The Toronto Maple Leafs fired Brad Treliving on Monday, ending his run as general manager after just under three seasons.
The dismissal had become a foregone conclusion in the wake of the worst Leafs season in a decade, their first without the playoffs since 2016, ending the longest streak in the NHL.
“Throughout the course of this season, there has been deep analysis into both the current state of the Maple Leafs organization and the direction needed to achieve the ultimate goal of delivering a Stanley Cup championship to the city,” said Maple Leaf Sports & Entertainment president Keith Pelley. “Brad Treliving is a man that we all have deep respect and appreciation for, both as a hockey executive and as a person, but it was determined that the club must chart a new course under different leadership.”
That the team decided to make a change before the season even came to an end speaks to the dysfunction that had emerged. Treliving never could find the answers to rescue his team this season as it swung from bad to worse to lost entirely.
Most troubling was the lack of any response whatsoever.
The Leafs GM swung no trades to acquire talent and opted, presumably with the organization’s blessing, not to make a change behind the bench with Craig Berube, even with the team flailing under his leadership. Treliving fired assistant coach Marc Savard in late December because of the power-play failures and claimed Troy Stecher, Cayden Primeau and Sammy Blais off waivers — with only Stecher providing any value — but that was it.
This followed a muted 2025 offseason that saw the Leafs lose Mitch Marner in a sign-and-trade but add only spare parts in Matias Maccelli, Dakota Joshua and Nicolas Roy (via the Marner sign-and-trade), none of whom distinguished themselves. Roy was dealt to the Colorado Avalanche at the trade deadline earlier this spring.
Under Treliving’s watch, the Leafs won their first Atlantic Division title last season and advanced to the second round of the playoffs, only to lose in Game 7 to the eventual Stanley Cup champion Florida Panthers. However, deals made by the GM at that trade deadline ended up backfiring spectacularly, most notably deals for Brandon Carlo and Scott Laughton that will live in infamy from his tenure.
The Leafs attached only top-five protection to the 2026 pick that went to the Boston Bruins for Carlo, a subtle bit of mismanagement that now threatens to blow up, with the team sitting near the bottom of the standings. That trade also cost the Leafs young centre Fraser Minten. If Toronto manages to hold on to its pick this June, it will hand over its 2027 and 2028 first-round picks to the Bruins and Philadelphia Flyers.
Treliving made no transformative swings in his three seasons as Leafs GM, no big, bold actions to lift the team to new heights. Even some of his best moves, such as signing Chris Tanev and Oliver Ekman-Larsson in free agency in the summer of 2024, came with a downside: the entrenchment of an aging set of defenders that also included Jake McCabe, who signed a five-year contract extension in the fall of 2024.
Treliving took over from Kyle Dubas in the summer of 2023, after Dubas was fired suddenly by then-team president Brendan Shanahan in the midst of contract negotiations. The team, in need of remodeling, was coming off the two most successful regular seasons in franchise history and the first playoff round won in almost 20 years.
He did get Auston Matthews, William Nylander and Matthew Knies under contract, and he was able to sign John Tavares to a below-market, four-year deal ahead of his potential exit in free agency last summer, but the roster kept losing precious skill and speed while growing bigger and slower under Treliving’s watch.
The list of forwards acquired during his tenure speaks to that; it includes Ryan Reaves, Tyler Bertuzzi, Max Domi, Noah Gregor, Connor Dewar, Steven Lorentz, Laughton, Joshua, Maccelli, Blais and Roy.
Treliving handed David Kämpf and Domi questionable four-year contracts during his tenure, extended Anthony Stolarz on a four-year deal last fall despite Stolarz’s age and persistent injury risk, and promptly signed Reaves and John Klingberg in free agency in his first offseason.
The Leafs lost in the first round of the playoffs in Treliving’s first season, fell in Round 2 in Year 2, and will miss the playoffs for the first time in a decade in Year 3.