The prevailing logic surrounding the Toronto Maple Leafs posited that the team would benefit from radical disruption, perhaps in the form of a seismic trade involving resident stars Mitch Marner or John Tavares. It was promised to be a summer full of change with everything on the table as the Maple Leafs upgraded their head coach, Tavares graciously handed the captaincy to Auston Matthews, the face of the league, while the team made widespread changes to its defence corps, adding Stanley Cup pedigree in all facets of the game.
Incrementalism prevailed instead during the Maple Leafs’ media day and it’s this philosophy that will keep the Maple Leafs’ focused on their goal of an elusive title, with the unintended affect of calming an inflamed media corps and fan base. Toronto did not trade Marner, who was subject to unrelenting criticism after a sub-par offensive effort against the Boston Bruins while operating as the primary defender on David Pastrnak, nor did it trade its former captain, who innately understands the team’s history and need to win a title at the core of his being.
And on the eve of training camp, it’s clear that the Maple Leafs are trusting the process, one step at a time, with a new head coach and several veteran players affixed to the roster, while the team may finally boast some promising young talent that could crack this year’s roster. All eyes will be on Easton Cowan soon, it doesn’t matter if he’s 18 or 38, Treliving surmised, and the best players throughout camp will be attached to the opening night roster.
“As far as what gives me hope, I think we’ve improved out roster,” Treliving said. “You don’t hit grand slams every year; sometimes you’ve just got to keep hitting singles and doubles and picking away at your roster. Getting better isn’t because you airlifted in a bunch new people. Internal growth is the best way to get better in this league, it’s not just flying in the great free agent or making 10 trades.”
It’s a telling summary and incrementalism once again won out against disruption, although Treliving did everything in his power to augment his team this summer. Chris Tanev is the genuine No. 1 right-handed defenceman the Maple Leafs have been searching for and Treliving traded for him to buy himself a preemptive negotiation window ahead of free agency, making a calculated bet that, thus far, has proven to be correct. Treliving made a cost-effective bet on Anthony Stolarz, who excelled in a small sample as the Florida Panthers’ backup goaltender, then added fellow champions Oliver Ekman-Larsson and PTO invite Steven Lorentz. He made another cost-effective bet internally on the reportedly disgruntled Nick Robertson, then brought in a veteran of 902 games in Max Pacioretty to ostensibly push the team’s young core, while also trying to carve out a clear role for himself in what may be his last stand.
Entering the ninth season of the Matthews-Marner era, Treliving’s roster shuffling and a new head coach may constitute disruption, while a rabid fan base’s patience evaporated perhaps before the outset of the pandemic years. There’s an immediacy that envelops every move, and yet, patience is once again a virtue. At the very least, on the verge of training camp.
“I think you can’t look ahead, I mean, that’s the problem,” Marner said, when asked about a Stanley Cup-or-bust mentality.
“We got to be in the here and now. We got to be ready for — there’s going to be a lot of ups and downs in the season, there always is, there’s injuries that happen that can hurt the team, that can take it down a little bit. You just got to be ready for the ups and downs of the season, nothing is going to run smoothly all the time. I don’t want to look too far ahead. I want to be in the here and now, ready to go. We’re very excited for the opportunity. We’ve brought in some great new players that obviously have done some amazing things for their past teams and we’re excited to bring on some new faces.”
Seismic change still remains an option for the Maple Leafs — and perhaps for their competitors as well — and it’s certainly an avenue that the team can look towards as Marner and Tavares look to play out their final season in Toronto, all the while trying to avoid the noise, debris and detritus that comes with trying to find fair value commensurate to their labour in a championship-starved market.
More simply, the Maple Leafs can still attempt a trade that would change the fortunes of several teams closer to the deadline. Treliving and Brendan Shanahan ultimately elected that a series of smaller, incremental transactions would provide greater benefit than dealing a foundational star at this juncture of the timeline. Treliving doesn’t seem to think timelines matter at all, and perhaps he’ll be proved correct. This is now a team composed of a mix of veteran free agents who have won it all, juxtaposed with a mix of headlining stars that haven’t won anything of consequence and a few ascending youngsters looking to make their mark on the league — with due apologies and concern for the injured Fraser Minten, who suffered a high-ankle sprain on Sunday.
If the Matthews’ captaincy announcement in August was a family showing that they are inextricably bonded, then Wednesday was a further extension of this philosophy. Toronto still led the NHL in 5-on-5 goals and the firepower that allured Treliving to the job two summers ago is still very much intact. There has been a push for radical change in Toronto but on the outset of training camp, incrementalism rules the day.
