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Brad Treliving had a bit more time to prepare and put a plan together for his second summer as Toronto Maple Leafs GM. Just over one year ago, Treliving was hired only a few weeks before the NHL Draft in Nashville and was even prevented of being on the floor of Bridgestone Arena by his former club for the first round, and had to deal with a difficult roster situation, not only with players entering the final years of their contracts, but with players set to hit the open market and what to do to fill the holes on the roster.
The Leafs could not keep Ryan O’Reilly, Luke Schenn (both who signed long-term deals with Nashville), Noel Acciari (who signed with Pittsburgh), and chose not to re-sign Michael Bunting (Carolina), Alex Kerfoot (Arizona), Justin Holl, Zach Aston-Reese (Detroit), and Erik Gustafsson (New York), and revamped their lineup with some players that were successful and added to the club and some that were not.
The club made trades during the season and prior to the trade deadline to improve their chances in the playoffs, but as we know the Leafs once again lost in the first round to Boston.
Here is an evaluation of the trades made:
Sam Lafferty dealt to Vancouver for a 2024 fifth round pick
Lafferty had a career-year as a depth forward with Vancouver, scoring 13 goals. Treliving made the calculation that he could get a performance just as good out of Noah Gregor on a veteran minimum deal, save $375,000, and recoup a draft pick, but Gregor was a poor replacement.
Grade – C-
Connor Dewar acquired from the Minnesota Wild for minor leaguer Dmitry Ovchinnikov and a 2026 fourth-round pick.
The pesky 25-year-old was added to add speed and versatility at the deadline and played six of the seven games vs. Boston on the fourth line. Dewar was not a rental and the Leafs signed him to a one-year, $1.18 million deal this week, so we will see if he can build on his career-high 11 goals last season.
Grade – B
Ilya Lyubushkin acquired from Anaheim through Carolina for a 2025 third-round and 2024 sixth-round pick.
Because of the Leafs tight cap situation, they had to give up two picks for a veteran rental defenseman. Lyubushkin was a solid performer playing the right side with Morgan Rielly, but the cost for a rental and at a 75% percent discount was prohibitive.
Grade – B-
Joel Edmundson acquired from Washington for a 2024 third-round pick and a 2025 fourth round pick.
The issue with this deal is not the player, Edmundson performed well in the brief time he played in Toronto and provided toughness and experience for the Leafs in the playoffs. The issue is the price paid for a rental and for retention of salary for a club that was not a serious Stanley Cup contender. Toronto had way too many issues going into the playoffs to have any reasonable observer believe they would get through the Eastern Conference.
With that being the case, they should have kept the draft picks and gone with the defense they had for most of the season.
Toronto Maple Leafs Blogger • 
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