Sportsnet: Hailey Salvian and Matt Marchese on the Jeff Marek Show on Toronto Maple Leafs GM Brad Treliving being aggressive on the trade market trying to upgrade their blue line.
** NHLRumors.com transcription
Matt Marchese: “I talked a little bit about the Oilers in the Leafs from last night. And it’s another two-goal lead blown by the Leafs. They choke one away again. This is an ongoing conversation here.
And I don’t really want to talk necessarily about the game last night but more about, Brad Treliving is the general manager here as we all know, and as we all know, Brad Treliving makes calls and finds out about everyone.
Brad Treliving is always on the phone, and you know this covering the Calgary Flames and you understand the job that he’s done. What can you say to the Leafs fan base right now to make them feel better about this group and that it probably won’t look like this after trade deadline.”
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Salvian: “Oh gosh. Yeah, that like Brad Treliving is, you know, everyone always says that like, he’s one of the most active GM in the league. He’s always on the phone. He’s always making calls. Seeing what’s out there and getting the, getting the vibe check from other GMs.
It seems like he’s been aggressive and looking at the D market, right? That’s something that people have been talking about for a while now. And I think that is something that he should be aggressive and because I’ve been talking about how that blue line has been my biggest, not fear that’s exaggerating, but I think…”
Marchese: “It’s a fear for the Leafs fan base though, I’ll tell you that much.”
Salvian: “I think, I will say like when we were heading into the season, I remember, I think it was either talking to Jeff or JD and it’s like, what do you think about this Leafs team? Like, do we like it? Is it better?
Don’t love the blue line. And obviously, I think a lot of fans would agree. So it seems like Brad Treliving has been aggressive and making those calls. And yeah, like you would think that he’s not going to just leave this roster as it is because I do think that you know, we don’t have to talk about the game but like they did blow another two-goal lead and they lost four in a row, which is their longest losing streak in the season. I think it matches longest losing streak the season because they’ve lost four straight before.
That’s four blown leads in a row and I, I’ve seen a lot of discourse around like Sheldon Keith and I, I just think Sheldon didn’t wake up, you know, two weeks ago and decide like I’m gonna make this a team that doesn’t play with a defensive structure anymore. Like I, I think the change is in the personnel. You know, I think Sheldon Keefe showed that he could coach a blue line that had you know, (Simon) Benoit, and (William) Lagesson and (Connor) Timmin’s on the back end.
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So I do look at this Leafs team and think like, this is a personnel problem right now. And I’m sure I’m not the only one that thinks that. Which is why it sounds like the GM is being aggressive and looking for improvements.”
