Toronto Maple Leafs Rest of Summer Checklist
By James Tanner
Congrats are in order for Toronto Maple Leafs GM Brad Treliving.
When the disgustingly amoral Edmonton Oilers hired disgraced human and awful GM Stan Bowman to be their new General Manager, Brad Treliving moved up in the overall GM rankings from 32 to 31.
It's not a huge bump, and it's certainly not going to help him get over his fear of making trades, but it's something.
In order to improve his ranking even more, he'll have to complete the following checklist of chores to do before the end of the summer.
Toronto Maple Leafs Rest of Summer Checklist
The Toronto Maple Leafs had a mandate for change but completely forgot about it as soon as they fired Sheldon Keefe.
Instead of creative or interesting moves to help bolster the club, they did the obvious Maple Leafs thing and went for the safest plays while chasing name-brand players.
Thankfully, the core put together by actual quality NHL GMs Kyle Dubas and Lou Lamoriello appears Treliving-Proof.....for now.
The Leafs haven't resolved the Marner or Robertson situations. They don't have a third-line centre. Their forwards - who couldn't score in the playoffs - are worse than they were when the season ended.
They failed to get their goalie, they didn't add the elite blue-liner they've been missing since Kaberle retired, and they still have Kampf and Reaves on the roster.
The Leafs 2024-25 hopes rest on the team's bet on Joseph Woll and the assumption that Matthews, Marner and Nylander will be a trio of MVP candidates. Not to mention a 34 year old physical defenseman with 400 000 miles on his odometer.
Trade David Kampf, Ryan Reaves, Calle Jarnkrok and Conor Timmins. That's $7 million, which, if they are lucky enough to get that awful Hakanpaa contract cancelled could be about $8 +.
Sign Mitch Marner. He can't be traded. He can't enter the season without a contract. Just get it done.
Either trade for another star forward or announce that Mitch Marner is going to play centre. Maybe do both.
The facts are that the Toronto Maple Leafs promised change and didn't deliver. Their team is likely worse than it was last year, and they have not done enough to improve.
There is consolation that at least they are not the Edmonton Oilers, but that only goes so far. Brad Treliving has one month to fix this team, because we all know he doesn't like making trades in season, or at the trade deadline, or before the draft, or at the draft. This is, one assumes, due to the process of elimination, his sweet spot.
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Let's see what he's got.