The first shoe has officially dropped: General Manager Treliving was relieved of his duties on Monday.
While much of the focus naturally shifts to the Maple Leafs‘ search for a new head of hockey operations — and we will jump into exploring the candidates in short order — another question to ponder is just how deep the organizational change will go.
Brandon Pridham and Ryan Hardy were named the Leafs‘ acting managers to close out the season, and it’s hard to imagine anyone else will be fired before the new President and/or GM is hired. But there is a lot of work to be done off the ice before even considering the on-ice product.
In Tuesday’s press conference, Keith Pelley made a reference to the rest of the management group: “We currently have six assistant GMs. Is that the right structure? What is the right structure? It might come down after interviewing candidates and talking to people.”
The above count likely includes Shane Doan, who is technically listed as Special Advisor to the GM and was hired by Treliving. There is also AGM Derek Clancey, another Treliving hire, whom I couldn’t help but think of when Keith Pelley mentioned “data-driven” decisions. Clancey once told The Athletic:
Clancey: Personally, I’m not a big analytics person. I look at a few things, but I don’t use it in its entirety.
I look at a few key factors when I’m looking at a player. I use that, compare it to how I think of a player and see if it correlates. The biggest fear is that I’m here and the analytics are in a totally different place, and you have to ask yourself: Why is it so different? That’s when you try to get to the middle, maybe I’m not seeing something, or maybe the analytics aren’t analyzing something. So you have to dive into it, and see why there’s a big difference.
I think all the information is good. Everyone uses it differently. Some staff members might use it more than I use it. But at the end of the day, it’s just about using all the information available to you. Maybe that’s a generic answer, but that’s the bottom line.
It’s hard not to assume Pelley, who was in the Leafs‘ war room at the trade deadline, took note here.
Hayley Wickenheiser has been an AGM overseeing player development since 2022. In that time, the Leafs haven’t really developed much of anything — not a single defenseman, and at best, a handful of forwards, if we want to include players such as Pontus Holmberg and Nick Robertson. The team’s best U25 player, Matthew Knies, jumped right into the league. So, too, did their most recent top prospect (Easton Cowan) in a rollercoaster season where his development has arguably been mismanaged.
Darryl Metcalf, the AGM of Hockey Research and Development, has held the role since 2022, although he initially joined the organization in 2014. In fairness to Metcalf, the team has embraced some interesting data-driven processes throughout his tenure up until the past few years, so it’s at least fair to question his own responsibility for the organization’s current situation, given those employed around and above him of late. However, it’s also fair to suggest he wouldn’t be a lock to stay.
That brings us to the last two AGMs who have ostensibly received promotions for the time being. Ryan Hardy has been the Marlies GM since 2021, and the Leafs‘ AHL team has achieved very little on the ice. They’ve won one playoff round in four years, and they haven’t exactly been a productive pipeline of NHL talent. You can quibble with the player personnel, but the Marlies used to churn out undrafted or lowly drafted NHL players: Andreas Johnsson, Trevor Moore, Mason Marchment, Justin Holl, and Pierre Engvall, to name a few, all came up from the Marlies. Recently, they’re more veteran-laden, don’t win anything, and unearth hardly any players for the Leafs.
Brandon Pridham, the team’s salary cap and CBA expert since 2018, has been fine in the role, navigating the Leafs’ often-strained cap situation as they’ve tried to chase Cups. From the outside looking in, he’s held up his end of the bargain.
The rest of the management staff really seems primed for a housecleaning, and we haven’t even mentioned the coaching staff — which almost certainly needs to be overhauled — to say nothing of the scouting staff, the sports science department, and so on.
The point isn’t that every single baby must be thrown out with the bathwater, but when we really dig through the whole operation, it’s hard not to conclude it needs a complete rebuild. That undertaking, plus restoring order with the NHL roster, will be a big job for one summer. Any potential candidate who can capably poach talent will be all the more appealing, given those realities.
Dismissing Treliving was a logical first step, but the changes will need to cut deep if the Leafs are to assemble the right front office to turn their franchise back on course. Until they get it right off the ice, they won’t solve anything on it.
Notes
– Easily the biggest on-ice positive of late has been the continued strong play of Easton Cowan and his line alongside John Tavares and William Nylander. As Alec noted after the win in Anaheim, the trio is up 12-4 in goals and is heavily controlling play while representing the only line on the team the opponent has to think twice about.
We have seen flashes of chemistry between Cowan and Nylander, dating back to their pretty goal against Pittsburgh earlier in the season: Cowan found Nylander in the slot, where Nylander faked a one-timer and slid it back to Cowan for a wide-open net. There was also the late tying goal in Columbus, and more recently, their give-and-go goal against Montreal. There appears to be some real chemistry between the two, and because they can both skate and carry the puck, it makes Tavares’ life a lot easier; they can transport it and get Tavares the puck in prime spots.
Tavares leads the team in scoring with 10 points in nine games since Matthews’ injury. Cowan isn’t only skilled; he’s also aggressive on the forecheck and plays with some fire, filling in some of the gaps in Tavares and Nylander’s games. It’s been a fun line so far, and Cowan is trending in a direction where it wouldn’t be unreasonable to think he can hold down a top-six spot next season.
– Tavares, by the way, is up to 28 goals and 64 points on the season. Hitting 30 and 70 is very much on the table and pretty impressive, all things considered. The issue, of course, is that he’s also -25 and is not much of a play driver at this point in his career. But he clearly can still finish, and when he gets a scoring opportunity, he’s likely going to cash it. Two wingers who can drive play on his flanks, as he has right now, really help his cause. In an ideal world, he’s either pushed down the lineup or over to the wing, but finding quality centers will be very difficult.
– The Leafs are currently auditioning two players at center, and the results have been mixed. Bo Groulx started hot with five points in six games, but he’s pointless in his last four and has just four shots on net in those games. He’s also winning just 38.1 percent of his faceoffs. Groulx has some skill and can clearly shoot, but his footspeed hinders him, and it’s fair to question if he’s really a center. To this point, he’s making a case to be in the mix for the forward group next season, which is about all he can really do anyway, given it’s hard to imagine there’s anything he could do to win a spot in permanent marker right now.
– And then there is Jacob Quillan, who is a different story from Groulx. He hasn’t produced at all (just one assist in 17 games), but unlike Groulx, he has wheels, is younger, and is more of a natural center. Quillan has also spent most of his time centering the likes of Steven Lorentz and Calle Jarnkrok on the fourth line, hardly moving up the lineup regardless of the circumstances.
The Leafs’ game against St. Louis was so bad that even this coaching group increased Quillan’s minutes, and it was the first time he had played more than 10:48 in his career. Lo and behold, it was the first time he picked up an NHL point. In the next game against Anaheim, Quillan played the second-most minutes of his career at 12:19 after two Leafs were ejected, and once again, he looked good, although he didn’t pick up a point.
It’s hard to evaluate, given his linemates and limited ice time, but Quillan has shown enough to believe he should be given the chance to play more minutes and with better players.
– Hopes of tanking down the standings aside, it was nice to see Matthew Knies‘ big game in Boston. He was one of the best players on the ice and scored a beautiful goal, showing speed and power to create a breakaway before making a familiar backhand-forehand move. He’s up to a career-high 60 points and counting, and while I wouldn’t call it a “career year” based on his overall play, his production despite the team’s circumstances has been solid for his price tag.
Against Anaheim, Knies scored a power-play goal from the top of the circle. He and Nylander switched places, a wrinkle we haven’t really seen before. Knies has been effective in the bumper, but we haven’t seen much of him pulling up high and controlling it on the flank. Preferably, he’s closer to the net, given his big body and soft hands in tight, but seeing him score from there is worth storing in the memory bank.
Quotes
“I’ve heard a lot of comments over the course of the season about my role as CEO and involvement in team decisions, so I want to do away with that right away. I’m not here to be a scout, not here to be a coach. I’m not here to be a general manager.”
– Keith Pelley, attempting to clarify his role
Out of all of Pelley’s comments on Tuesday, this one really stood out as missing the mark. I don’t think there is a single observer who believes he’s angling for a GM job with the team or even has any major input into the team’s day-to-day decision-making. Not a single soul is concerned about whether Pelley literally wants the Leafs’ GM job. The understandable concern is that he could be meddlesome for whoever is doing the job.
Pelley confirmed in the press conference that he sat in on the Leafs’ trade deadline day. Whatever one might think of Brad Treliving, if you think it helps the GM’s job to have a suit who doesn’t know anything about hockey sitting in the room with him — and almost certainly not sitting silently for nearly an entire day — I don’t know what to tell you.
Pelley talked up division rivals for no reason. He attempted to reference prospects in Vinny Borgesi and Michael Hage, yet couldn’t pronounce their names properly (and those are not exactly hard names to pronounce!). He said he didn’t believe a rebuild was required and attempted to rationalize his thinking (which isn’t inherently wrong, but it is not his purview, and he should’ve deferred to the future hire). There is so much more we could get into with the press conference, which was only a 30-minute window into what Pelley is willing to say publicly. What is he like behind closed doors?
“We battled and got ourselves (back), but the Olympic break and coming out of the Olympic break — that is what still bothers me, more than anything.
We battled pretty well to get to where we were, through the different situations that came up throughout the season — injuries and other things. We put ourselves in a good spot at the Olympic break, but coming out of it, we didn’t perform well enough to put ourselves in a better position.
I thought we worked hard during the break and got ourselves prepared, but it didn’t translate to the ice.”
– Craig Berube, reflecting on the team’s drop off this season
It floors me that this is what Craig Berube is lamenting in his early postmortem of the Leafs’ 2025-26 season. The team went into the Olympic break six points out of a playoff spot with three teams between them and the final wildcard position. They did not battle their way back into a spot at that point; they were still very much on the outside looking in.
The Leafs battled back in January, after beating Colorado to briefly occupy a wildcard spot. Shortly afterward, they returned home for a five-game homestand in which they picked up just one of 10 points. That was curtains on the season; it was crystal clear then, and you’re kidding yourself if you think otherwise.
“I have my thoughts about maybe some stuff, but that’s something I’m going to keep to myself.”
– William Nylander on where it went wrong for the Leafs this season
So much dysfunction on and off the ice this season.
Tweets of the Week
Since March 6, no goaltender has faced more shots than Joseph Woll (300).
This despite 10 goalies playing in more games than Woll over that span. https://t.co/Hv5wEZZJ3M
— luke fox (@lukefoxjukebox) March 29, 2026
This is unbelievably bad. The Leafs’ roster has its flaws, but there is no way it should be this bad, and the first order of business for whoever takes charge eventually should be crystal clear.
Bo Groulx sent back to Marlies after nine games with Leafs … if he played one more would need waivers to go back down for AHL playoffs
Could still rejoin Leafs at some point down the stretch, but it would need to be an emergency recall@TSN_Sports https://t.co/hhEbXNdvyr
— Mark Masters (@markhmasters) March 27, 2026
This is an unfortunate situation for Bo Groulx, who has been playing well, but they need to protect the asset, given that he is already signed through next season. An unfortunate part of the business.
🖊️ We’ve signed defenceman Hayes Hundley to a three-year, entry-level contract beginning in the 2026-27 season
He will join the @TorontoMarlies for the remainder of the 2025-26 season on an amateur tryout
Details » https://t.co/psrGqUSvoQ pic.twitter.com/xuUXoRhd2B
— Toronto Maple Leafs (@MapleLeafs) March 27, 2026
This kind of went under the radar — and who knows who even championed this signing within Leafs management at this point — but not only did the Leafs sign Hayes Hundley, but they also maxed out his entry-level salary. He only played one year in college and has a late-2005 birthday, so he’s still just 20 years old. He’s 6’2, nearly 210 pounds already, and shoots right. A lot of teams are interested in players of this profile, so the Leafs landing him and beefing up his ELC is at least worth noting. Vinny Borgesi, for example, was signed a week earlier, and he would not make as much with the Leafs as Hundley would.
Five Things I Think I’d Do
1. It’s a footnote, but in a game against Anaheim where the team was looking to exact physical revenge, a 6’4 fourth liner and a 6’5 third-pairing defenseman were both healthy scratches. Both Steven Lorentz (two more years) and Philippe Myers (one more year) are signed beyond this season, but if they can’t even get into the lineup for that type of game, I think it’s rather telling.
2. I think it remains obvious that the Leafs should look at a few more Marlies at the NHL level — at least one of Henry Thrun/William Villeneuve on defense, and probably Ryan Tverberg or Luke Haymes at forward, as both have been good for months now. Tverberg is a bit older and shoots right, and this is Haymes’ first year in the AHL, so I’d lean towards looking at Tverberg first.
If nothing else, it’s worth taking a peek at as many Marlies as possible to see if any are ready to enter the mix next season. The problem, of course, is that the Leafs’ current coach won’t be interested in doing it as the team plays out the string, and the Leafs don’t have the leadership in management right now to demand it.
3. I’d also hope to see Jacob Quillan receive some looks up the lineup rather than stapling him to Pezzetta, Lorentz, and Jarnkrok the rest of the way. Give him a few games between Knies and Maccelli; at least he’d be the fastest player on that line. At a minimum, play him with Joshua and Robertson/Domi on the third line. Just give him a chance with some linemates who can produce.
4. I think Steve Sullivan deserves some real recognition for his work on the power play. They are clicking at 25.8 percent since he was hired, eighth in the league since he took over (25.8 would rank third in the league over the full season). The power play uses the middle of the ice effectively, players move around to interesting spots, and he even has OEL on the top unit now. Sullivan has faced some challenges, including the team rarely receiving power-play opportunities, but he has held up his end of the bargain. I’d like to keep him around moving forward.
5. I think the penalty kill has been fairly reasonable after the trade deadline, given they traded away two good penalty killers and lost Matthews to injury. They rank 17th since the deadline time and have rotated through a whole host of new killers, and it’s a unit that can’t win a faceoff without Laughton and Roy (they’re 25th in faceoff percentage since the deadline; they were first before then). Derek Lalonde has done a solid job with the penalty kill, but it’s hard to picture one of the top assistants surviving the changes to come.
