Brad Treliving is doing a great job.

[Leafidelity]

A lot of people (Mirtle, Siegel, etc.) love to say that this years' team is the worst Leafs team in years. While that may be true, I think the following needs to be considered when comparing this team to recent Dubas teams:

1. The dramatic fall-off of Tavares and Brodie. Combined, this is a $16M cap hit where we are maybe getting $5M of value. This is on Dubas and not on Treliving.
2. For the first time in years, we didn't spend substantial draft capital at the deadline (whether this was intentional, or was a lack of draft capital / attractive options is unknown). In my opinion, you can't compare the playoff lineup last year with this one, while not also factoring in the draft capital that was expended.

While Im not entirely sold on BT just yet, the decline of Brodie and Tavares is absolutely playing a major factor in his first season as GM.

 

[Gabriel426]

I beg to differ ..

With the new additions of Tyler Bertuzzi, Max Domi, Ryan Reaves, Connor Dewar and Dmen Simon Benoit, Joel Edmundson & Ilya Lyubushkin I'm loving the physical play and intensity and punishing hits that this version of the Leafs are playing with. We're seing the early stages of Treliving's Dcore style of big, mean and mobile with 2 coming at the TD. Leafs 4th line lead by Reaves has both a purpose and built to be able to play in all situations to provide energy.

This is real Hockey as opposed to the past figure skating teams, and Leafs are going head to head playing the game in the trenches, which I have been proud of the gang,

Unfortunately, despite the new comers providing this team with a true backbone spin to have the ability to push back, they can't overcome the Leafs biggest pitfall that leads to failure is the butter soft Core 4 that consumes 1/2 the teams salary cap. The core 4 that thrive on regular season Run and Gun style hockey with scoring on the rush and playing with puck possessions to fill the net with pucks and outscoring their goaltending sub <.900 performance and weaker defensive play based on exchanges scoring chances where last goal wins.. Playoff style dump and chase is the Kryptonite of this core 4 and the reason for the teams failure overall.

BT was handed a bad hand with a team paid and built for entertainment purposes first and foremost, with the leagues highest salaries so MLSE can charge and validate the highest price of addmission. as the teams value increases.

This makes the Leafs essentially "Regular season Warriors but playoff "Paper Tigers", which is great for Leaf fans that love the excitement of player personnel performances and achievements of the regular season, but sadly those that desire to win a Championship (the true desire of following sports IMO), have to take a back seat until we see this soft core 4 broken up and Leafs rebuilt,

So I'm giving BT a pass until he can get out from under Cap Hell and the JT boat anchor contract after next season, before he will be judged on his own merits.

I like your ref to the poker hand.
Pretty much agree with you and I think BT got what’s look a great hand in poker but in reality is it nothing special. Like he got a spade of 3, 8, 8, 10 and needs another spade to get a flush. But if he doesn’t get a spade, the best is a pair of 10s, which is bad.

 

[ashs]

Who all needs to be gone next year.

For me:
Shanahan
All the coaches
Marner
Reilly
Timothy
Jarnkrok
Brodie
Gio
Tavares


I'd keep:
Domi
Bert

 

[Kazparov]

Huberdeau flaming out the way he has is one of the more baffling player dropoffs in recent memory.

Huberdeau was MVP quality in Florida. People seem to forget that.

 

[notDatsyuk]

I don't disagree. Nylander's two most common linemates had their worst seasons of their careers playing with him. Point's 2 most common linemates had career years. I don't know if we give credit to Point or Nylander there.

And yet Nylander had, for the third consecutive year, his best season.

 

[Cassell]

Who all needs to be gone next year.

For me:
Shanahan
All the coaches
Marner
Reilly
Timothy
Jarnkrok
Brodie
Gio
Tavares


I'd keep:
Domi
Bert

I’m perfectly fine with this list. The only change I’d make is to omit Liljegren from the “must go” list, but I readily admit to a certain level of bias when it comes to him. I don’t believe we’ve seen his best yet.

 

[ACC1224]

He looked pretty happy when they showed him celebrating the goal. Nice to see.

 

[Donnie740]

The GM doesn’t need to make home run wins but he has to avoid making catastrophic mistakes. And then the minor wins have to exceed the minor losses.

Treliving certainly hasn’t made any catastrophic mistakes so far, and he’s had far more minor wins than minor losses.

Kyle Dubas made two catastrophic mistakes - - signing Tavares and trading Kadri for two pieces of trash. And the majority of his minor deals turned out to be losses.

In reality, Dubas had very few minor deals turn out to be wins. That’s why he’s a proven loser, which we’re now seeing with Pittsburgh.

 

[notDatsyuk]

I never once said that. I did say I don't think Point puts up the same point totals with Tavares.

Actually, you said that Point "is equally impactful". If so, you would think that he would produce more with Kucherov than Willy does with JT, considering that Kucherov is much better than JT is now.

 

[LEAFANFORLIFE23]

Who all needs to be gone next year.

For me:
Shanahan
All the coaches
Marner
Reilly
Timothy
Jarnkrok
Brodie
Gio
Tavares


I'd keep:
Domi
Bert

That's WAY to much change

 

[LEAFANFORLIFE23]

The GM doesn’t need to make home run wins but he has to avoid making catastrophic mistakes. And then the minor wins have to exceed the minor losses.

Treliving certainly hasn’t made any catastrophic mistakes so far, and he’s had far more minor wins than minor losses.

Kyle Dubas made two catastrophic mistakes - - signing Tavares and trading Kadri for two pieces of trash. And the majority of his minor deals turned out to be losses.

In reality, Dubas had very few minor deals turn out to be wins. That’s why he’s a proven loser, which we’re now seeing with Pittsburgh.

Look I'm FAR from a Dubas fan, but signing a guy that at the time was 27 years old, and a legitimate star center is not a mistake that's something you do every single time, the only reason you and everybody else calls it a mistake is because a once in a lifetime event happened, the world stopp and the cap didn't go up.

You want to blame Dubas for things, I could make a list a mile long.

Trading down to take Dermott instead of keeping the pick and taking Konecy.

Taking Dermott instead of Aho



Getting a shit return for Kadri, I'm not madehe traded Kadri because Kadri kept being an idiot and getting suspended but it was a shit return.

Turning down Weegar for Dermott and Johnsson, yup he turned that down.

There is A LOT you can blame Dubas for, not being able to predict that the world would stop is not on the list.

 

[ToneDog]

All of a sudden Brad has a chance to do in one year what it took Dubas 5. Win a round.

 

[sunstersun]

He's been very good. Domi is a gamer.

 

[ToneDog]

He's been very good. Domi is a gamer.

Our D is shutting down the Bruins and giving them a beating. Getting Benoit for free is a huge win.

 

[DarkKnight]

How many times was there a loose puck out front that we tied up their guys and cleared it from trouble. And how many times was that Boosh, Benny, Edmundson? We finally own our own crease area, and that’s where I give Tre credit.

Every player he’s added, we’ve hit on imo. Klingberg an incomplete, even there a one year deal, no baggage.

Win or lose tomorrow, easily my favourite Leafs team of this era.

 

[Trapper]

He’s totally passing all the tests.

 

[Roo]

Seriously guys, this further cements the fact that the core are not THE problem. I can acknowledge that having that much cap tied up isn't ideal, but only 1 more year with Tavares.

The difference for this team, 100%, comes in goal. If we have a solid goalie, we go far. Not rocket science, but we haven't had this type of goaltending in forever.

 

[All Mod Cons]

Honestly, I think all of the people that slaughtered Brad for the Benoit, Edmundson and Boosh moves need to rethink how they view hockey. I have no idea what those people see when they watch playoff hockey.

Added to that the moves of Domi, Bertuzzi, Reeves, Dewar and the resigning of Kampf are proving to be good moves.

Brad is owed a huge apology by a large portion of the fanbase, although I doubt he's holding his breath.

 

[IPS]

On this board, the biggest difference between Brad and Dubie was that Brad doesn't have a dedicated group of superfans running defense on his every move.

If we were battling injuries to Matthews, Marner, and Nylander in any other year the Dubasites would absolutely scold you if you still expected a series win. I remember losing to Montreal they wanted everyone to accept the loss because Tavares and Muzzin got hurt, got goalied, etc..

What a funny thing that that crowd isn't making a f***ing peep about injuries / excuses this year even though this is probably the most justifiable time to do it.

 

[LEAFANFORLIFE23]

Seriously guys, this further cements the fact that the core are not THE problem. I can acknowledge that having that much cap tied up isn't ideal, but only 1 more year with Tavares.

The difference for this team, 100%, comes in goal. If we have a solid goalie, we go far. Not rocket science, but we haven't had this type of goaltending in forever.

I've been saying this for years

 

[Mess]

You have to love the job Leafs Gm Treliving has done from turning this teams identity from a figure skating team to a real playoff style hockey team.

So proud of this teams tenacity and push-back ability and physicality, while finishing all their plays with punishing hits, while limiting opposition chances.

They're playing like a bunch of Pit bulls and its style is contagious drawing everyone into the fight, now playing like a united team with a real purpose,

You know when Willy is throwing hits and finishing checks and being rewarded that the team is fully buying into what the Leafs GM BT is selling.

 

[Evilhomer]

Honestly, I think all of the people that slaughtered Brad for the Benoit, Edmundson and Boosh moves need to rethink how they view hockey. I have no idea what those people see when they watch playoff hockey.

Added to that the moves of Domi, Bertuzzi, Reeves, Dewar and the resigning of Kampf are proving to be good moves.

Brad is owed a huge apology by a large portion of the fanbase, although I doubt he's holding his breath.

The only caveat is let's wait and see what Benoit, Edmundson and Boosh look like against Florida, Carolina or the Rangers. Those teams are very different than Boston.

 

[ToneDog]

Seriously guys, this further cements the fact that the core are not THE problem. I can acknowledge that having that much cap tied up isn't ideal, but only 1 more year with Tavares.

The difference for this team, 100%, comes in goal. If we have a solid goalie, we go far. Not rocket science, but we haven't had this type of goaltending in forever.

They just won two games with out Matthews. On one hand, tells me you do not need 3 players earning 40% of the cap. On the other hand, might not work against better competition. Said it before, would love to keep Marner but it has to be at the right price. He will demand more than Nylander which is a show stopper for me.

 

[GoonieFace]

Seriously guys, this further cements the fact that the core are not THE problem. I can acknowledge that having that much cap tied up isn't ideal, but only 1 more year with Tavares.

The difference for this team, 100%, comes in goal. If we have a solid goalie, we go far. Not rocket science, but we haven't had this type of goaltending in forever.

Yeah they are winning scoring 2 goals a game against an offensively challenged team, not sure how this absolves the core of anything. It’s their job to score, and they are not doing it enough to beat most teams in a playoff series.

 

[ronzigato]

Previous iterations of the Leafs didn't tend to win ugly games like last night's game. There was a physical/defensive element to last night's game that I don't remember seeing in previous years' teams.