Although the Maple Leafs appear to be running it back with their core, the Leafs GM pointed out there is still business to take care of.
Wednesday was a busy day for the Toronto Maple Leafs.
Their staff and entire core of players (except for William Nylander who was presumably still in Sweden) held a presentation where John Tavares officially handed over the team captaincy to superstar Auston Matthews.
After it was done, Maple Leafs GM Brad Treliving was a guest on TSN's OverDrive with Brian Hayes and Jamie McLennan. After spending the first half of the segment talking about the change in captaincy, the topic shifted to the Leafs presumably running it back with their core players, including Mitch Marner, who is a potential trade target given the player is entering the final year of his contract.
“To me, we've still got five weeks or so till camp. And, you know, we're not set yet. We continue to look at ways to make our team better," Treliving responded. "I said at the end of the year we're going to look at everything. Sometimes people fall in love with ' 'let's make a big change just to make a big change'. At the end of the day, you can go out and make big changes. If they're not making your team better, to me it doesn't make any sense to just make a change just to stand up and say 'look at it, we made this big change.'"
The 27-year-old Marner had 26 goals and 59 assists in 69 games. He has a full no-movement clause in his contract and the Leafs would require his consent to any trade. It's quite possible here that nothing has presented itself where the Leafs feel a return was worth presenting to Marner's camp as of now. But as for change, Treliving pointed to a coaching change from Sheldon Keefe to Craig Berube in May and the additions on defense like adding Christ Tanev and Oliver Ekman-Larsson.
What else do the Leafs have to do?
There's still a couple of situations that need clarity. Defenseman Jani Hakanpaa was reported to have signed with the Leafs but the deal was never registered with the NHL due to concerns about his knee. Treliving told reporters on Wednesday they were working through it.
There's also the matter of Nick Robertson. There's been no update in the restricted free agent's status. Robertson reportedly told the Maple Leafs he has no intention of signing with the Leafs and would like to be traded.
Treliving, in talking with reports following the first day of free agency, stressed how much of an opportunity there is for Robertson this season.
The need for more depth forwards
The Leafs may find that prospect forwards Fraser Minten and Easton Cowan are ready to make the jump, but if they aren't and the Robertson situation doesn't get resolved, they may want to add more depth forwards. It wouldn't be a surprise to see Toronto extend some professional tryouts to some current free agents.
Last season, Noah Gregor joined Leafs camp on a professional tryout before signing a one-year, $775,000 deal before opening night. The Leafs elected not to qualify Gregor in June and the player signed with the Ottawa Senators.
