One year after buying big at the trade deadline, Brad Treliving was a seller this season. What led to Toronto’s fall from contender status?
“There’s a whole host of reasons,” the Leafs general manager said. “I’ll take responsibility … The failures here start with me and once we get through the end of the season there’ll be all sorts of evaluation.”
Treliving did not want to do a full debrief on Friday.
“I don’t look at today as the autopsy day,” the 56-year-old said during a subdued session with reporters. “We got 19 games to go.”
But during a nearly 15-minute question-and-answer session, Treliving did acknowledge “some roster construction issues” and noted he’s been “concerned for a while” with the team’s play.
The Leafs have struggled to overcome injuries to key players this year, including defenceman Chris Tanev, who suited up in just 11 games and had season-ending surgery earlier this week. Goalies Joseph Woll and Anthony Stolarz also both missed significant time.
“But if you’re deep enough and you’re good enough, you can overcome those things,” Treliving said. “We never were able to consistently get traction.”
And the path forward now is unclear. Is this the start of a minor retool, or only the beginning of a bigger rebuild? MLSE president Keith Pelley sidestepped a question about the Leafs future this week.
“There’s got to be some change,” Treliving said. “It’s been a disappointing year … You have to sit down and be real analytical. You have to be real clear, and you have to be real honest of where you’re at and, at that point, make some decisions.”
The Leafs finished first in the Atlantic Division last season and pushed the eventual Stanley Cup champion Florida Panthers to seven games in the second round of the playoffs.
Treliving on tough Leafs’ season: ‘The failures here start with me’ Following the NHL trade deadline, Maple Leafs GM Brad Treliving spoke to media about the team’s roster construction issues throughout the season and explains the moves he made at the deadline to recoup assets in what is trending towards a lost season. Treliving touched on why a trade for defenceman Oliver Ekman-Larsson did not materialize and how the offers he got did not meet his expectations.
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The Leafs have fallen eight points out of a playoff spot thanks to an 0-4-2 skid out of the Olympic break.
“We came out of the break flat and it’s important for us to find out why,” Treliving said. “I can’t give you a good reason. It’s not anything we anticipated. We’re pros. We’re in the best league in the world. It’s a privilege to play in the league and we got to compete as such.”
Treliving revealed that even before the break the decision was made to try and recoup assets at this deadline. The organization’s cupboard is relatively bare due to all the buying Toronto has done during a nine-year playoff streak.
The Leafs ended up adding five draft picks this week.
Treliving traded centre Nicolas Roy on Thursday, who has one year remaining on his contract beyond this season, and shipped out pending unrestricted free agent forwards Scott Laughton and Bobby McMann just before Friday’s deadline.
“We were trying to be as active as we could to obtain and acquire as many young assets as we could,” Treliving said. “Like everything else, you hope and wish it was more.”
Toronto received a conditional first-round selection (2027) and a conditional fifth-round selection (2026) from the Colorado Avalanche in exchange for Roy.
The Leafs acquired a second-round draft pick (2027) and a fourth-round draft pick (2026) from the Seattle Kraken for McMann.
Toronto garnered a conditional third round pick (2026) from the Los Angeles Kings for Laughton. It will become a second-round pick if the Kings make the playoffs. Los Angeles is three points out entering play on Friday.
Leafs trade McMann to Kraken for two future picks at the trade deadline buzzer The Maple Leafs have traded forward Bobby McMann to the Kraken in exchange for a second round pick in 2027 and a fourth round pick in 2026.
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The McMann and Laughton trades did not get officially announced until more than three hours after the 3 p.m. ET deadline.
“We weren’t leaving anything [late],” Treliving insisted. “There was lots of activity of outbound calls and not a ton inbound. It went down to the witching hour.”
The Leafs scratched Laughton, McMann and defenceman Oliver Ekman-Larsson in an asset protection move in the last two games before the deadline.
“It’s been wild,” McMann told TSN’s James Duthie after news of the trade broke. “Tree called me a couple days ago and said, ‘Taking you out of the lineup.’ I thought it would probably happen a little bit sooner, and then I spent the last 48 hours kind of waiting it out. Luckily had a couple guys with me who have been through it before in Laughton and [Ekman-Larsson], which was nice, but then it was just playing the waiting game. It was 3:05, 3:06 and got the call from my agent that I’m going to Seattle, so [I’m] pretty excited.”
McMann had hoped to sign a contract extension with the team that developed him from an undrafted college free agent into a 20-goal NHL scorer.
“There was mutual interest in trying to get it done,” the 29-year-old said. “I think it just came down to where the team was at and how things were going for the organization. I think Tree wanted to take a different approach and try and rejig the team as much as he could. I think it came down to that more than anything. It’s a place that I’ve loved to play for a long time. I was super happy with the opportunity that everyone gave me and I’m always going to be thankful for that. So definitely good memories there, but excited to move on.”
Ekman-Larsson, who still has two years left on his contract beyond this season, wasn’t moved on Friday.
“At the end of the day, there was some interest in Oliver,” Treliving said. “With term left on his contract, we required a return that I thought would be fair, and nobody met that level.”
‘I thought it would happen sooner’: McMann details waiting to be traded out of Toronto Pending UFA Bobby McMann was sent from Toronto to Seattle ahead of the NHL trade deadline. McMann spoke about being held out of the Maple Leafs lineup while playing the waiting game to see where he is going, how he was unable to avoid speculation, where extension negotiations were in Toronto and more.
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Treliving acquired Laughton at the trade deadline last year in in a deal that saw a first-round pick (2027) and prospect Nikita Grebenkin go to the Philadelphia Flyers.
“I can’t speak highly enough about Scott Laughton,” Treliving said. “You know, not only his play, but he’s as quality a human as you’re going to find.”
So, why did Laughton only end up returning a conditional third-round pick this year?
“We communicated with everybody, and ultimately the market dictates [it],” Treliving said. “And that’s where it fell here for Scott today.”
Maple Leafs deal Laughton to Kings for third-round pick As news of trades continue to trickle in past the deadline, Brad Treliving and the Maple Leafs have sent forward Scott Laughton to the Los Angeles Kings for a third-round pick that could become a second-round pick if the Kings make the playoffs.
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Also at last year’s deadline, Treliving sent a first-round pick (2026) and top prospect Fraser Minten to the Boston Bruins in exchange for defenceman Brandon Carlo. The pick is only top-five protected. Why?
“Because that’s what we had to do to get the deal done last year,” Treliving said.
How hard did Treliving push to try and get top-10 protection?
“We pushed,” he said.
The Leafs are 12th from the bottom of the overall league standings. So, barring some more losing and/or really good luck in the draft lottery, Toronto will likely not have a pick in the first round in June’s draft.
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Treliving has backed up head coach Craig Berube repeatedly during this difficult season.
“I think Craig’s a terrific coach,” Treliving said again on Friday. “It hasn’t worked, right? So when it doesn’t work, we all share a blame and we all share responsibility in it. It starts with myself. It’s the coaches, it’s the players, we all are partners in this thing and, when it goes poorly, we all got responsibility for it. But, again, to do a summation right now, I think is premature. But, like everything else, we’ll review it at the end of the year.”
Berube sounded as frustrated as he’s been all season following Thursday’s 6-2 loss to the New York Rangers, who occupy last place in the Eastern Conference.
“Definitely frustrated,” Berube said. “Pissed off. The games are right there and we don’t push as a team hard enough to win them.”
With the Leafs trailing 5-2, Berube pulled Woll for an extra attacker with more than five minutes left.
“I’m not going to give up,” the coach explained. “I’m just not going to do that.”
In a rare move, Leafs media relations cut off Berube’s media availability after only five questions (two minutes and 17 seconds) on Thursday night.
‘Pissed off’ Berube on pulling goalie with Leafs down three: ‘I’m not going to give up’ Craig Berube discusses the mood after another loss on Thursday night and explains why he decided to pull their goalie down three goals in the third period.
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The players are frustrated as well.
“It sucks,” said Woll. “It sucks losing. It sucks being in this position. I haven’t been in this position since I’ve been here. It’s not a fun feeling, like, selling or whatever that might be. It sucks. I hate it. It’s way more fun when you’re winning. We have to get out of this slump regardless of what the rest of the season looks like.”
The looming deadline weighed on the Leafs’ players this week, with centre John Tavares describing it as “the elephant in the room.”
Toronto’s last win came on Feb. 3.
“We are where we are,” said Tavares. “So, we can feel sorry for ourselves or be disappointed, or we can stick together and continue to fight our way through things and try to build from where we’re at.”
Woll on Leafs being in sell mode for first time in his career: ‘It sucks. I hate it’ Joseph Woll talks about his performance as the Maple Leafs dropped their sixth straight game. He also touches on the team being in ‘sell’ mode ahead of Friday’s trade deadline.
The Leafs’ streak of nine straight playoff appearances, the longest active run in the NHL, appears destined to end this spring.
“There’s a certain standard and expectation that we want to have and the type of culture that’s really important, and that’s been, you know, built over a long time where we’ve been in the mix and in contention,” Tavares said. “And right now we’re on the outside and that’s not something you take lightly … It’s really important going forward that it’s not about feeling sorry for yourself or being disappointed where you’re at. We are where we are. We have to continue to fight and work through things and find ways to get better.”
Tavares on trade deadline: ‘There’s the elephant in the room with what’s coming’ John Tavares talks to the media after the Maple Leafs loss to the Rangers. He touches on the looming trade deadline knowing the team is looking to sell off some key pieces.
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Auston Matthews did not score in New York and has now gone 10 straight games without a goal.
“It’s tough,” Matthews said. “I mean, I think these last three games, [I’ve] had a lot of good chances, just, you know, haven’t been able to see one go in. But, I mean, the chances are there. Sometimes you go through these stretches and you’ve just got to grind your way out of them.”
Toronto’s top-line centre has fired 18 shots on net in the last three games.
This is the second-longest drought of his NHL career and the longest dry spell since a 13-game stretch in his rookie season.
Berube has credited Matthews, who has seven assists in the last 10 games, for staying positive and providing solid two-way play while also acknowledging the team needs its top-paid player to produce.
Treliving was asked about Matthews’ performance during an appearance on OverDrive on TSN 1050 on Friday.
“It hasn’t gone in for him recently,” Treliving said. “He knows it. He wants it to go in. He wants to be productive. But it is also on us to help him and get players and a cast around him to assist him. That is how I look at it.”
Matthews, who saw long-time linemate Mitch Marner leave Toronto in free agency last summer, has scored 26 times in 57 games this season, which puts him on pace for 35 goals. He scored a career-low 33 goals in 67 games last season while playing through a nagging back injury.
“I have all the faith in the world — and no hesitation in thinking — Auston will be an elite player moving forward,” Treliving said. “He is just, in my opinion, entering the prime of his career. He is the leader of the team. We saw it on the world stage in the Olympics. Auston is a top player.”
‘It’s tough’: Matthews vows to grind his way out of 10-game goal drought The Maple Leafs have lost all six games since returning from the Olympic break and Auston Matthews hasn’t scored in 10 games. He talks about his struggles to find the back of the net and getting the team back on track.
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Leafs lines to start Thursday’s game:
Maccelli – Matthews – Nylander
Knies – Tavares – Cowan
Joshua – Domi – Robertson
Lorentz – Quillan – Jarnkrok
Rielly – Carlo
McCabe – Stecher
Benoit – Myers
Woll
Stolarz