As soon as the Toronto Maple Leafs lost their second-round playoff series to the Florida Panthers last spring attention turned to off-ice moves surrounding the team. A lot happened in a short amount of time.
Despite the Toronto Maple Leafs winning a playoff round for the first time since 2004, there was not much cause for celebration.
The euphoria of knocking off the dynastic Tampa Bay Lightning was followed by a clunker series against the Panthers that once again raised questions about the core players’ postseason performance.
Then, an emotionally drained Kyle Dubas gave a lukewarm reaction to the possibility of returning as the team’s general manager. This came after rumors that the Pittsburgh Penguins would be interested in his services should he become available.
Before long, president Brendan Shanahan dismissed Dubas, and Brad Treliving, ex-GM of the Calgary Flames, replaced him.
With little time, Treliving was presented with a lengthy “to-do” list for his first summer on the job.
The Leafs had a bevy of players headed for unrestricted free agency. Among them were key contributors or important trade acquisitions by Dubas. Michael Bunting, Alex Kerfoot, Justin Holl, Ryan O’Reilly, Noel Acciari, and Luke Schenn all left the team.
Treliving replaced them by signing John Klingberg, Tyler Bertuzzi, Max Domi, Ryan Reaves, Dylan Gambrell, and goaltender Martin Jones.
The interesting aspect around Treliving’s free agent signings is that aging enforcer Reaves was his only multi-year commitment. The rest of the newcomers are on “prove-it”, one-year deals.
Treliving also had to decide what to do with the head coaching position. Incumbent Sheldon Keefe has presided over one of the most successful regular-season eras in team history. However, like his players, he hasn’t delivered when it counts.
Rather than start over with his selection for head coach, as new GMs are known to do, he decided to stick with Keefe.
The last, and most significant, item for Treliving was to figure out a way to get his star players signed to new deals. Auston Matthews and William Nylander are franchise cornerstones that can potentially reach unrestricted free agency during the summer of 2024.
Since the activity during free agency, all has been relatively quiet around the Leafs. As the clock on summer winds down that will soon change.
Next month, action around the Leafs will pick up. When preseason begins, there will be no shortage of questions and storylines to contemplate.