Maple Leafs GM Brad Treliving Taking Heat For Three of His Recent Decisions

During his first off-season at the helm for the Maple Leafs, Brad Treliving made a number of signings that included Max Domi, Tyler Bertuzzi, John Klingberg and Ryan Reaves.

While the Domi and Bertuzzi signings took a while to pay off and were fairly well-received, the same could not be said for the Reaves and Klingberg moves.

Reaves' tenure could not have started worse, having the worst plus/minus rating on the team before being injured in mid-December last season.

Reaves missed six weeks with his injury and before his return, revealed that he has dealt with the injuries his whole career, and that he required knee braces to stop his knee caps from moving around.

As for Klingberg, when he signed his 1-year deal with the Leafs, it was known that he had a troubling history of injuries. Although he started the season strong offensively, he quickly found himself hurt and eventually having hip surgery.

Asked about the injury history, when Klingberg was headed for surgery, Treliving said the Leafs weren't concerned at the time of his signing.

This season, Treliving has been taking heat for signing the chronically injured Jani Hakanpaa.

Hakanpaa had initially dealt with a knee injury last season that forced him to miss all of the playoffs and training camp.

After skating in two games for the Leafs in November, he was once again placed on injured reserve as he continues to find a solution to his injury.

Even with a number of successful signings and extension negotiations during his short tenure with the Leafs, Treliving has found himself under scrutiny again as the Leafs continue to battle through a number of injuries to key players, including Max Pacioretty, who has been largely unable to stay healthy in recent years as well.

As the season continues, it will be interesting to see just how Treliving and the Leafs navigate some of the contracts that don't look good at this point. The only silver lining for the Leafs is that Hakanpaa is only on a one-year deal and the injuries are giving the Leafs the ability to utilize LTIR to gain access to the cap space they essentially wasted to bolster their roster for a deep playoff run.

It's been a mixed bag for Treliving in the Leafs' front office, but a lengthy playoff run would be enough to make Leafs Nation forget some of his transgressions.

As far as Klingberg and Hakanpaa, these are short-term deals that will have resolved after just 1 season. Reaves, on the other hand, still has 1 year left after this one at $1.35M. Not all that ideal for what will amount to a 38-year-old with two floating knee caps.