The start to the Brad Terliving Era for the Toronto Maple Leafs has been nothing short of disaster.
But credit where credit is due: The Toronto Maple Leafs new GM hit one out of the park with his goaltending situation.
Treliving wasted $11 million dollars making objectively bad bets on Max Domi, David Kampf, Ryan Reaves and John Klingberg. This is a poor way to spend money the team didn’t even have because all four players are extremely likely to be nothing but replacement players, and therefore all are overpaid by a lot.
Just for example, coming off a season in which he was arguably the worst player in the NHL, John Klingberg is now making 4 x as much as Tony DeAngleo. And sure, TD gets a brain-worms discount, but he’s also a significantly better player with a halfway decent shot at getting back to star status.
But as much as I have not liked Treliving’s overall tenure to date, his signing of Tyler Bertuzzi was extremely inspired, and what he’s done with the goalie is nothing short of an elite move.
Credit Where Credit Is Due: Toronto Maple Leafs GM Knocks One Out of the Park
Taking Samonov to arbitration probably wasn’t the best thing to do, but the result is wonderful.
The Toronto Maple Leafs get the NHL’s reigning king of stopping high-danger shots, not to mention a very capable starting goalie, one with extreme upside, for the tiny cap hit of $3.5 million dollars.
Going cheap on goalies is the smartest thing an NHL GM can do, and considering the contract he gave to Jacob Markstrom, it wasn’t clear Treliving knew this, so good for him.
Add in Joseph Woll’s ELC deal (he’s got another year after this one at under 800K) and the Leafs have potentially, at least, the best goalie combo in the NHL for about what they’re going to pay John Klingberg.
A currently elite goalie and a potential franchise altering goalie prospect for under $5 million is absolutely awesome and beyond criticism.
But, add in the fact that Matt Murray is going on the LTIR and the Leafs are flying.
GM Brad Treliving smashed this one out of the park.
The Matt Murray trade is now a resounding win for the Toronto Maple Leafs, and their new GM finally did something besides signing Tyler Bertuzzi that we can all be proud of.
I for one can’t wait to see what he does for an encore.