At the NHL GM Meetings, Brad Treliving spoke to TSN’s Geno Reda about the status of Mitch Marner’s ankle injury, his options in net, and his first trade deadline as manager of the team.
When you hear high-ankle sprain, there is a bit of trepidation that it could be a lingering issue. Are you concerned about it at all?
Treliving: In all likelihood, it is a minor injury, but we want to be respectful of it. We have some time now. Mitch has been off the ice in the last couple of days, but we will ramp him up this week and take it day by day to see how he is feeling. Hopefully, he will be back sooner than later.
There was a scare with Ilya Samsonov when he went down during practice, but he is okay and still playing. How important is it for you as the GM to know who your number-one goalie is before the postseason?
Treliving: The good news is that we have two goalies who are really capable. Interesting situations for both. We know the season Ilya has had. The way he has bounced back and played recently gives us great confidence in him. And we know what Joe (Woll) is capable of.
Joe has gone through an injury and come back from it. Now, it is just a matter of him getting into the net. You try to balance both of those things with the fact that these are really important games. The points are important.
Sammy is going well right now. We have enough games down the stretch where both goalies are going to get into the net. That question will answer itself as we get closer to the playoffs.
We have to qualify first, but we feel confident in both goaltenders. Hopefully, both will be healthy when we get there. We are confident in both guys.
You made the comment, “We did all we thought we could do,” after the trade deadline. You inherited a lot of the roster and cap situation. How much longer do you think it will be before you can feel as though it is “your” team and you are heading into a postseason with a team you were able to put together?
Treliving: I have had an opportunity to do those things from day one. We have made some changes. We made some additions.
Through the deadline, there are three factors: there is the availability of players, those that fit, and the cost of those players. What kind of impact are they going to have on your team?
We’re excited about the things we did and the players we added at the deadline. We want to manage both the immediate right now but also the assets that we do have remaining. At the same time, what was the true availability of certain players?
We will continue to work on it. The deadline has passed. We are focused on finishing the regular season and getting into the playoffs. We will continue to work to make this team better throughout the summer and go from there.
It looks like the team is locked into the third-place spot in the Atlantic Division. That would mean either Florida or Boston in the first round. Do you feel the team is more ready to face either of them this time around?
Treliving: We are not going to get too far ahead of ourselves. We have to secure a spot first. That is goal number one. We have a lot of difficult games down the stretch. Once we can secure a spot, we’ll start focusing on who we are playing.
It sounds cliche, but it is the truth. Every team is a great team — certainly in our division. Boston and Florida are great teams, and you look at Tampa. Detroit has had some struggles recently, but they’ve had a heck of a year.
The division is deep as it is throughout the conference. We are not focused on who a potential matchup could be. Number one, we are focused on getting there. Number two, it’s about getting our game to the highest level we can get to. Once we get there, we will play who we play and go from there.
