Brad Treliving’s Worst Trades Prior to Joining the Toronto Maple Leafs
Treliving’s 4th Worst Trade
In April of 2021, Treliving had decided he was through with waiting for Sam Bennett to reach his potential. The Flames believed that Bennett was going to be a top player on the team when they drafted him fourth-overall in 2014.
Bennett looked good during the 2015-16 season. He recorded 18 goals and 18 assists in 77 games. His play then began to decline as did his production. When Treliving chose to cut bait on Bennett, the centre from Holland Landing, Ontario had played in 38 contests that season. Over that span, he scored just four goals and eight assists.
Bennett was traded to the Florida Panthers where he immediately transformed into the player the Flames always hoped he’d become. In the 10 remaining regular season games in 2021, Bennett recorded 15 points on six goals and nine assists. He was also a point-per-game player in those playoffs where he notched five points in five contests.
The strong play continued the following year when Bennett tallied 28 goals and 21 assists. This past season, Bennett once again reached the 40-point mark but his best output helped lead the Panthers to the Stanley Cup Finals. The center collected 15 points in 20 games in the playoffs. They came on five goals and 10 assists.
In exchange for Bennett, the Flames received Emil Heineman’s signing rights and a second round draft pick that was used to select David Goyette. While Goyette is still playing in the OHL for the Sudbury Wolves, Heineman was placed on loan to Leksands IF in the Swedish Hockey League. He will likely be playing for the Laval Rocket in the AHL this coming season.
Treliving’s 3rd Worst Trade
In October of 2018, Treliving moved his then 24-year-old defenseman Brett Kulak to the Montreal Canadiens for two blue line prospects, Rinat Valiev and Matt Taormina.
Valiev may be a familiar name to Toronto Maple Leafs fans. He played 10 games for the Buds in 2015-16 and also spent three years with the Toronto Marlies. At the time of the trade, the left defenseman had played a total of 12 games in the NHL. Valiev never ended up cracking Calgary’s lineup. He played two seasons for Stockton Heat in the AHL before heading to the KHL.
Taormina had more NHL experience than Valiev when he was shipped to Calgary. He had played 59 total games in the NHL. Now retired, Taormina also never made it to the Flames. He remained active for only a single season playing with the Heat before hanging up his skates.
Treliving knew when he traded Kulak that he was giving up the best player in the exchange. Kulak had already played 101 NHL games but was bouncing back and forth between the AHL and NHL.
With Valiev and Taormina unable to make their ways back to the NHL, Kulak established himself as a solid bottom pairing defenseman who deserved full time minutes in the NHL. He is still in the league, playing an important role for the Edmonton Oilers. His current contract pays him an average annual salary of $2,750,000.
Treliving’s 2nd Worst Trade
The biggest mistakes in Treliving’s career body of work have been trading away picks that become established NHL players.
This is forgivable. He shouldn’t be blamed that a third round pick he traded away in February of 2017 to get defenseman Michael Stone turned into goaltender Stuart Skinner. With the Oilers, Skinner made the NHL all-rookie team and was the runner up for the Calder Memorial Trophy, the league’s rookie of the year award.
It’s just bad luck that that same trade also saw Treliving give up a fifth-round pick that was used to take another goaltender Akira Schmid. Schmid too has made his way to the NHL. He looks like he is on pace to have a very promising career with the New Jersey Devils.
It is, however, too painful in the Flames and Treliving’s history to ignore the deal that was made in June of 2016. That’s when Calgary acquired goaltender Brian Elliott from the St. Louis Blues for a pair of draft picks.
Elliott lasted just one season with the Flames before signing a new deal that took him to the Philadelphia Flyers. During his only season in Calgary, Elliott started in 45 games and had a record of 26-18-3. He was good. He had a save percentage of .910 and a goals-against average of 2.55.
Unfortunately for the Flames, that’s all they got out of the trade. On the other end, the Blues made out like thieves. They used the pick their received to select Jordan Kyrou in the second round, 35th overall, in the 2016 NHL Entry Draft.
Kyrou has already established himself as one of the better players in the NHL. Two seasons ago, he had a 75 point campaign. Last year, he had 73, which included 37 goals. Kyrou is so good that GM Doug Armstrong signed him to an eight year $65,000,000 deal in September of 2022. He has a $8,125,000 AAV.
The Worst Trade Brad Treliving Ever Made
Hopefully, Treliving has learned from his mistakes and won’t repeat any of them now that he holds such an important role with the Toronto Maple Leafs. Perhaps the biggest blunder that has helped him learn came in July of 2022.
That’s when Treliving traded his star player Matthew Tkachuk as well as a 2025 fourth round draft pick to the Panthers. He did this to ensure that he received some kind of compensation instead of seeing Tkachuk potentially leave at the conclusion of that season.
What the Flames got was Jonathan Huberdeau, MacKenzie Weegar, Cole Schwindt, and a 2025 first round pick.
Tkachuk, unsurprisingly, was superb with the Panthers. He had a career high, 109 points season. That came off 79 games played where he recorded 40 goals and 69 assists. The 25-year-old right-winger also signed an extension to stay in Florida as part of the trade. He inked eight years $76,000,000, which gives him an AAV of $9,500,000.
What makes this trade worse was Treliving locking in Huberdeau for eight years at a $10,500,000 cap hit. He did the same length for Weegar at $6,250,000. Neither player came near what was expected of them.
Huberdeau went from being a 115 point player on 80 games in Florida to a 55 point player in 79 games in Calgary. He also scored just half the number of goals with the Flames as he did with the Cats.
Weegar also had a drop off in his production. He went from collecting 44 to 31 points. In Weegar’s last two seasons with the Panthers, he received votes for the James Norris Memorial Trophy. That didn’t happen in his single season in Calgary. Additionally, Weegar’s minutes were reduced by over two minutes per game with the Flames.
Cole Schwindt is just 22-years-old and while he doesn’t look like he’s on pace to be an NHL regular, he has now played a total of three games in the league. He was unable to record a point in that time but was on the ice for four goals against.
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Hopefully, now with the Toronto Maple Leafs, this list remains accurate and Treliving’s future trades are far more successful.