No flash, no splash at the deadline
But Treliving makes team bigger on the blue line and adds a depth centre. Will it be enough?
When it was all said and done, the Maple Leafs added size to their blue line, a penalty-killer to their forward group and a behemoth of a prospect.
Joel Edmundson, the six-foot-five defenceman who was acquired Thursday, and depth centre Connor Dewar, picked up moments before the trade deadline passed on Friday, are expected to be in the Leafs lineup against the Canadiens on Saturday at Montreal’s Bell Centre.
“I just take care of my own zone, kind of a stay-at-home defenceman,” Edmundson said. “Nothing flashy. My job is to make the other forwards miserable. I like to play hard with a heavy stick in front of the net and in the corners and just play tough. So that’s what I’m going to bring.”
Nothing flashy describes how the trade deadline went for Leafs general manager Brad Treliving. He tinkered around the edges of his roster, unwilling to make a big splashy trade or remake the core of his team.
“You’re trying to make your team better in the ways that you can,” said Treliving, assessing his deals an hour after the deadline passed. “There’s big moves that happen this time, and then there’s small incremental moves. And that’s what we were trying to do with our team, pick away at areas that we think we can improve in.”
Treliving said he values top prospects Easton Cowan, Fraser Minten, Dennis Hildeby and his 2024 first-round draft pick, so Friday’s price for Dewar was right.
Coming from the Minnesota Wild, Dewar cost the Leafs a fourth-round selection in the 2026 draft, plus forward Dmitry Ovchinnikov, who will remain with the AHL’s Marlies while on loan from the Wild.
The 24-year-old Dewar, a thirdround selection in 2018, had 18 goals and 20 assists in 173 regular-season games with Minnesota. He was a key penalty-killer for the Wild, a notable weakness among Leafs forwards. He should slot easily on to the fourth line, probably ahead of Noah Gregor and Pontus Holmberg, who have been switching off at left wing.
“He’s a real defensively responsible centre,” Treliving said. “I don’t think you can have too many centre-ice men. He’s proficient on the penalty kill, an area that we wanted to see if we could help ourselves with.”
The Leafs’ penalty killing is rated 22nd.
It’s evident that size on the blue line matters to Treliving, who added the six-foot-two Ilya Lyubushkin a week ago. He followed up the Edmundson deal Thursday by adding six-foot-seven defence prospect Cade Webber from Carolina. Treliving hopes to sign him when Boston University’s season ends.
“There might be a theme here, but he’s a long defender,” the GM said. “He’s a defence-first guy, a big body. He moves well, moves the puck well, but his calling card is defending and penalty killing.” There were other minor moves. The Leafs put rookie Matthew Knies on the Marlies roster in a paper move that opened up salarycap space and a roster spot prior to the deadline. It also makes Knies eligible for the AHL Calder Cup playoffs, a possibility if the Marlies last longer in the post-season than the Leafs.
The club also lost William Lagesson off waivers, with the Anaheim Ducks claiming the 28-year-old defenceman.
The Leafs are undeniably bigger and presumably will be better defensively. But will it make a difference in the playoffs, when they’ll play either Boston or Florida in the first round? Both are heavy, physical teams the Leafs haven’t been able to beat in the post-season in recent years.
“You’re building your game right now,” Treliving said. “There’s areas that we need to improve upon. We tried to make some moves to address certain areas. But, at the end of the day, a lot of the answers are going to come from the guys that are in the room. We’ve got a group that’s driven. We’ve got a group that’s hungry. We’ve got a month to go to prepare.”