Plans for the Core Four, Sheldon Keefe and more: Takeaways from Brad Treliving’s first presser as Maple Leafs GM

“Warm in here.”

Brad Treliving’s first public words as the Toronto Maple Leafs’ 18^th general manager quickly proved to be ironic.

During a scorching day, the bowels of Scotiabank Arena offered little refuge. The environment was fittingly sweltering as Treliving addressed media for the first time in hockey’s hottest chair.

But after that? He proved nothing but cool. Treliving clearly has a lot to accomplish over the next month and thus couldn’t offer much in the way of concrete immediate plans for his new roster, but he spoke with conviction, humor and the kind of breezy confidence you expect from someone with nine years under his belt as GM of another Canadian NHL team.

After walking away from Kyle Dubas a couple weeks ago, Leafs president Brendan Shanahan indicated a need for an experienced person to step right into action with the team still squarely in its contention window. Treliving was therefore the most sensible hire among the realistic candidates, and on Thursday morning he presented the air of someone excited to dive into the job and embrace the pressure.

“I’ve seen people sit in this seat before and they talk about, ‘It’s Toronto,’ and until you’re here, I don’t think you really understand it,” Treliving said. “As we were going through this process with Brendan and we were talking to my family and my girls and the close network that I rely on and lean on, we kept coming back to, ‘It’s the Leafs.’ There’s a special feeling when you come in as a visitor, when you’re scouting, when you’re young as a fan. ‘It’s the Leafs. ‘It means something. So I sit in front of you today excited, humbled, looking at this as a great opportunity but also know that this is a great responsibility.”

It’s already June 1. With the NHL Draft, free agency and some crucial contract discussions looming for some star Leaf players, Treliving faces an incredibly busy first month on the job – and plenty of burning questions right off the bat. He did his best to answer as many as he could on Thursday.

What are the key takeaways from Treliving’s first availability as Leafs GM?

On Auston Matthews’ contract negotiation

The Leafs’ superstar, arguably their greatest pure talent in franchise history, is a restricted free agent eligible to sign an extension July 1. The pact will almost certainly leapfrog Matthews ahead of Nathan MacKinnon and Connor McDavid to make Matthews the NHL’s highest-paid player at an AAV north of $12.6 million. It’s imperative to sign him before the season starts or, if there’s any indication Matthews doesn’t want to stay, explore the market for him.

Treliving, who referenced his strong relationship with Matthews’ agent Judd Moldaver, agreed that figuring things out with Matthews was at or near the top of the Leafs’ to-do list but first just wants to get to know his star.

“We’re not talking about a good player in the league. We’re talking about an elite player in the world,” Treliving said. “Getting to Auston is a priority. But, outside of the contract, step number one is just getting to build that relationship. It’s not walking down and trying to arm wrestle about contracts. It’s getting down and getting a chance to meet him, but more importantly having Auston get a chance to meet me and know what we’re about and just talk a little bit. So that’s a priority.”

On what to do with the Core Four

Matthews was the only member of the Core Four forward group – including Mitch Marner, John Tavares and William Nylander – that Treliving singled out by name in roughly 30 minutes of dialogue on Tuesday. Are we to read between the lines that he’d be open to moving any of them to overhaul the team? That would likely mean Marner or Nylander given Tavares’ full no-movement clause and $11 million cap hit are non-starters. Treliving didn’t go out of his way to affirm the need to keep the Core Four intact, but he also expressed reticence to force a splashy trade.

“They’re world class players. We’re going to review everything. I want to stress strongly, I’m not about coming in and making a statement,” he said. “You might throw a body on the tarmac, and it might look good for a headline, but are you getting any better? At the end of the day it’s about being better, and just being different doesn’t necessarily make you better.”

“This idea of the Core Four and all those types of things, my job is to protect them, right? And I’m first fiercely protective of my players. But this can’t be about the Core Four. This is about the Toronto Maple Leafs. It’s not about four players, about two, it’s not about one. It’s about the 23 guys that we’re going to have in this organization.

“And for a manager coming in, I’m pretty lucky to have the talent that those four represent as well as everybody else on this team.”

On Sheldon Keefe’s future as coach

On one hand, Keefe has the highest points percentage in NHL history among coaches with at least 250 games. He is the head coach of record in the two best regular seasons in franchise history and was behind the bench for their first series win in 19 years. On the other hand, he has a reputation in some circles as more of a passenger on a talented team, a coach who struggles to make in-series adjustments during the playoffs and doubles (and triples) down on deploying ineffective players in pivotal roles, most infamously defenseman Justin Holl. That’s why, despite his great record, Keefe’s future was publicly in question after Toronto’s season ended.

It stands to reason that, if the Leafs intended to move on from Keefe for 2023-24, it would’ve happened already. Still, any time a new GM comes in, the clock on “When will he bring in his own person?” begins to tick. Speaking on Keefe’s future Thursday, Treliving passed up any opportunity to affirm total job security for his new bench boss but did express a respect for what he’s seen from Keefe so far, most notably Keefe’s ability to get his top forwards to check.

“I don’t have a relationship with Sheldon, we spoke a couple times years ago, but I’ve had a chance to talk to him,” Treliving said. “There’s a lot of things that are priorities, and Sheldon is one as well.

“We’re all big boys here, there’s been a change, he’s in a unique situation, but it’s a business. My outside lens of Sheldon: I look at a team, 115 points and 111 points the last two years as a full-time coach. I think he’s a really good coach. My view is: determining whether a guy is good, bad or indifferent, you have to work with him. You have to get to know him. So we’re going to sit down and go through it. I’m going in with no preconceived notions.”

Treliving pointed out that, when he took over as Flames GM starting in 2014-15, Bob Hartley was already in place as head coach, they had no prior relationship, and Hartley ended up winning the Jack Adams Award that season. It sounds like Keefe’s leash at least extends into the start of next season but, like Mike Babcock’s in 2019, it may not extend past the fall if the Leafs look shaky early.

On Treliving’s involvement in the 2023 NHL Draft

The Calgary Flames had originally been reluctant to let Treliving interview for jobs before his contract ended June 30. They softened on that position but it was still expected that Treliving would have some restrictions on his draft-day involvement with the Leafs given the close overlap with any draft prep work he’d done with Calgary. While not going into specifics, Shanahan, taking my question on Treliving’s behalf, indicated there would be restrictions imposed by the Flames.

“We’re not going to go into those details,” Shanahan said, “but I will say that we have an excellent head scout in Wes Clark. We have an excellent scouting team. We pick in the first, fifth and sixth round, they are still doing their job, they are preparing, that part won’t change. We have the utmost confidence in our scouting staff.”

In other words: don’t expect to see much if any Treliving involvement in the draft process. Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman reported Thursday that Treliving won’t be allowed at the draft table.

On the Matthew Tkachuk trade, one year later

One reason why Treliving instantly surfaced as candidate for the Leafs job was, of course, that he had experience getting his hands dirty and making a blockbuster trade when his hand was forced – a handy tool walking into a team facing possible major lineup turnover. In arguably the century’s biggest trade to date, he sent Matthew Tkachuk to the Florida Panthers for a package including Jonathan Huberdeau and MacKenzie Weegar. It was a relevant talking point Thursday not just because Tkachuk has led the Florida Panthers to the Stanley Cup Final but because it offered insight into how Treliving might approach any other star trade scenarios if they are presented to him as Leafs GM.

“Chucky, who I’m very close to, he’s like a son to me,” Treliving said. “Every situation, every year, has unique circumstances. Matthew came to us last year, which I was appreciative of. I’ll never fault the player if he says, ‘It’s time for me to move. I’m not looking to sign long term here.’ So you go into the market. Now there were some challenges, no question. You’re playing with, it felt like a 2 and a 3 in your hand and everybody else has a pair of aces. We worked hard, we made an organizational decision, in terms of where our team was at in terms of the growth and development of our team, that we wanted to look at opportunities to fit within the competitive window we’re in.”

Trelivings comments were a reminder that he didn’t set out last summer to blow up his first-place Calgary team. He did so because Tkachuk (and Johnny Gaudreau) left him no choice. That’s relevant information if the Leafs’ Core Four truly do want to stay – and especially if any of them expresses to management privately that they don’t.

On GM autonomy and Kyle Dubas

The fallout after the Leafs’ negotiations with Dubas collapsed included reports that Dubas’ relationship with Shanahan eroded because Dubas didn’t have full autonomy over roster decisions. Shanahan plainly stated Thursday, however, that his philosophy is the opposite, for what it’s worth.

“I’ve always believed in process, and I’ve always believed the general manager should have a good strong process,” Shanahan said .”We’ve been lucky here in Toronto, where the two people I hired, which was Lou Lamoriello and Kyle Dubas, they had good process. They drew information from the people around them. But ultimately the decision has to be made by the general manager. And that’s how I’ve always operated. That’s how I’ll continue to operate. I think Brad is a collaborative person. He’s looking forward to meeting our staff and so many of the resources that we’ve built up here in Toronto, but I think he also has people in the hockey world that he relies on as well. So Brad and my relationship will not be all that different from the very good one that Kyle and I had. But ultimately I really do feel that the role and responsibility has to come from the general manager, so that doesn’t change.”

The timing of the Penguins announcing Dubas as their new president of hockey ops less than an hour before Treliving’s info presser was interesting, but Shanahan downplayed any idea of it being a blow, singling out his close relationship with Fenway CEO Sam Kennedy and suggesting it was a case of both teams needing to get on with their business. Shanahan said he fully endorses Dubas, while Treliving spoke glowingly of his own close friendship with Dubas and was complimentary about the pieces he left in place with the Leafs, most notably assistant GM and noted salary-cap wizard Brandon Pridham.

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