Treliving checks many boxes for GM job
Former Flames boss a favourite to replace Dubas
“I’m a big believer in collaborative efforts. You need good people, you need to talk to people and you need to pool information.”
Those were the words of Brad Treliving when he first took on the role of general manager of the Calgary Flames back in 2014, the only candidate Brian Burke — then the president of the team — interviewed.
Treliving had been an assistant GM to Don Maloney in Arizona and many believed Burke was really the man pulling the strings in Calgary. Truth is, Treliving and Burke saw the game the same way.
The Flames were going to play “heavy” hockey, he said then, ringing true now. “I think you have to play a heavy game. That’s not just a personal preference. Turn on the TV tonight and watch the games.
“It’s hard hockey. It’s heavy hockey. It’s a man’s game. It’s a big boy’s game out there right now. In order to have success, I fully believe you have to have a team that can play in those games.”
As the Maple Leafs move on from Kyle Dubas running the show, Treliving’s name is floated at the top of most lists as the most likely replacement.
There’s a cone of silence emanating from MLSE’s offices.
But there’s a lot to glean from those early comments about what the direction the Maple Leafs would go under Treliving and why he checks so many boxes for president Brendan Shanahan.
“I want to be open-minded to all candidates,” Shanahan said last week. “Certainly having an experienced general manager would be an attractive quality.
Burke, on the NHL’s podcast “The Rink,” explained this week why Treliving would be an attractive candidate: “There can’t be training wheels on this job, with the Toronto Maple Leafs. You have a 100-point team, with major decisions to be made. Plus it’s the Toronto Maple Leafs. The Vatican. You have to have an experienced guy. Brad is very smart man, a very accomplished GM in my view.” That’s box No. 1. But there’s more. For one thing, it’s widely believed that one reason Dubas is no longer GM is because he wanted to streamline hockey decisions, make his case to the board of directors himself rather than have Shanahan make the case for him.
Shanahan hinted at that last week as well.
“The way that it’s always worked here, whether you’re president of the team or you’re a pro scout, we’ve had an open atmosphere where people can state their opinions to the general manager and the general manager makes decisions,” said Shanahan. “That’s the way it has been, that’s how I expect it to be going forward. We want to support the GM.”
Treliving, apparently, has no problem working in tandem with others. Again, from that 2014 conference: “I don’t know if there’s a better resource for a manager to have in this league than what I have in Brian (Burke). I’m going to be bending Brian’s ear as often and more than he probably thinks I will be and it would be silly not to.
“The other reality of life is we all have bosses. That’s just how it works. When I leave here and go home, I have a boss there. Her name is Julie and she scares the heck out of me a lot of nights, but that’s how it works. This is not anything new and I have zero reservation on how it’s going to work.”
The head-scratching wonderment around Toronto is that the Maple Leafs don’t play anything close to the brand of hockey their president was known for. Shanahan had 2,489 penalty minutes — 23rd all-time — in his take-no-prisoners approach to a 1,524-game Hall of Fame career.
Dubas sold him on a different vision, the beginning of an era without enforcers, with four lines that skate, pass and shoot. Beautiful hockey.
Under Dubas, the scouting staff prioritized hockey sense above everything, with a heavy dose of speed and skill over size. Braun, grit, toughness, came later. To a degree, it made sense. Scoring goals is the hardest thing to do in the NHL. The more goal-scorers you have, the more likely you are to score. Players with offensive skill deemed extra could be traded for the those with grit and toughness.
Treliving values toughness on a par with skill. He drafted Matthew Tkachuk (548 penalty minutes) in 2016 over highly touted playmaker Clayton Keller (who went next) because Tkachuk “plays in the guts of the game,” Treliving said then.
Likewise, he took Sam Bennett (480 penalty minutes) in 2014 when players like William Nylander and Nikolaj Ehlers were still available because “the character, the intangible pieces, this guy oozes character, plays with an edge.”
If Shanahan — finally — wants a team to play with guts, he’ll want a GM that has some guts, too. A guy who’s not afraid to make the big deal. As Shanahan put it, the better a team gets, “the pressure only mounts. The ability to make decisions under pressure only gets harder.”
Treliving made one of those trades last July, basically with a gun pointed to his head.
The Flames were coming off a season in which they had won the Pacific Division, lost to Edmonton in the second round, but felt optimistic about the future.
Then his best player, Tkachuk, informed the team he wouldn’t be signing an extension just as the team was also learning Johnny Gaudreau was leaving as a free agent.
Tkachuk famously was traded to the Florida Panthers for a package that included stylish forward Jonathan Huberdeau and offensive defenceman MacKenzie Weegar. Treliving signed Nazem Kadri as a free agent with the saved cap space, and was widely hailed as having made lemonade out of lemons.
Then reality struck. Treliving’s Flames missed the playoffs. That’s why he’s looking for a new job.
Tkachuk is now on the short list for the Conn Smythe Trophy in leading his team to the Stanley Cup final, and Panthers GM Bill Zito is on the short list for the Jim Gregory Award as general manager of the year.
The weird thing about it? Treliving’s Flames finished one point better than Zito’s Panthers in the NHL’s overall standings.
The Leafs could face a similar challenge, with Auston Matthews and Nylander each eligible to sign extensions come July 1. If either, like Tkachuk, suggests they won’t, the Leafs will need a creative mind like Treliving’s to make the most of a bad situation to ensure neither walks away for nothing as a free agent in 2024.