Toronto Maple Leafs: Brad Treliving Squanders Gift from Kyle Dubas

The Toronto Maple Leafs have not had a good off-season.

The Toronto Maple Leafs have signed John Klingberg, Max Domi, Ryan Reaves, and Tyler Bertuzzi, and whatever you may think of those signings, there is no way the team has improved due to what it lost.

John Klingberg cannot make up for losing Justin Holl, Luke Schenn and Erik Gustafsson.

Tyler Bertuzzi is a nice pick up, but he can’t replace both Ryan O’Reilly and Michael Bunting.   As for Domi and Reaves, in a best case scenario they won’t make up for Alex Kerfoot and Noel Acciari.

Therefore, the Leafs are in a cap pickle without their goalie signed and with a much worse team than they had.

And Kyle Dubas is not to blame. (info from capfriendly.com.)

The Toronto Maple Leafs New GM Can’t Blame the Old GM for Anything

Kyle Dubas left the Leafs in great shape.

Heading into next season, the Leafs have Matthews, Marner, Nylander, Tavares, Rielly, Brodie and  McCabe locked down.

Dubas left with 10 RFAs, and a bevy of incoming NHL ready prospects (Knies, Robertson, Niemela, Kokkonen, Hirvonen, McCann, Voit, Minten, etc,) giving the new GM massive flexibility.

Sure, it’s not a perfect situation, but most new GMs would kill for having a locked-down in-their-prime core and a ton of flexibility to fill out the rest of the roster.

Unfortunately for the Toronto Maple Leafs, Brad Treliving spent like a drunken sailor, demolished all of his cap space and flexibility, and may have blocked out most his prospects from getting a chance to make the team.

The new Leafs GM dropped close to $16 million in cap space on Ryan Reaves, David Kampf, Max Domi, John Klingberg and Tyler Bertuzzi.

The NHL is a star-driven league in which literally the only thing you have to do to be a good GM is spend money on star players and avoid giving money to mid-range players.

Brad Treliving does not seem to know, understand or care about this incontrovertible math equation.

Tyler Bertuzzi for one-year at $5 million to play on the top line with Auston Matthews is a very good bet.  The odds Treliving can turn $5 million into a star-level season with Bertuzzi are very good.

The other $10+ million….not so much.  The Leafs would have been far better off to save their cap space, allow tryouts and prospects to fill out the roster, then make trades for more expensive players whose teams aren’t making the playoffs later in the year.

As Dubas showed last year, you can get solid players like Acciari and O’Reilly for dirt-cheap cap hits later in March.   Kyle Dubas left the new GM a massive gift of cap space and flexibility, and Treliving completely squandered it.