Is Brad Treliving the Right Choice For the Toronto Maple Leafs?

The Toronto Maple Leafs New GM’s Drafting Record

2014 NHL Draft

Notable Players: Sam Bennett

At Treliving’s first draft in Calgary, he took the lean centre in Sam Bennett fourth overall from the Kingston Frontenacs of the OHL. Although a star in junior, Bennett never came into his own as a member of the Flames. (info hockeydb.com).

2015 NHL Draft

Notable players: Rasmus Andersson, Oliver Kylington, and Andrew Mangiapane

After dealing their first rounder (15th overall) for Dougie Hamilton among other deals, the Flames only had five draft choices at the 2015 draft. Despite this, Treliving and Co. Made the most of those selections.

They nabbed Rasmus Andersson and Oliver Kylington with their first and second picks, both second rounders. Both players have become main fixtures on the Flames backend with Andersson becoming arguably Calgary’s best defenceman.

Then in the sixth round, they grabbed forward Andrew Mangiapane. He is by far the biggest steal for the Flames during Treliving’s tenure (so far) becoming a solid middle-six/top-six contributor.

2016 NHL Draft

Notable players: Matthew Tkachuk, Dillon Dube, Adam Fox

Although usually you wouldn’t give a GM kudos for hitting on a top-10 selection. Given multiple teams passed on him, Matthew Tkachuk is a grand slam at sixth overall. He’s become the NHL’s premier power-forward and the best to do it in nearly two decades. In the late second round, he grabbed middle-six forward Dillon Dube. At 24, Dube just hit career highs in points and assists, signaling we still may not have seen his best just yet.

In the third round, Treliving grabbed Adam Fox. I would classify him as his biggest steal overall, differentiating him from Mangiapane because he never played in Calgary. He forced his way to the New York Rangers by refusing both the Flames and Hurricanes offers. More on him later but he is currently one of the NHL’s best blueliners, which is phenomenal value from a third round selection.

2017 NHL Draft

Notable Players: Juuso Valimaki and Adam Ruzicka

There will be more on Valimaki later but the Flames took him 16th overall and after a breakout 2022-23 campaign he looks like a hit. The other notable player from this draft is forward Adam Ruzicka. Treliving grabbed him in the fourth round and he seems to be blossoming into a good middle-six/bottom-six forward after scoring 20 points in 44 games this season.

2018 NHL Draft

Notable Players: None

This is where Treliving’s draft history seems to start to fall-off. It’s hard to pinpoint exactly what happens from here on out but in 2018 specifically, they didn’t have a draft selection until the fourth round. Emilio Pettersson seems to be the most promising of the bunch though and could still develop into an NHL player given he’s only 23.

2019-2022 NHL Drafts

Notable Players: Jakob Pelletier, Dustin Wolf, Connor Zary, Jeremie Poirier, Yan Kuznetsov, Matt Coronato, William Stromgren, and Topi Ronni.

This list would likely be smaller with more hindsight in a few years but as of right now these are some of the Flames top prospects. Of this group that has played NHL games it is: Dustin Wolf, Jakob Pelletier, and Matt Coronato. On the bright side, Coronato seems to be on track to become a decent top-six forward. If Dustin Wolf’s AHL dominance is any indication, he could become a great starting netminder for the future.

It’s tough to say given these players are all still prospects but all-in-all the Flames pool seems to be well positioned for the future. Especially taking into consideration that the Flames are in consistent playoff contention.

Looking at his draft record in totality, Treliving has done well at hitting on first rounders and identifying talent to fill out the roster in the later rounds. Even finding players like Mangiapane, Andersson, Kylington, Dube, and Fox to be reliable everyday NHLers to varying degrees.

As I mentioned before, his draft performance did seem to fall off after 2018. His draft picks have played a total of 26 combined games since then and only three players have played at least a single game. For context, the Leafs have gotten 386 combined games out of their picks since 2018 and have had nine players play at least one game. As well, there have only been two first round picks since 2018 for the Leafs and the Flames had three.