The Toronto Maple Leafs are facing an off-season of change. Team President Brendan Shanahan is gone, and pending unrestricted free agent, Mitch Marner appears to be following him out the door. During his recent press conference, MLSE CEO Keith Pelley said he would not replace Shanahan. This doesn't mean that Leafs GM Brad Treliving will assume both roles, but it will allow Treliving to make moves (trades and signings) without oversight from Shanahan.
There were rumours that Shanahan had stepped in to block trades on several occasions. Treliving will no longer have that issue. Whether that's a good or bad thing remains to be unknown. According to puckpedia.com, the Leafs currently have $25.7 million in free cap space to fill six roster spots for a complete 23-man roster. This will be Treliving's third off-season as the Leafs GM, but first without any oversight from Shanahan, so we'll see how he chooses to fill those six roster spots.
The Leafs are set on defense, with seven defensemen signed for next season. They also don't have to worry about their goaltending, as both Joseph Woll and Anthony Stolarz will be returning next season. So, Treliving's main issue going into free agency will be to solidify his forward group. A group that will likely not include Marner for the first time in a decade. It will be interesting to see which types of players Treliving will target. He won't be able to replace Marner's production (102 points) through free agency. However, trades are always an option.
One UFA from the Leafs lineup who appears to be staying is John Tavares. Many are reporting that he will likely re-sign for half of what he was making on his last deal ($11 million) which puts him in the $5.5 million range on a 3-4 year deal. Re-signing Tavares to this deal or something similar will leave Treliving with around $20 million to spend on other UFAs and re-signing some of the Leafs RFAs, like Matthew Knies. The question is, which UFAs should Treliving target?
(All stats from hockey-reference.com)