Treliving ready to go into 2024-25 season with 'Core Four', new coach
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After the Toronto Maple Leafs were eliminated in the first round of the playoffs for the sixth time in eight seasons, many wondered if dramatic change was on the horizon.
The Maple Leafs did make changes in the off-season, bringing in Craig Berube as the new head coach and adding defencemen Chris Tanev and Oliver Ekman-Larsson in free agency.
However, the team elected not to make changes to its ‘Core Four’ of forwards in Auston Matthews, William Nylander, Mitch Marner and John Tavares.
If anything the team has demonstrated its commitment to its core, signing Matthews to a four-year extension in 2023 and naming him captain on Wednesday. Nylander was signed to an eight-year, $92 million contract in May while Marner and Tavares are entering the final years of their contracts.
For general manager Brad Treliving, he acknowledges the team continues to look for ways to improve but refuses to make drastic changes for the sake of it.
“I know people fall in love sometimes with ‘let’s make a big change just to make a big change,’” said Treliving on TSN’s OverDrive on Wednesday. “But at the end of the day you can go out and make big changes, if they’re not making your team better, to me it doesn’t make any sense.”
The Maple Leafs have not struggled in the regular season with their current core, making the playoffs in every season since Matthews and Marner debuted in 2016-17. But postseason success has eluded this core, winning just one playoff series when they beat Tampa Bay in 2023.
The Atlantic Division boasts the reigning Stanley Cup champion Florida Panthers, the Tampa Bay Lightning and Boston Bruins while the Buffalo Sabres, Ottawa Senators and Detroit Red Wings look to push their way into the playoffs. Treliving was content with making smaller moves in free agency to help Toronto continue their playoff streak with the hopes of also getting further in the postseason.
“To me, every once in awhile you try and hit a home run,” said Treliving. “The reality is whether it be our business or any other business, you keep trying to hit some singles right? Hit some singles, pick away at different things to alter the group, to push it forward.”
The Maple Leafs fired previous head coach Sheldon Keefe after the season, acknowledging the team needed a new voice. Under Keefe, the Maple Leafs went 212-97-40 in four and a half seasons but the lack of playoff success prompted the change.
“I’ve been on record that I think Sheldon did a really good last year, I had one year with him,” said Treliving. “I think he’s a tremendous coach and he’s going to do good things in his career with Jersey and throughout his career.
“It was just time that there was a change made and that sometimes is a cruel part of this business. Craig’s going to come in with a different flavour, a different method, a different style and I think the group is ready for that.”
Berube, who guided the St. Louis Blues to the Stanley Cup in 2019, will get his first look at the Maple Leafs roster when the team opens training camp next month, while his regular season debut behind the bench will come on Oct. 9 against the Montreal Canadiens.