The Toronto Maple Leafs are officially in the Summer of Treliving. He began reshaping the Leafs last season with the free-agent signings of Anthony Stolarz, Chris Tanev, Steven Lorentz, and Oliver Ekman-Larsson and adding Scott Laughton and Brandon Carlo at the NHL trade deadline. Now, he has more freedom than last season to reshape the Leafs' lineup, so we'll see how he does as the main man in charge.
Treliving, along with Leafs head coach Craig Berube, have the opportunity to shape this team the way they believe is best suited for winning. After Shanahan was relieved of his duties by MLSE, fans and the media were told that Treliving was in charge of running this team and that Berube would have more input than most NHL head coaches do. The two have wasted little time reshaping the organization from the bottom up.
This was apparent when the 2025 NHL Draft was complete, and the average size of the Leafs newest prospects was 6-foot-3. Gone are the Kyle Dubas days of drafting a bunch of smaller players. The Leafs drafted players with size, but more importantly, drafted players with a strong work ethic and compete level.
Treliving is also off to a great start with free agency around the corner. He was able to re-sign John Tavares to a four-year deal and keep the cap hit ($4.38 million) under $5 million. Something that no one thought possible. Treliving then followed that up with the re-signing of restricted free agent Matthew Knies for six years with an AAV of $7.75 million. Again, a cap hit lower than expected for a deal that is six years, but Treliving got it done.
Those two contracts were some tidy work by Treliving. He found a way to get both Tavares and Knies re-signed for a combined salary cap hit of $11.925 million for the 2025-26 season. The Leafs will now enter free agency with $13.57 million in available cap space, which should be more than enough to address the team's needs. I expect Treliving to likely re-sign UFA Steven Lorentz, as well as upgrade the bottom six with low-cost free agents. The largest chunk of cap space will go towards the one or two players Treliving signs to reshape the top six in the absence of Mitch Marner.