We’re seeing the initial returns on the 2024 free agency class through the opening weeks of the regular season, which invites reflection on how each team’s front office is performing overall. The Athletic’s Arthur Staple, Chris Johnston, Michael Russo and Scott Powers polled 40 executives on how their peers have fared, asking them to vote on the top-five front offices in the league.
And though the Maple Leafs are widely considered to be on the lower rung of Stanley Cup contenders this season, they didn’t receive a flattering grade. Toronto ranked 23rd in the poll, and here’s the rationale provided after it received one fifth-place vote:
“Not much love for the Leafs, who haven’t produced enough wins to go with all the attention around their core and their status in Canada’s biggest market. GM Brad Treliving has a big Mitch Marner decision looming, so we’ll see where the Leafs go from here.”
That seems fair enough. Marner is due for an imminent extension, in case you missed it this summer, and the term assigned will largely shape the league’s perception of how the Maple Leafs’ front office is operating under Brad Treliving’s watch. Treliving’s 2024 free agency class is largely producing stellar returns thus far, as Chris Tanev and Oliver Ekman-Larsson have augmented Toronto’s defence entirely, while Anthony Stolarz is producing like a true No. 1 goaltender, while expected to work in tandem with Joseph Woll when he returns from injured reserve.
Kyle Dubas — Treliving’s predecessor — gained a reputation for poor cap management while offering player-friendly deals to his stars that were well above the market rate. In a labour sense, this isn’t a bad quality at all, but in a cutthroat salary cap world, it definitely made it more difficult to manage the rest of the roster, as the Maple Leafs’ top-heavy construction often faltered in the playoffs.
We’ll see how this reputation progresses as the season inches forward. Perhaps at the next poll, Treliving and the Maple Leafs will be viewed in a more positive light, although like most things in the market, it may be entirely dependent on the ensuing playoff results.
