Maple Leafs General Manager Brad Treliving Is In Trouble If He Tries To Broker A Trade With His Former Team

PUBLICATION

James Connelly
December 2, 2023 (4:44 PM)

SHARE THIS STORY

The Toronto Maple Leafs are in dire need of a defenseman and rival teams will be quick to upcharge them if they feel that they can get more out of Treliving.

Leafs Early Season Defensive Struggles

The Maple Leafs have been getting into injury trouble early on this year, specifically on the blue line. They currently have three defensemen on the LTIR (Jake Muzzin, John Klingberg, and Timothy Liljegren) and just lost Mark Giordano for a few weeks.

They are now down to Morgan Rielly, TJ Brodie, Jake McCabe, Conor Timmins, William Lagesson, and Simon Benoit. While these are all solid NHLers with the top-end players being everyday Maple Leafs, the depth is simply not there if the Leafs want to contend for a cup.

They have been linked to a few defensemen like Nikita Zadorov, Noah Hanifin, and Chris Tanev. All were Calgary Flames to start the season but Zadorov was just dealt to the Vancouver Canucks earlier this week. With the Leafs' clear need for a defenseman and the Flames surplus that are sitting on the trade block, one would think they would be perfect trade partners.

Treliving In Trouble If He Makes A Trade With Flames

Brad Treliving left the Flames during last offseason rather abruptly and this certainly left a sour taste for the Flames' ownership and management.

Jim Parsons of The Hockey Writers reveals the following about the Leafs and Flames' trade discussions:

While Flames may be open to dealing with the Leafs, they might expect Toronto to pay a premium, considering the strained history between Treliving and the Flames organization. Calgary knows they would be trading Toronto the exact player they both want and need. They won't (and shouldn't) make it easy on Treliving.

With the Flames charging a premium for Tanev, it may not be the best for the Leafs to target the veteran defenseman. They have other outlets they can look to but most of the other defensemen are not as solid as Tanev is right now.

Hopefully, the Leafs will be able to find a player they need for the right package and ensure that they are not overpaying for a rental player.

As seen on The Hockey Writers - Flames Likely to «Tax» Treliving, Maple Leafs In Any Tanev Trade