The Toronto Maple Leafs fired Kyle Dubas, and it was a mistake that will haunt them for years. But that’s fine. This is a business – there was a power-struggle and he lost. I’m not going to lose much sleep over it.
I figured the Toronto Maple Leafs would continue down the same path, since Shanahan has proven to be much more hands on that previously thought.
But I was wrong.
Instead it looks like the Leafs hired the second-coming of Dave Nonis to run things, because the early returns on Brad Treliving are not just bad, they’re embarrassing.
Toronto Maple Leafs New GM Seems Incompetent
The Leafs had a chance for a fresh start.
Instead they brought back Sheldon Keefe (who is getting fired the first time things go sideways.)
Then they started making noise about keeping Justin Holl, Alex Kerfoot and David Kampf.
They actually signed David Kampf, a player who is heading towards 30, and who doesn’t score. A player with a 39% Xgoals rating in this past year’s playoffs.
Kampf doesn’t do anything you can’t get for the league minimum, so that’s $1.4 million in cap space set ablaze.
Then when free agency opened, the Toronto Maple Leafs signed Ryan Reaves, a 37 year old face-puncher in a league where fighting is all but disappearing.
This is a three year contract for $1.3 million, which is .5 over the league minimum, which means the Leafs are wasting $1.1 million per year so far on new contracts they didn’t need to sign.
Ryan Reaves for three years is too long.
— dom 📈 (@domluszczyszyn) July 1, 2023
Ryan Reaves at $1.3M is too much.
The surplus value listed here is generous because I created a lower limit that Reaves' play falls well below. pic.twitter.com/togsrfAu32
Literally any AHL player can equal what Kampf and Reaves do – with more upside.
If you add in the fact that the Leafs still have Sam Lafferty their bottom-six now includes one full line of negative value players who cannot score to save their lives.
For a team that failed to score in the playoffs yet again, this shows an almost pathological refusal to recognize the team’s actual weaknesses. Toughness wasn’t even 1% of a factor in why the Leafs lost.
Good News: the Good News is that Ryan O’Reilly and Luke Schenn both signed with Nashville. The Toronto Maple Leafs probably wanted to get both players back, but the horrible management of the Predators saved them from themselves.
Free Agency only just opened, so here is hoping the Toronto Maple Leafs Actually do something smart. So far the start of the Brad Treliving Era has been way too similar to the Dave Nonis Era for my tastes.
It looks like the Leafs hired a dud.
If they want perception to change, a good start would be signing Matt Duchene to a discount deal, as he’s the best player available. It would also be a smart decision to bring in Kane or Tarasenko if they were cheap enough. (Like $1 million each).
The main thing the Leafs have to do is trade for Erik Karlsson.
Let’s see what happens next.