Toronto Maple Leafs general manager Brad Treliving met with the media on Tuesday morning for his quarter-season press conference. He spoke with reporters for 18 minutes, but in that short window there was some pretty important information.
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He talked about a few key items like the future of the head coach, injuries, depth, and the overall state of the team. So let’s dive right into it.
Treliving Takes Responsibility for Poor Start
It’s not everyday you see a GM of the most talked about hockey team meet with the media and take full responsibility for how poorly his team has been playing. But on Tuesday, we did. Leafs Nation tuned in expecting to hear something about upcoming changes, but instead they heard “We’re not where we want to be,” Treliving said, his tone flat and serious. “We’ve underperformed. I take responsibility. I’m in charge of the hockey department. I put the people in place.”
It has been a struggle for the Maple Leafs since the start of the season. This is a team coming off a year where they won the Atlantic Division title, and now they find themselves sitting in the bottom ten of the league. The hardest part of their struggles ties back to their first round pick in the upcoming draft. They don’t have it because of the trade with the Boston Bruins for Brandon Carlo. It was top-five protected, so there is a chance they could get it back, but that would mean finishing in the bottom five. The one silver lining? A better shot at Gavin McKenna.
Treliving Puts His Faith in Berube
Another big topic in the Toronto market was whether head coach Craig Berube was on the hot seat. According to Treliving, he has full confidence in Berube, at least for this season. Treliving said “Craig didn’t become a bad coach overnight. When you go through difficult times, the easy thing is to pick off the coach. The important thing is to not point fingers and dig in together. I have all the faith in the world in him.”
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It’s pretty clear the issue isn’t Berube. It might be as simple as a personnel problem, which means it’s on Treliving to figure out what needs to change for them to get back to being a winning hockey club. Right now, we know the Maple Leafs are exploring a roster-for-roster trade, but that’s about it. What we do know is you shouldn’t expect Berube to be fired anytime soon.
Treliving Speaks on Injuries and Depth
Since he took over, Treliving has used a few unique words to describe his team. First there was “snot”, something he wanted to add to the lineup. And on Tuesday, he used “vanilla.” He said “There’s been too much vanilla. When you’re going well… you have a pretty good idea how it’s going to look from night to night. A large part of the frustration is you don’t know how it’s going to look.” Unfortunately, they aren’t playing well, and a lot of that can be tied to the massive number of injuries they’ve had.
Right now, seven NHL regulars are on the injury list: Auston Matthews, Brandon Carlo, Chris Tanev, Scott Laughton, Anthony Stolarz, Matthew Knies, and Nicolas Roy. When you look at that list, those are some of their best players. That’s a huge loss. It’s one of the major reasons they’ve struggled. On top of that, their depth players haven’t produced much at all. The lack of offense from the bottom of the lineup has hurt them, which circles back to why the Maple Leafs are eyeing a roster-for-roster trade. They want to move out a few depth players who haven’t fit and bring in ones who might help shift the culture. Treliving summed it up by saying “You have to have patience in this job. But patience isn’t inactivity.”
