Insider reveals something about Brad Treliving that may excite Leaf fans; also touches on Carter Hart to Toronto rumours
When Brad Treliving was hired as the 18th GM in Toronto Maple Leafs franchise history, many viewed him as a pretty clear downgrade from Kyle Dubas. Others nothing more than just a lateral move. There haven't been too many people or pundits, though, who have looked at this as a resounding win for Toronto.
When you're comparing Brad Treliving to Kyle Dubas, you may as well just be comparing apples to oranges. Yes, they're both fruits, but other than that, there aren't many similarities. Ultimately, the determining factor in whether or not the move to replace Dubas with Treliving was a success or a failure will be whether or not the Leafs can win in the playoffs and push into deeper water with Treliving at the helm.
On Wednesday's edition of 32 Thoughts, Elliotte Friedman and Jeff Marek were discussing all of the Carter Hart buzz coming out of Philadelphia and whether or not the Flyers will move him and to where. During that conversation, Friedman brought up the fact that a number of people were wondering about Hart in Toronto. Friedman made it very clear that we may hear a lot more rumours coming out of Toronto connecting the Leafs to more players, simply because of how active Treliving is in the trade and free agent markets.
"Treliving is the GM in Toronto now, and he makes a lot of calls - like he's in on EVERYTHING. One of the things I kind of remembered was, now that he's here, we're going to hear Toronto being involved in more things, simply because I think he is a guy who really looks out there for what's available. So, sometimes, I look at this and I say 'alright, this is just him putting his feelers out as opposed to anything serious'. Now, like I said, Jeff, I've had some real mixed messages on this one. I had one denial, it wasn't going to be Toronto, but I had some other people say, just keep looking at [Toronto]." - Friedman on Brad Treliving
In terms of the obvious complication here with Toronto and Carter Hart, the Leafs have 3 NHL goaltenders lined up for next season at the moment. Matt Murray has one year left on his deal with the Leafs at just under $4.7M. They also have restricted free agent Ilya Samsonov, who has already expressed his desire to sign an extension with the Leafs. Then they have Joseph Woll, a budding young star goalie by all appearances. Friedman addressed that issue as well and pointed to the Leafs needing to make a very big decision if they wanted to pursue Hart.
"The one challenge here is - let's say it's Toronto - they have to do something with Matt Murray. Well, Philly is off the board now [with Philly taking on Cal Petersen from LA in the Provorov deal]. If Toronto is going to be in this, that means you're letting go of Samsonov, and Woll is your other goalie next year, but you have to find something to do with Murray. If Toronto's going to do this, they have to have a plan for their other goalie." Friedman on the big decision facing Treliving if he wants to pursue a deal for Carter Hart
The Leafs already have their name in on everything. They're already being connected to just about every player on the market from those in the media. If Treliving is even more active than Kyle Dubas was, this should be a pretty entertaining year for Leaf fans.
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