I think this is right, but to be fair I think the entire Leafs organization is pretty conservative.
I feel like Treliving probably did just about everything he could to make change this off-season.
I wanted Marner moved and that move on top of what was done would have made this the largest off season of change in Leaf history. Alas, he has a NMC. So does just about everyone else that would have led to "big changes".
As it stands...
- we have a new coach and coaches
- we have a new captain
- we have two or three new defensemen, two in the top four
- we have a new tandem goalie
- and we have not extended Marner or Tavares with long term, high AAV deals or even stated that it is a priority to do so (as they did with 34 and 88 last year).
- we seem to have ice time available for young players to earn (Cowan, Grebyenkin, Minten, Robertson, Holmberg, Steeves).
...and we don't know what philosophy and approach the new coaches bring, but will soon find out. We know that Tre wanted Willy at C and that last ten days in camp, will this get a longer look? Will we see JT as 3C and finally spread out the scoring? OEL on PP1?
I don't know what more change Treliving could have brought this off-season given the constraints.
I think the impact of the coaching change gets under stated around here. You can't get fire the whole team, but you can fire the coach. St. Louis did this a few years ago and took a last place team to SC champions....with Berube.