Latest news with #BrendanShanahan
Yahoo
3 days ago
- General
- Yahoo
With Brendan Shanahan Gone, What Changes For Maple Leafs GM Brad Treliving And Coach Craig Berube?
With Brendan Shanahan Gone, What Changes For Maple Leafs GM Brad Treliving And Coach Craig Berube? Ahead of the Toronto Maple Leafs is one of the most important offseasons in the last decade.
New York Times
4 days ago
- Business
- New York Times
Maple Leafs' offseason to-do list: Cement Matthew Knies into core, upgrade at centre
The Shanaplan is out. In its place? Well, that remains to be determined. That's what this offseason for the Toronto Maple Leafs will establish: a new direction for the franchise after 11 years with Brendan Shanahan at the helm as team president. What needs to be done with general manager Brad Treliving now leading the charge? A lot. Advertisement All indications are that Marner intends to go elsewhere July 1. 'We'll have to see,' Treliving said when asked about Marner's future Thursday, noting Marner had his 'say' in a process that had yet to really start. The Leafs already know Marner was unwilling to sign an extension during the season. Will they — will Treliving — try to change his mind in the coming weeks? Try to sell him on coming back and finishing his career at home in Toronto? And if they manage to do so and/or Marner reconsiders, how much are they prepared to pay him? We know the Leafs, when they were still run by Shanahan, were determined to keep Marner. Has that changed now that he's gone? Is Treliving as desperate to bring him back? While noting, not for the first time, Marner was 'a star' at his year-end media conference, Treliving didn't come out and state his desire for Marner to return. It might not matter if Marner has already made up his mind, which seems to be the case. Can the Leafs squeeze anything of value from Marner's exit in a sign-and-trade? Adding an eighth year to Marner's contract, the maximum term possible, should have some value to the team he decides to sign with. Maybe that team even needs to clear salary to bring in Marner and would send a player(s) of value back to the Leafs. Or maybe there's a team out there, on the eve of July 1, that wants to keep Marner from even getting to market and is willing to give up something (a draft pick?) to acquire his rights. The Tampa Bay Lightning paid a third-round pick to the Carolina Hurricanes for Jake Guentzel's rights last summer. More imposing for the front office is procuring a replacement for Marner. Not an actual replacement per se, since there will be no replacing all of Marner's varying contributions with any one player, but a top-six winger who can maybe play with Auston Matthews. Advertisement One of the interesting wrinkles of Marner's presumed exit is what it means for that top-line right wing spot. Craig Berube was openly against playing William Nylander with Matthews in his first season coaching the Leafs. Will he give it a chance if Marner isn't around and Nylander is the clear-cut top option? Or does Treliving need to find a right winger (or two) who could conceivably line up with the two Arizona boys, Matthews and Matthew Knies? Treliving seemed to allude to his front-office staff's already beginning to look at options. The Leafs had their pro scouting meetings this week. One intriguing short-term fit: Patrick Kane, the player whom Marner grew up emulating and who could replicate the playmaking dimension Marner brought to Matthews. The Leafs have almost all of the leverage here. John Tavares will be 35 in September; he has a young family and seems to have every intention of finishing his career (and continuing his pursuit of a Stanley Cup) at home in Toronto. To what degree can the Leafs use all that if not against him then to their advantage? How much of a discount is Tavares willing to take to stay? In 2018, it was suggested that Tavares took a discount to join the Leafs as a free agent. However, that 'discount' still had him drawing one of the biggest cap hits in the league at $11 million — still tied for the ninth largest this past season in the seventh and final year of the deal. Tavares is still too good to take a Jason Spezza-like discount (i.e., the NHL minimum), so what's the number and term he's willing to accept to stick around? And how hard will a Shanahan-less front office push to get it? The Lightning had a line they wouldn't cross with Steven Stamkos, the captain of their Cup-winning teams, last summer and ultimately let him walk as a free agent. Will the Leafs be similarly cutthroat? Advertisement Anze Kopitar signed a two-year contract, with a $7 million cap hit, with the Los Angeles Kings two summers ago when he was turning 36 and coming off a 74-point season. Joe Pavelski signed a three-year deal with the Dallas Stars, with a $7 million cap hit, in 2019 when he was almost 35 and coming off a 38-goal season. Both had much stronger playoff resumes and all-around games than Tavares. The cap is also going up. The Leafs could try to bring the cap hit down by stretching the contract out as they did with Chris Tanev last summer (six years, $4.5 million cap hit), though there are definitely long-term downsides to that approach. What if they can't agree? What if Tavares won't dip below, say, $6 million on a multiyear deal? What then? Are they prepared to let their former captain walk? And if so, what's the plan to replace him? That's Tavares' leverage in all this: It would be difficult (though not impossible) for the Leafs to replace him. The big question with Knies at this point: What's his ceiling? The floor might be what he showed this past season: A 29-goal, 58-point physical top-line monster who kills penalties, dominates around the net on the power play and elevates his game in the playoffs. Knies told me once he hoped to become like Mikko Rantanen one day. That's top-10-player-in-the-league territory, a pretty grand aspiration for Knies. The biggest obstacle to his getting there might be his playmaking. Rantanen, who scored 55 goals in one season, has six seasons of at least 50 assists. Knies hasn't shown that kind of creativity as a passer yet, not even close, really. He had six primary five-on-five assists this past season playing on the Leafs top line — the same amount as David Kämpf and tied for 328th in the NHL. He did leap from 20 assists overall as a rookie to 29 as a sophomore. A straight-line battering ram at this point, Knies figures to improve as a passer as he grows in the league, but to what degree? It will be the difference between his becoming a perennial 60-70 point player or an 80-90 point superstar. At minimum, this is already a special player, an 'important' player in Treliving's estimation and someone set to headline a changing core of the Leafs. Advertisement The team's leverage in contract talks? Knies is a restricted free agent with no arbitration rights. Knies has the threat of an offer sheet, but he has to actually be willing to sign that offer sheet, and risk going elsewhere, to get what he wants from the Leafs. How hard does management try to push someone so foundational to the future? Given how high his floor is, do they simply get him signed as long as they possibly can in a rising cap environment? Or will the two sides agree on a bridge deal, which would allow Knies to build up his value even more and allow the team to pocket some extra dough for next summer? The crease is set with Anthony Stolarz and Joseph Woll signed, and though the front office might look to upgrade on the back end (more on that in a second), everyone in that bunch is under contract for next season. It's up front where there are holes and/or positions in need of upgrades or alterations. Upgrading at centre ice should be the biggest priority. Treliving went out of his way to rave about Tavares' performance last season, noting the 38 goals he scored in the regular season, but added, 'Centre, it's a priority. It's a priority. Having said that, there (are) probably 26 other teams that are saying it's a priority. 'Yeah, you'd always like more centres,' the GM added. It's a position the organization has struggled to improve over the years. It gets no easier this summer with a thin pool of free-agent centres. Whether they bring back Tavares or not, the Leafs need an improvement in the No. 2 spot. Tavares' 38 goals were impressive but also kind of beside the point. He struggled again to produce and drive play in the playoffs, particularly against the Florida Panthers. It was part of why the Leafs unraveled in that series: Their second line, Nylander included, was increasingly outplayed by the Panthers' top three units. Advertisement Matt Duchene is one potential free-agent target. Sam Bennett could be another. Does either one want to play in Toronto? And if so, for what? Does a trade for a new 2C make more sense? Is it even feasible? The Leafs need to adopt a more creative approach to solving this puzzle, especially now with Tavares about to enter his mid-30s. More creativity, more bold thinking in general, is what this franchise needs. They'll need to procure a more legitimate 3C on top of that so that swinging Max Domi back there doesn't become the answer once again for Berube. (There's no chance the Leafs give Nylander another run in the middle … right?) Maybe that's Tavares, with someone else coming in to play directly behind Matthews. The front office and coaching staff can probably pencil Bobby McMann into a third-line left wing position and Scott Laughton into a fourth-line role of some kind. All bets are off otherwise. Paying $4.5 million cap dollars for Kämpf and Calle Järnkrok to play with Laughton ($1.5 million) on the fourth line doesn't make a lot of sense. The Leafs probably need to look at moving at least one player this offseason. Injecting more size, physicality and bite into the forward group, to better align with the Berube Way, figures to be part of the equation for Treliving. It's a group that needs a lot more utility, too, forwards who can play all over the lineup and contribute in multiple ways. Not in the forward department but worthy of a look for the front office this summer: Adding a right-shooting defender who can move pucks and create some offence. That someone would allow Oliver Ekman-Larsson to slide back to the left side where he's much more effective as, well, a puck-mover and creator of offence. If another defender comes in, who's going out? Robertson sought a trade last summer, didn't get it, and eventually returned on a one-year deal. It didn't go well. Though he scored 15 goals, seventh most among Leafs, his impact was marginal otherwise. Advertisement Robertson registered only seven assists in 69 games and lost his job in the playoffs. So what do the Leafs do now? Try as hard as they possibly can to move him for something before qualifying offers are due at the end of June. If they can't get anything of value — what's that bar even? — they can decline to make him a qualifying offer and let him walk as a free agent. The fact Robertson is a restricted free agent, with arbitration rights, could make trading him a tad more difficult. Letting him walk for nothing doesn't feel like good asset management, but does it make sense to bring back a player who doesn't fit this roster and clearly needs a fresh start? It was only last summer the Leafs tried hard to trade Timothy Liljegren, failed to do so and then signed him to a two-year contract. Liljegren promptly lost his job and the Leafs were eventually forced to trade him to the San Jose Sharks for whatever they could get It's worth noting Robertson won't turn 24 until September. And it's not as if this team has lots of young talent coming at forward. That's the argument for keeping him a little while longer. Steven Lorentz and Max Pacioretty are the other forwards set to hit unrestricted free agency. Though Pacioretty seems destined to play elsewhere, if he decides to keep playing at all, Lorentz warrants a discussion for Treliving and company. He was pretty close to the ideal fourth-liner last season. His motor was always running. He packed a physical punch. He defended well. He killed penalties. And he kicked in some offence, scoring as many goals (eight) as Domi in about 200 fewer minutes. And he did it all with a smile on his face for $775,000. To keep him would require a raise, and paying that much more for a fourth-liner, when fourth-liners are easily replaceable, doesn't make a whole lot of sense. The Leafs also have to be mindful of the fourth-liners they already (maybe) have — Laughton, Kämpf, Järnkrok and Pontus Holmberg. They don't exactly need Lorentz back, even if he brings his own distinct dimension. Advertisement The Leafs do need to qualify Holmberg, a pending RFA, and get him signed to a new contract. Part of the discussion with Holmberg: deciding whether he's better off playing centre or wing. Related to that discussion perhaps is what happens with Kämpf. If Holmberg is playing centre, it should be on the fourth line. Now that he's No. 1 on the front office depth chart, Treliving might want to tweak and/or trim the group in his image. Shane Doan and Derek Clancey were Treliving hires. Brandon Pridham, Hayley Wickenheiser, Darryl Metcalf and Ryan Hardy, all of them assistant GMs, were not. Meanwhile, the Leafs might be inclined to alter their designated leadership group. If Marner departs, does the team simply continue with Morgan Rielly and, assuming he stays, Tavares as alternate captains? Or is it time for something different, if only as a symbolic gesture to change? Given that he's under contract longer than anyone else (2032), Nylander belongs in the discussion and so might one of Tanev or Jake McCabe if the Leafs do decide to go in a different direction. — Stats and research courtesy of Hockey Reference, Natural Stat Trick and Puckpedia. (Top photo of Matthew Knies: Mike Carlson / Getty Images)
National Post
5 days ago
- General
- National Post
SMMONS: Challenge for very honest Treliving is finding a way to change Leafs' DNA
Article content Brad Treliving is fully aware of all that needs to be done. Article content Accomplishing it – and pulling it off over the next few months – is now the gigantic challenge for the general manager of the Maple Leafs, now in total control of the Toronto hockey operation. Article content Treliving hit on two significant areas of contention in his shockingly candid end-of-season, beginning-of-off-season media availability Thursday morning. Article content He said the Leafs need a new and stronger mindset as a team. Article content Article content He made both those points after doing his first deep-dive on the Leafs playoff elimination — and all that has gone on emotionally since. Article content It has been a rather tumultuous time since the Leafs eliminated themselves in Game 7 of second round the Stanley Cup playoffs some 10 days ago. Article content The long-standing team president, Brendan Shanahan, has been fired. Shanahan hired Treliving to be GM. Now, Treliving is the senior hockey executive with a new boss to get to know in Keith Pelley. Article content There's an emotional side to all of this, relationships and all, watching your team fail, hoping for more and getting less, seeing the man who hired you, your close friend, let go. Article content And all this, with a hockey club that led the indestructible Stanley Cup champions 2-0 in their playoff round, had a 3-1 lead in the third period of Game 3. They had everything going their way momentarily until it wasn't. Article content Article content And then Game 7 hit — after the sucker punch that was Game 5 — and your head starts spinning and your mind starts racing and you watch the replays over and over again, slowing them down and speeding them up, and you try and make sense of what doesn't always make sense. Article content Article content This is the life of every general manager in every sport. It is Treliving's existence now with concepts to juggle, but no real way of altering the two largest long-term failings of the Maple Leafs.
Edmonton Journal
5 days ago
- Sport
- Edmonton Journal
Amazon Prime series goes behind the scenes with ex-Leafs president Brendan Shanahan, NHL stars
Article content The next team thinking of hiring Brendan Shanahan as an executive will have some candid behind-the-scenes visuals of him at work to use as a resource. Article content Article content Toronto's former team president will appear among an impressive list of National Hockey League players for Season 2 of Amazon Prime Video's Faceoff: Inside the NHL, set to premier in the autumn of 2025. The intimate look at the stars at work — and play — scored many points with subscribers last year with such features as the mic'd up rivalry between Edmonton's Connor McDavid and Florida's Matthew Tkachuk in the Stanley Cup final and the lasting friendship of Maple Leafs winger William Nylander and Boston's David Pastrnak that had to be shelved in the Toronto-Boston series. Nylander also will appear in Season 2. Article content 'This year, fans can expect more of the unexpected,' Mark Shopiro, head of Prime Video Canada, told Postmedia. 'We were really excited by fan reaction the first year, some things they hadn't ever seen before, through the lens of the players, their families and friends. Our cameras were rolling behind the scenes again and we have a lot of great highlights.' Similar to Season 1, two or three dozen players volunteered or were asked by the league to be profiled by London, England-based Box to Box Productions. Some storylines grew organically from mid-season through the Cup final, while filming this year began with the 4 Nations tournament in February in hopes some players would get deep in the playoffs as teammates or foes. 'We're featuring the oldest generational players — Sidney Crosby, Alex Ovechkin's milestone goal chase (and retiring netminder Marc-Andre Fleury),' Shopiro said. 'They'll cross with the younger generation, such as (Los Angeles Kings forward) Quinton Byfield.' Latest National Stories
Toronto Sun
5 days ago
- Business
- Toronto Sun
Amazon Prime series goes behind the scenes with ex-Leafs president Brendan Shanahan, NHL stars
Former Maple Leafs president will be featured on coming season of Amazon Prime's Faceoff: Inside the NHL Get the latest from Lance Hornby straight to your inbox Former Toronto Maple Leafs president Brendan Shanahan. Postmedia files The next team thinking of hiring Brendan Shanahan as an executive will have some candid behind-the-scenes visuals of him at work to use as a resource. This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. THIS CONTENT IS RESERVED FOR SUBSCRIBERS ONLY Subscribe now to read the latest news in your city and across Canada. Unlimited online access to articles from across Canada with one account. Get exclusive access to the Toronto Sun ePaper, an electronic replica of the print edition that you can share, download and comment on. Enjoy insights and behind-the-scenes analysis from our award-winning journalists. Support local journalists and the next generation of journalists. Daily puzzles including the New York Times Crossword. SUBSCRIBE TO UNLOCK MORE ARTICLES Subscribe now to read the latest news in your city and across Canada. Unlimited online access to articles from across Canada with one account. Get exclusive access to the Toronto Sun ePaper, an electronic replica of the print edition that you can share, download and comment on. Enjoy insights and behind-the-scenes analysis from our award-winning journalists. Support local journalists and the next generation of journalists. Daily puzzles including the New York Times Crossword. REGISTER / SIGN IN TO UNLOCK MORE ARTICLES Create an account or sign in to continue with your reading experience. Access articles from across Canada with one account. Share your thoughts and join the conversation in the comments. Enjoy additional articles per month. Get email updates from your favourite authors. THIS ARTICLE IS FREE TO READ REGISTER TO UNLOCK. Create an account or sign in to continue with your reading experience. Access articles from across Canada with one account Share your thoughts and join the conversation in the comments Enjoy additional articles per month Get email updates from your favourite authors Don't have an account? Create Account Toronto's former team president will appear among an impressive list of National Hockey League players for Season 2 of Amazon Prime Video's Faceoff: Inside the NHL, set to premier in the autumn of 2025. The intimate look at the stars at work — and play — scored many points with subscribers last year with such features as the mic'd up rivalry between Edmonton's Connor McDavid and Florida's Matthew Tkachuk in the Stanley Cup final and the lasting friendship of Maple Leafs winger William Nylander and Boston's David Pastrnak that had to be shelved in the Toronto-Boston series. Nylander also will appear in Season 2. 'This year, fans can expect more of the unexpected,' Mark Shopiro, head of Prime Video Canada, told Postmedia. Your noon-hour look at what's happening in Toronto and beyond. By signing up you consent to receive the above newsletter from Postmedia Network Inc. Please try again This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. 'We were really excited by fan reaction the first year, some things they hadn't ever seen before, through the lens of the players, their families and friends. Our cameras were rolling behind the scenes again and we have a lot of great highlights.' Similar to Season 1, two or three dozen players volunteered or were asked by the league to be profiled by London, England-based Box to Box Productions. Some storylines grew organically from mid-season through the Cup final, while filming this year began with the 4 Nations tournament in February in hopes some players would get deep in the playoffs as teammates or foes. 'We're featuring the oldest generational players — Sidney Crosby, Alex Ovechkin's milestone goal chase (and retiring netminder Marc-Andre Fleury),' Shopiro said. 'They'll cross with the younger generation, such as (Los Angeles Kings forward) Quinton Byfield.' This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. 'After Season 1, more players were familiar with the concept and that helped (attract more participants).' More details of Shanahan's segment were to be revealed during a Thursday afternoon media promotional launch in Toronto. Moving from the ice to the hockey office side of the business and perhaps coaches and general manager's lives is a likely progression for the show. Read More 'Shanahan will give viewers different angles,' Shopiro predicted. 'That's what resonated from Season 1, as with Nylander.' Of course, cameras and live microphones also expose viewers to some salty language. This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. McDavid's meltdown after a Cup final loss in Sunrise, Fla., stood out last year. 'Dig the f*** in, right f***ing now,' the captain berated his Oilers as a staffer eventually closed the dressing door to keep out the Prime crew's cameras. 'Part of the game,' Shopiro said of including the F-bombs and raw exchanges that naturally ramp up in playoffs. Also to be featured in Season 2 are the travels of Mikko Rantanen — who was traded twice during the season — both Matthew and Brady Tkachuk, Zach Werenski and Sean Monahan of the Columbus Blue Jackets as they deal with the tragic pre-season death of teammate Johnny Gaudreau. The series is part of Amazon Prime subscriptions. lhornby@ X: @sunhornby Toronto & GTA Columnists Toronto Maple Leafs Columnists World
