Brad Treliving's Deadline History Cause for Concern for the Toronto Maple Leafs
Breaking down Brad Treliving's Trade Deadline History and why Maple Leafs fans should be concerned
The trade deadline is just a few days away and the Toronto Maple Leafs still have a couple of holes to fill in their lineup, if they want to be a serious Stanley Cup Contender.
Whether it be the defense or goaltending, the Toronto Maple Leafs will definitely have to address one, if not both, of these weak spots in the coming days.
Having both, Lybushkin and Simon Benoit in the starting lineup come day one of the playoffs is not ideal considering, they are both below-average puck movers and should be playing on the third pair.
Lybushkin is an okay 7th or 8th defenceman for a playoff run but he should not be Morgan Rielly's or anyone else's partner on day one of the playoffs.
But with Treliving's trade deadline history, it is unlikely the Maple Leafs make trade that would move the needle before the deadline on March 8th.
While there are many players who would help the Leafs excell in the playoffs - players such as Noah Hanifin, Jake Guentzel and Juuse Saros - the Leafs are being linked to much smaller fish.
Given his so-so tenure up to this point, Leafs fans have a right to question whether Treliving is ultimately the man to run the team, but his past record at trade deadlines is not going encourage any of the doubters.
Let's look into it.
Treliving's Ugly Trade History
Brad Treliving was the general manager of Calgary for just less than a decade.
In that time Calgary made the playoffs five times and was deemed a "contender" in two of those years, 2019 and 2022.
The other three years (2015, 2017, 2020) they finished middle of the pack in the conference and Treliving did not make any substantial moves.
He traded for depth pieces such as Derek Forbort (2020), Erik Gustafsson (2020), Curtis Lazar (2017), and decided to stand pat in 2015.
In 2019, the Flames had played 62 games, were 39-16-7 on deadline day and Treliving made one move. He traded a conditional 4th-round pick to the L.A Kings in exchange for Oscar Fantenberg.
To put it into perspective, that record would be second in the league this season, just one point behind the Florida Panthers (on March 3rd) and better than the Vancouver Canucks who are 38-17-7 through 62 games.
While Treliving was twiddling his thumbs players such as Mark Stone, Kevin Hayes, Kevin Fiala, and Mikhail Granlund were all moved to western conference teams.
The Flames ended up winning eleven of their last twenty regular season games and lost in five games to the Colorado Avalanche in the first round.
Treliving Trade History 2022
In 2022, Treliving made his biggest in-season trade in his tenure as Flames GM. He acquired Tyler Toffoli a month before the trade deadline from the Montreal Canadians for a conditional 1st round pick, 5th round pick, prospect Emil Heineman and depth forward Tyler Pitlick.
He than proceeded to make two trades closer to deadline day acquiring Calle Jarnkrok from the Seattle Kraken and Ryan Carpenter from the Chicago Blackhawks for draft picks.
The 2022 Flames finished with a very similar record to that of the 2019 Flames and went on to win one round before losing to the Edmonton Oilers in round 2.
What does this mean for the Toronto Maple Leafs?
The 2019 and 2022 Flames were not that different. They both featured the same star players in Matthews Tkachuk, Johnny Gaudreau, Elias Lindholm, Noah Hanifin and Rasmus Anderson. The only difference is that in 2019 Treliving had time on his side.
Many of the players listed above had multiple years left on their deal and Treliving could afford to decide not to bolster the lineup without any repercussions, like players leaving in free agency. In 2022, Treliving's hands were tied and he had to show star players Johnny Gaudreau and Matthew Tkachuk that he was serious about winning. However, this did not end up helping as Tkachuk and Gaudreau both moved on in the off-season.
With all of the Maple Leafs core locked up for at least one more year, Treliving may decide that this group does not have what it takes to win, as he did in 2019.
It would be a bizarre decision to make considering you have Auston Matthews in his prime and you should be going all in every year, but I have a feeling that Treliving will decide to stand pat at this year's trade deadline.
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His trade history shows that he is not one to tinker with his roster during the season and prefers to do his business in the summer. With just a few days until the trade deadline, I guess we'll see if Treliving's philosophy has changed at all.