Toronto Maple Leafs: Brad Trelivings First Move a Total Dud

The Toronto Maple Leafs waited a long time for incoming GM Brad Treliving to make his first move and it’s a total dud.

The Toronto Maple Leafs are – according to Darren Dregar – bring back David Kampf on a multi year deal. 

This is a waste of cap space, and it’s near lunacy to give him multiple years.

This is a horrible move for the Leafs and Treliving,

Toronto Maple Leafs Open the Treliving Era With a Dud

The should not be paying David Kampf over the league minimum because he isn’t a star and never will be.  (stats naturalstattrick.com).

They should not be interested in playing David Kampf because he is an offensive black-hole and brings no offence to a team that desperately needs offense.  I realize Treliving was probably not watching the Leafs lose in the playoffs the last four or five years, but every year it boils down to an inability to score.

One of the major reasons they didn’t score beyond their star players is because they dressed a defense-only bottom-six (and an ancient and declining Ryan O’Reielly) that couldn’t get it done.

The ice time Sheldon Keefe allots to Kampf is a major reason why.

Kampf is a solid defensive player but most of his great work turns out to be because of Pierre Engvall. Without Engvall Kampf was terrible.

He is a major contributor to the Leafs having no identity.

He also blocks more deserving prospects from getting a chance to play.

This was an easy slam-dunk for the Leafs, all they had to do was let Kampf walk in free-agency where another team would overpay him.  It was a chance to win twice.

Instead, they fumbled the easy play and now are stuck with this dud for multiple years.

According to Dregar, it is a multi-year deal with a cap hit of $2.5.  That’s a waste of $1.5 million.

Kampf lost his minutes in 2022-23 skating to a 48% expected goals rating, with an absolutely career-threatening 39% expected goals rating in the playoffs.

The problem with Kampf is that his reputation as a great defender sees him playing tough minutes and that means too much ice time for a player who can’t score.  Additionally, when Kampf was paired with anyone else but Engvall it was a complete disaster.

Pierre Engvall and David Kampf were able to punch above their weight and play star players and win their minutes.  That was a decent strategy, especially on the road, but it also got annoying because it lead to Keefe getting cute and trying to get Matthews easy matchups.

The problem with that: It’s Auston Matthews, he doesn’t need an easy matchup and trying to get him one makes him (and the team) look weak.

Also, when Engvall was traded, Kampf cratered (see the playoff performance).

This is a horrible move for the Leafs.  Kampf is going to turn 29 this year.  Literally playing any member of the Marlies would have been an improvement.

The Brad Treliving Era just got off to a rocky start that inspires no confidence.  This move gets a 0/10 and an F-.