deemed to be not worth it overall...but then we use it on THAT (package of players) instead? Why not just keep Hyman if that was the plan?

It's consistent with the depth design overall ever since Dubas took over. Having to "?" Is a common theme when it comes to Dubas.

We bring in Mrazek. Pay to get rid of him. Then we bring in Murray whose cap hit is even larger and would require us to pay to get rid of if he wasn't on LTIR.

Campbell turns out to be too mentally fragile to lead a team in net. We waste a few series on him. Then we sign another goalie who turns out to be another head case. How many series in a row did we start a head case then? These 2 goalies can't even stay in the league at this point.

I can sit here and go on for hours.
Its sabotage. How can there exist people who aren't angry at how Dubas mangled our team?

We got more out of Bunting/Kase/Ritchie than we did out of Hyman as a Leaf so not honestly sure what your point is here.

I get Hyman looks really good in Edmonton right now but he never gave any indication in Toronto that he could reach this level of goal scoring. As we’ve seen over history, what works for one team doesn’t necessarily for another

I’d have rather kept him than not, but I understand why the Leafs were hesitant to give him the term he wanted. He’d already had multiple knee injuries.