The Case Against Toronto Maple Leafs GM Brad Treliving
The Toronto Maple Leafs were the 10th overall team and had to over-achieve to get there. They were the 11th best team by expected goals percentage, and the 24th team by 5v5 save percentage.
The Toronto Maple Leafs finished first in 5v5 offense, and 19th in 5v5 defense. They literally lived up to their reputation as an offense-first bad defensive team, only this time they added a superficial amount of "snot" to their lineup to disguise it better. (stats from naturalstattrick.com).
They were underdogs against the Bruins, and took the series to a game-seven overtime coin-flip. Everyone is mad because of past losing, but by focusing on the past they are ignoring what actually happened.
Matthews, Marner and Nylander were sick/injured/not fully recovered from a previous injury. I doubt if one of them played a single game at 100% the entire series. John Tavares was used as a defensive player and Morgan Rielly was stapled to one of the NHL's worst puck handlers.
All of the things that happened are on the coach and the GM. Blaming the players if they don't perform is understandable, but the Leafs did perform. Despite some obviously less than ideal conditions they did better than the ideal version of their team was expected to do. Again, they were a 10th overall team that had to start on the road against (at least by standings points over a two year period) one of the best teams ever.
Being Out of the Playoffs Is on Management, Not the Players
Blame Kyle Dubas if you want - but he's gone.
Treliving had plenty of opportunity to re-make the team as he saw fit. Whatever you think of the job he did, you can't say he just inherited problems from the old regime. Those were Shanhan's problems and he co-signed onto them when he was hired to keep the core together. If he traded Nylander, he would have been able to blame the problems he has on Dubas, but instead he clearly just replaced Dubas as Shanahan's point man.
The new GM had $20 million to spend. He was left with 4 x future Hall of Famers and the option to trade one of them that didn't have a no-movement clause. He also had at least three prime assets to trade (1st round pick, Minten, Cowan).
So how did he do?
Here is the case against Brad Treliving.
The Case Against Brad Treliving
With little to no commentary, here is a list of things that happened to the Leafs this year:
Read it and decide if you think this guy should keep running the team.
Keep in mind as we go that was one of only a few possible Auston Matthews' prime seasons. Despite the narratives about paying four players half the cap, the Leafs had a lot of cap flexibility, and assets to trade if they wanted.
Let's begin:
- They didn't do anything at the trade deadline to give the team a better chance to win in what are very rare circumstances.
- They failed to add to the team, but benched over $8.5 million in Samsonov and Brodie in the playoffs. In a cap league, leaving that much money essentially unused is just an incredibly massive unforced error.
- The Leafs dressed Benoit, Lyubushkin and Edmundson despite building the forwards of a high-flying offensive team. This was completely incompatible and backfired in the worst way when the team scored at least three goals only once and 12 overall in a seven game series.
The Continued Case Against Brad Treliving
- The Toronto Maple Leafs iced a blue-line with quite literally five of the ten worst puck-handling players in the NHL. They did not have to do this, this was another huge unforced error.
- A sixth of the ten worst puck handlers in the league was on their fourth line, making more than the league minimum and inexplicably signed for three years at 37 years of age. Signing Ryan Reaves was embarrassing from day-one and he personally caused the Bruins opening goals in games one and three, half of the Leafs total losses.
- They entered the NHL playoffs with a starting goalie they had recently put on waivers. This is a miscalculation of epic proportions. In the long history of the Toronto Maple Leafs, ignoring the fact that it was one of only a few possible seasons in which Auston Matthews is in his prime and letting Samsonov continue you on as the starter is one of the worst decisions in team history.
- Their $11 million dollar Captain was used primarily as a defensive centre in the series against Boston even though the team made the offensive black-hole known as David Kampf the highest paid 4th liner in the NHL.
- The team was too heavy with one-dimensional players (Domi, Edmundson, Kampf, Dewar, Lyubushkin, Edmundson) and this severely hampered Sheldon Keefe's ability to ice workable options with the lines and pairings.
- The team's inability to score in the playoffs was obvious ahead of time and surprised no one. Their bottom six didn't have any offense and their blue-line couldn't' skate, pass or handle the puck. They had two lines that already couldn't score and used some of their best scorers to match against Boston's first line.
- Going from Ryan O'Reilly to Pontus Holmberg at 3C is bizarre when you write it on paper.
- Not only was the team wrong to stick with Samsonov, and not only was this an easily foreseeable problem, but Joseph Woll is known to be injury prone, so as good as he is, the Leafs knowing had zero reliable goalies on the roster.
- With Marner, Matthews and Tavares all locked in with no-movement clauses, the Leafs could have altered their approach with a Nylander trade. I love Nylander, but given where they are right now, that flexibility sure would be nice.
- Finally, the power-play was problematic towards the end of the season and they never figured it out. Then it lost them their season. This is a combination of the players and bad luck, but it's on the coaches to figure it out.
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For me, coupling this list with the current state of the Calgary Flames makes me incredibly hesitant about moving forward with Brendan Shanahan and Brad Treliving at the helm.