Brad Treliving is doing a great job.

[seanlinden]

If you can’t see the identity of this year’s Leafs team is totally different than in the past half decade, you either haven’t watched the games or have no understanding of what you’re watching. This isn’t fantasy hockey or an NHL’24 video game, my friend.

Justin Holl was a God-awful hockey player. Getting rid of someone that useless was addition by subtraction. He’s been a healthy scratch for the past six weeks on a mediocre Detroit team. Absolute garbage.

There’s also ZERO comparison between Dewar and no-talent scrubs like Accari, Sam LaughAtMe, Pete Engvall and Blackwell. Dewar is aggressive and a tenacious forechecker. The stuff that Kyle Dumbass constantly brought in were softer than wet toilet paper.

Bert and Domi are way more aggressive and combative than the figure skaters that Dumbass insisted on bringing in.

And during the Dumbass era, the Leafs had NOTHING comparable to the attitude, swag and intimidation that Reaves provides.

Completely different team atmosphere with Treliving. I feel badly that you’re not able to
see that.

Not trying to be disrespectful to you here... but Ryan Reaves playing 8 minutes a night does not change a culture.

In fact, you look at the past few teams that have beat us, and the past few teams that have won the cup, and you realize, that having Ryan Reaves in the lineup probably makes you less likely to advance.

The teams that go deep in the playoffs do so on the backs of 4 lines that all contribute, somewhat equally. The top end players buy into the physical game, and the bottom-end players figure out how to score timely goals.

As for Dewar, I'll be the first to admit, I don't know a lot about him. What I do know, is that the guy is 24 years old with just under 200 games experience in the NHL; and we were able to acquire him for Ovchinikov and a 4th round pick....

What that tells you is that he wasn't exactly a hot commodity, despite having youthful upside.

From a hitting standpoint, he's got 95 hits (96th amongst forwards) in 58 games playing 11:16 a night. Noel Acciari has 106 having played just 48 games at 13:07 a night.

Again, don't get me wrong, if Bertuzzi & Domi are goign to show up in the playoffs in a similar fashion to what they have done in the past, then yes, this team will have some playoff swagger and some of the elements you actually need to win... but let's pretend like the "identity" has changed here.

Treliving has apparently been trying to change the identity, notably in trying to get both Zadorov and Tanev from Calgary, and maybe you can't fault him for failing because it was only his former team that was offloading rugged defencemen.

 

[Maple Leaf]

Looks like Brad is going to, at the very least, equal the greatest GM we have had in Kyle, in their 1st season's results. He may still yet beat it.

Exciting.

What is

 

[usernamezrhardtodo]

They spoke with O'Rielly, his camp let them know that he did not intend on returning with the Leafs and would test UFA. Accari and Schenn both wanted to test UFA and both got contracts that were great for them and not for the teams that signed them.

Would you have people believe that if Dubas was the GM than all 3 players would have resigned with the Leafs and less than what they received in UFA?

I read that Foligno said he was insulted by the offer from Dubas when he became a UFA and chose Boston....Same with Boosh. He was lowballed and went to Buffalo. How many of these deadline deals that Dubas made resulted in us signing them afterwards besides Gio? I honestly cannot remember...but it wasn't a lot considering how many he brought in at the deadline over his 5yrs.

I guess Dubas thought his niceness would be incentive enough to leave money on the table...or something.

 

[usernamezrhardtodo]

Has he?

Lyubushkin is basically this year's Luke Schenn, which was last year's Ilya Lyubushkin

You go out and get Connor Dewar; similar to how dubas got Noel Acciari & Sam Lafferty last year, and Colin Blackwell the year prior IIRC.

They never really replaced Justin Holl, or I guess, did for however long John Klingberg was in the lineup... so Edmunson is basically his replacement.

Up front, you look at the "identity"... this team still goes only as far as Matthews, Marner, Nylander and Tavares take them; except now Tavares can't really be expected to contribute as part of that group.

Drop Hyman for Bunting, Bunting for Bertuzzi; and you're basically still in the same spot there.

Drop Kerfoot for Domi, and you've basically traded defensive value for fiestiness.

Unless Bertuzzi & Domi are going to be standout players on their own, generating opportunities in the playoffs as they have in years past, this is a very similar team to the one that has failed year after year after year.

So the common denominator is the core that is still here and not getting it done. I really think Tre trades Marner if he has his usual playoff output past game 4 of the first series. He will just tell him it's time to change the core and Marner will probably not want to be blamed for it again (even though AM usually plays the same as MM)...I can see it being the last kick at the can for the buddies...but then again, who would have thought we would still have these guys after losing to the Habs?

 

[Maple Leaf]

I read that Foligno said he was insulted by the offer from Dubas when he became a UFA and chose Boston....Same with Boosh. He was lowballed and went to Buffalo. How many of these deadline deals that Dubas made resulted in us signing them afterwards besides Gio? I honestly cannot remember...but it wasn't a lot considering how many he brought in at the deadline over his 5yrs.

I guess Dubas thought his niceness would be incentive enough to leave money on the table...or something.

Foligno was garbage and didn't deserve a big pay day

 

[usernamezrhardtodo]

Foligno was garbage and didn't deserve a big pay day

I agree that he was garbage....but the fact that Dubas lowballed him is the interesting part when others are claiming O'Reilly, Schenn and Acciari were almost automatic re-signs here and Tre let them all get away because he doesn't know what he's doing.

 

[Racer88]

Looks like Steve Simmons is still hating on the Leafs:

"I have a list of nine teams that can win the Stanley Cup. The number goes to 10 if you include the Winnipeg Jets.

In my order, the Stanley Cup will be won by one of the Florida Panthers, Colorado Avalanche, Carolina Hurricanes;, Dallas Stars,; Vancouver Canucks, Vegas, Edmonton Oilers, Boston Bruins and New York Rangers. Then Winnipeg. Then Tampa Bay. That’s 11. That puts the Leafs at No. 12 among Stanley Cup contenders.

And the reason I rank Tampa ahead of Toronto, despite the standings: They still have Andrei Vasilevskiy in goal, Victor Hedman on defence, big gamer Nikita Kucherov up front and Jon Cooper coaching. By comparison, the Leafs have I don’t know in goal, Morgan Rielly as their best defenceman, Auston Matthews up front (most playoff goals in a season, five) and Sheldon Keefe coaching."

As much as I despise Simmons he’s not wrong. The Leafs are a very long shot in my opinion to even make it out of the first round

 

[Dekes For Days]

How many of these deadline deals that Dubas made resulted in us signing them afterwards besides Gio?

Most of the meaningful deadline acquisitions he had a chance to re-sign already had term. Muzzin had term. Campbell had term. McCabe had term. Lafferty had term. Giordano was re-signed. Hutchinson was re-signed. Clifford was let go but then re-acquired a year later for zero assets.

He chose not to re-sign Foligno, as he experienced a significant injury with us and his future effectiveness was unclear, and then moved on from the depth rentals of Lyubushkin, Rittich, Nash, Blackwell, and Hutton.

 

[TMLBlueandWhite]

The Treliving Method - The process of bleeding assets, while overpaying for trash, in order to maintain mediocrity.

The biggest fraud since Bernie Madoff I fail to see how anyone could think Treliving is doing a great job. Let's look at it this way. Shanahan undermined his GM before even hiring him by making that stupid promise to the core they would all be back.

Which means there are only three things to consider with regards to Treliving.

1) He secured his position simply by agreeing to whatever Shanahan said.
2) He took the job knowing he wouldn't be able to take the team in the direction he wanted.
3) He actually was given the freedom to do whatever he wanted but chose to do the minimum possible.

Why would anyone think he's doing a great job knowing he either has no spine, no direction, or no idea how to manage a hockey team?

 

[nuck]

The Treliving Method - The process of bleeding assets, while overpaying for trash, in order to maintain mediocrity.

The biggest fraud since Bernie Madoff I fail to see how anyone could think Treliving is doing a great job. Let's look at it this way. Shanahan undermined his GM before even hiring him by making that stupid promise to the core they would all be back.

Which means there are only three things to consider with regards to Treliving.

1) He secured his position simply by agreeing to whatever Shanahan said.
2) He took the job knowing he wouldn't be able to take the team in the direction he wanted.
3) He actually was given the freedom to do whatever he wanted but chose to do the minimum possible.

Why would anyone think he's doing a great job knowing he either has no spine, no direction, or no idea how to manage a hockey team?

I don't know about #3 but items 1 and 2 were prerequisites to getting the job. This was always about running it back. I don't fault him for doing what Shanny says so as to remain employed. If "having spine" means you don't get hired then what good does it do you? Shanahan was not in the market for a new direction with any coach and there were plenty that would have been happy to take the terms that Tre was given.

I believe that sink or swim this playoff he will be back and will have more autonomy whether Shanny remains or not. I don't think he ever had an option to move Willie and the same applies to Mitch. There is no opportunity for a sea change with Shanahan in charge. I don't like the Kampf extension or the Willie deal. I believe Kampf was back at Keefes urging and as part of a possible concession to give the coach "his" lineup in what may be his last year. The only way Keefe comes back is if he tells GM and Prez that the failures were not on him but on the lineups he was given and that he would do things differently with KD gone. So he wants his lineup rather than Kyle's.


I don't know if the two 3rd pairing clods were a Keefe ask to give them a tougher playoff club or not but I think he had to have input. Having said all that I do agree Tre is not doing a great job. Benoit and Jones were nice small adds but the needle has not been moved. Reaves and Kampf for that term do not seem necessary. But thats still just background noise until he has some autonomy.

 

[LeafsFan89]

We talk about this "possession game" like it's the end all be all. For our team, it hasn't worked for 7 years (going on 8). It does seems Tre is trying to change the identity of the team and become a classic western conference team - more heavy, grinding, blue collar team.

We'll see what he does this off-season.

 

[Leaf Fans]

The Treliving Method - The process of bleeding assets, while overpaying for trash, in order to maintain mediocrity.

The biggest fraud since Bernie Madoff I fail to see how anyone could think Treliving is doing a great job. Let's look at it this way. Shanahan undermined his GM before even hiring him by making that stupid promise to the core they would all be back.

Which means there are only three things to consider with regards to Treliving.

1) He secured his position simply by agreeing to whatever Shanahan said.
2) He took the job knowing he wouldn't be able to take the team in the direction he wanted.
3) He actually was given the freedom to do whatever he wanted but chose to do the minimum possible.

Why would anyone think he's doing a great job knowing he either has no spine, no direction, or no idea how to manage a hockey team?

Others than the made up reasons you are giving?

 

[All Mod Cons]

I think he's done a good job to be honest, especially considering the restraints he's been under. It's obviously still a work in progress and I think long-term we don't look good, but I don't blame Brad for that.

He seems to know what this team is lacking and how they are viewed league wide. I just don't think he's been given the assets, cap space or farm system to fully get this team where it needs to be.

Previous management really set this team back for the future.

 

[NJG]

Lines next year? lol

Marner - Matthews - Knies
Nylander - Tavares - Bertuzzi
Cowan - Minten - Jarnkrok/Grebyonkin
McMann - Kampf - Reaves

Rielly - ????????
Edmunson - Lyubushkin
Beniot - McCabe

Samsonov - Woll

 

[ThrowDemTongs]

Looks like Steve Simmons is still hating on the Leafs:

"I have a list of nine teams that can win the Stanley Cup. The number goes to 10 if you include the Winnipeg Jets.

In my order, the Stanley Cup will be won by one of the Florida Panthers, Colorado Avalanche, Carolina Hurricanes;, Dallas Stars,; Vancouver Canucks, Vegas, Edmonton Oilers, Boston Bruins and New York Rangers. Then Winnipeg. Then Tampa Bay. That’s 11. That puts the Leafs at No. 12 among Stanley Cup contenders.

And the reason I rank Tampa ahead of Toronto, despite the standings: They still have Andrei Vasilevskiy in goal, Victor Hedman on defence, big gamer Nikita Kucherov up front and Jon Cooper coaching. By comparison, the Leafs have I don’t know in goal, Morgan Rielly as their best defenceman, Auston Matthews up front (most playoff goals in a season, five) and Sheldon Keefe coaching."

Steve Simmons pees sitting down

 

[Jimmy Firecracker]

Ultimate test will be the playoffs like always. However it can't be denied that the culture of this team has completely changed and he's built a physical, nasty, tight-knit group of players. Bertuzzi, Domi, Reaves, Benoit, and now Edmundson have played a big role in that, and once Lyubushkin is healthy and Dewar acclimatizes that's even more tenacity in the lineup.

Dubas did leave behind some physical guys in McCabe and Lafferty, and two prospects with size in McMann and Knies. But there's no way two rookies, McCabe, and Lafferty if he'd stayed would've been enough to change the attitude of this team. Especially if the GM didn't make it a goal or address it early on in the season himself when a physical response was lacking after an incident, which Treliving did.

Team has more attitude and less time for bullshit from their opponents now. Even in losing efforts we let the opposition know we exist and don't give them easy nights.

 

[Dreakmur]

Steve Simmons pees sitting down

As does everyone in prison.

 

[DarkKnight]

Edmundson is looking more and more a key pickup. Dewar is carving out a role and Boosh is fine depth.

For a clueless idiot, not bad.

 

[613Leafer]

Can't recall many games like this from the Leafs over the past ~5+ years.

 

[acrobaticgoalie]

I think he's done a good job to be honest, especially considering the restraints he's been under. It's obviously still a work in progress and I think long-term we don't look good, but I don't blame Brad for that.

He seems to know what this team is lacking and how they are viewed league wide. I just don't think he's been given the assets, cap space or farm system to fully get this team where it needs to be.

Previous management really set this team back for the future.

Cap Space and assets, I'll give you but we've had several players from the farm that have contributed this year. Knies, Robertson, Holmberg, McMann have all had varying degree of impacts.

With the seasons Cowan and Minten are having this year, we could very well see them on the Leafs next year. Steeves and Tverberg are also having really good years for the Marlies, we could see them battling for bottom 6 spots out of camp. On defense, Niemela and Kokkonen will be knocking on the door for bottom pair duties soon. Hildeby won't be far behind either for a backup role.

 

[Donnie740]

The Kyle Dumbass Fan Boi Club is extremely bitter that Treliving has done a way better job in Toronto than their hero has done in Pittsburgh.

Treliving has done a fantastic job by:

#1 - - addressing the lack of toughness and soft forward group by acquiring Reaves, Domi and Bertuzzi.

#2 - - not giving out long term contracts that destroy the salary cap like Kyle Dumbass does.

#3 - - holding on to his 1st round pick instead of giving it away for a mediocre 3rd line hack on an expiring contract as Dumbass would always do.

#4 - - getting 27yr old Nylander re-signed as he enters the prime of his career instead of giving him away for a few bottom six scrubs and a mid 1st round draft pick as many were calling for.

Excellent job by Treliving - - Leafs best GM since Cliff Fletcher.

 

[Puckstuff]

Can't recall many games like this from the Leafs over the past ~5+ years.

We've been robbed of 7 years of epic Joe Bowen/Jim Ralph T.V commentary. What a legend.

 

[Sypher04]

Ultimate test will be the playoffs like always. However it can't be denied that the culture of this team has completely changed and he's built a physical, nasty, tight-knit group of players. Bertuzzi, Domi, Reaves, Benoit, and now Edmundson have played a big role in that, and once Lyubushkin is healthy and Dewar acclimatizes that's even more tenacity in the lineup.

Dubas did leave behind some physical guys in McCabe and Lafferty, and two prospects with size in McMann and Knies. But there's no way two rookies, McCabe, and Lafferty if he'd stayed would've been enough to change the attitude of this team. Especially if the GM didn't make it a goal or address it early on in the season himself when a physical response was lacking after an incident, which Treliving did.

Team has more attitude and less time for bullshit from their opponents now. Even in losing efforts we let the opposition know we exist and don't give them easy nights.

That’s a bit of a spicy quote from McMann, I like it lol

 

[sxvnert]

Hits/60

18/19: 17.19 (29th)
19/20: 16.72 (29th)
20/21: 17.77 (27th)
21/22: 21.08 (24th)
22/23: 21.45 (22nd)
23/24: 26.31 (3rd)

Massive improvement over previous years.

 

[Menzinger]

A tale of two seasons so far for Tre.

A pretty rough start, but things finally look like they're settling in nicely, primarily because Bert and Domi look like they've started to click with the team much more; I'd be fine if both end up with extensions. Klingberg remains a big miss, and Reaves is still meh, even though he's sometimes useful.

Got the Nylander deal sorted and the Mccann extension looks like a tidy bit of business.

The tdl outcome still way too early to judge, but things look interesting.

I'd say I've upgraded my view of him from skeptical to (very) cautiously optimistic. His next offseason will be the bigger test given he's now had a whole year with the organization at that point.