Will Toronto Maple Leafs GM Brad Treliving Add Familiar Faces?

As the new general manager of the Toronto Maple Leafs, will Brad Treliving bring in a few familiar faces from his time as the GM in Calgary?

The Toronto Maple Leafs recently added Shane Doan to be an assistant GM to Treliving. Doan and Treliving worked together during Treliving’s time in the Arizona Coyotes organization. One would assume he’ll add a familiar face or two from his time with the Calgary Flames.

If Treliving does add players from the Flames, which ones will he target? Will he make a trade with his former team or sign Flames players who are unrestricted free agents (UFA) this off-season? Treliving isn’t here to be Kyle Dubas 2.0, so fans can expect a different approach to how this team will be structured.

During his press conference, Treliving said he isn’t going to make changes for the sake of making changes. Any changes he does make will hopefully be to improve the Toronto Maple Leafs roster and prepare them better for the playoffs.

Will Treliving Add These Flames Players to Toronto Maple Leafs?

Milan Lucic

Milan Lucic was once a thorn in the side of the Toronto Maple Leafs. While playing for the Boston Bruins, he made life miserable for Leafs players and fans alike. It’s been almost a decade since Lucic played for the Bruins. He’s been playing in the western conference since the 2015-16 season.

The 35-year-old Lucic recently joined Nick Alberga and Jay Rosehill on Leafs Nations podcast Leafs Morning Take. They brought up the idea of Lucic playing in Toronto. Lucic responded by saying he’d never rule anything out.

He highlighted Toronto being an original six franchise and having some familiarity on the team with GM Brad Treliving and defenseman Mark Giordano being here. He mentioned that Giordano and his friend Jake Muzzin have both told him how world-class the Toronto Maple Leafs organization is, so he would be thrilled to play here.

Dan Vladar

Earlier this month, Sportsnet senior columnist Eric Francis joined The Hockey Verse podcast and discussed his thoughts on Brad Treliving joining the Toronto Maple Leafs. One of the things he mentioned was that he predicted Treliving would be the Leafs new GM, and Calgary’s goaltender Dan Vladar being their starting goaltender by opening night.

For the goaltending situation to happen, Treliving would need to make a trade with Calgary for Vladar. The 25-year-old Vladar is under contract for two more seasons with a $2.2 million cap hit. A few goaltending pieces in Toronto would need to be dealt with first. Matt Murray is in the final year of his contract, Ilya Samsonov is an RFA, and prospect Joseph Woll is NHL-ready.
(Salary cap info from capfriendly.com)

If Brad Treliving wants to bring Milan Lucic to Toronto, it needs to be for the league minimum of $750,000. As for Vladar, I don’t think he’s better than Samsonov or Woll. It should be an interesting summer for Treliving, the Toronto Maple Leafs, and their fans.