It feels repetitive to say this at this point, but the Toronto Maple Leafs are not having a great season. The team that finished the 2024–25 season atop the Atlantic Division and came within one win of the Eastern Conference Final currently sits at the bottom of the Atlantic Division, eight points out of a wild-card spot, with a record that is just barely above .500.
While the team’s woes can be attributed to multiple factors, including injuries, it has quickly become clear that Toronto’s current general manager, Brad Treliving, is simply not being decisive enough in how to best fix the Leafs’ situation. And with the team’s current situation being the worst it has been in the Auston Matthews era, is it time for the Leafs to send Treliving packing?
No progress in Leaf land
Treliving hasn’t been on the job overly long in Toronto, with him being named the team’s GM less than three years ago on May 31, 2023. And while his small tenure may be seen as a reason to give Treliving more time to take the team to new heights, the lack of progress the team has made during that time is quite concerning.
With the exit of former GM Kyle Dubas, many assumed that this meant big change for a team that had been relying far too much on its “Core Four” group of Auston Matthews, Mitch Marner, John Tavares and William Nylander, but if we are being honest, that never truly came to fruition.
Not much has changed
In Treliving’s first season, he made minor additions, bringing in forwards Tyler Bertuzzi and Max Domi, and while the team did finish third in the Atlantic, they finished nine points shy of their record from the previous season. And when it came time for the playoffs, the Leafs underperformed compared to their second-round appearance from the year prior, getting eliminated by the Boston Bruins in the first round.
In 2024–25, Treliving had a busier and more successful offseason, bolstering the team’s defence corps with Chris Tanev and Oliver Ekman-Larsson, and keeping things clean at forward by bringing back Max Domi. Possibly the biggest change, however, came when Treliving opted to part ways with former coach Sheldon Keefe and brought in former St. Louis Blues bench boss Craig Berube.
One thing Treliving kept, though, was the Core Four, despite much fan outcry, mainly around star winger Mitch Marner. In the end, the Leafs had a very solid regular season, and while they did make it further in the playoffs than the previous season, they were still unable to advance past the second round. And that brings us to this season, where, as we’ve stated many times, the Leafs just haven’t been all that great.
Time for change?
The biggest knock on Treliving’s Leafs tenure has been the lack of real change he has brought to the team player-wise, and that has been increasingly noticeable this season. Despite the team’s struggles in the standings and a plethora of injuries, Treliving hasn’t made a single trade this season to help aid in the team’s struggles. In fact, the Leafs haven’t made a trade since the team acquired left winger Dakota Joshua from the Vancouver Canucks back on July 17.
But even before this season’s struggles, Treliving and co. severely fumbled the team’s situation with Marner. It was reported that at the 2025 trade deadline, the Leafs had a chance to make a deal with the Carolina Hurricanes that would see them acquire star forward Mikko Rantanen in exchange for Marner. But when Treliving approached Marner about the potential deal, Marner exercised his no-move clause and rejected the move, saying that he wanted to stay in Toronto. But we all know what happened in the end: Marner left in the offseason via a sign-and-trade with the Vegas Golden Knights, and in return, the Leafs got far less than the player they lost.
While it was Marner who rejected the trade, we saw players like Jacob Trouba with no-trade clauses still get moved last season with some finessing from GMs. The fact that Marner wasn’t moved by the 2025 deadline, or signed to an extension, was a horrible move by Treliving, and one that is still haunting the Leafs today. And nearly a year after he failed to acquire Rantanen, this year’s deadline will be the true test of whether Treliving will prove his worth in Toronto.
The trade deadline
Treliving touched on the upcoming March 7 deadline during an appearance on Thursday’s episode of TSN’s “Overdrive” show.
“I think we’ve got some really good players,” Treliving said. “I’m not doing an autopsy on the team. We’re not in the position we want to be in. You’ve always got to be able to read and react and act accordingly. The top end of our lineup, we’ve got some really good players, we’ve got to continue to watch, evaluate and make the necessary decisions.”
This trade deadline will be a big moment for Treliving. If he really thinks this team, as constructed, can overcome injury troubles and get back to playoff contention, then he needs to make some win-now moves to make that possible. But if he deems the team flawed and in need of a cultural reset, then it could be time for Treliving to become a seller for some of the team’s top assets. But what Treliving can’t do is nothing. Fans are tired of the status quo, and if the team shows no signs of even attempting to correct the current course, Treliving may, and probably should, be looking for a new job.
Breaking down if it would not be smart: With only about a month left to the deadline, a new GM would not have enough time to trade players. Treliving is the only one who can do it at this point. This is why they couldn’t trade Marner before he went NMC. Treliving started 1 month before! Quite true that FINALLY being rid of Dubas, many of us including myself assumed the new GM would FINALLY break up this losing and no leadership core. That should have happened his first off-season and instead, went 2 years more!! Sure, Shanahan could have demanded the core 4 stay but them that’s on Treliving for accepting those foolish terms. Several of us have been saying for many years the Leafs cannot make much real change without changing that soft, disappearing and lacking leadership of all forwards core 4. Marner knew the damage he was doing to the Leafs by not accepting to be traded just before going UFA and having the Leafs lose him for little. It is not really on Treliving as Marner said no on a NMC and it’s Shanahan and Dubas who messed up on the contract and two years ago with Marner!! It’s true that many believed great change was coming with the change of GMs and Treliving has done little. He must stay for trades until the deadline then he can go.
Treliving shares responsiblity with Shanahan who was his boss and waited till a week before no trade kicked in to hire Tre. Dubas who made it difficult to move Marner by signing him to tat contract, Marner who refused to work with the leafs to get more in a trade, the fans who hated him and let him know, and his teammates like Nylander who did not always stick up for him the way he wanted. Lots of blame to go around.