Maple Leafs GM says blame 'starts with me' for team being Deadline seller

TORONTO -- The Toronto Maple Leafs became sellers leading up to the NHL Trade Deadline for the first time in a decade this week.

And if there is any blame to go around for the team being in that position, general manager Brad Treliving said, “It starts with me.”

“I take responsibility for our season,” Treliving said Friday, about 90 minutes after the 3 p.m. ET deadline had passed. “I don’t look at today being an autopsy day. We still have 19 games to go. But I think there are a whole host of reasons. 

“I’ll take responsibility. You know, we met earlier in the year, [at] about the 20-game mark, where we got off to a slow start. And again, the failures start with me. Once we get through the end of the season, you know, there will be all sorts of evaluation.”

Given that the Maple Leafs are just 10 months removed from taking the eventual Stanley Cup champion Florida Panthers to seven games in their best-of-7 Eastern Conference Second Round series, there will be no shortage of questions regarding what went wrong for a franchise that entered 2025-26 with Stanley Cup aspirations.

To that end, a season of aspiration quickly became one of frustration for Toronto (27-25-11), which is eight points behind the Boston Bruins for the second wild card into the Stanley Cup Playoffs from the Eastern Conference. 

With the team on an 0-4-2 skid since the three-week break for the Olympic Winter Games Milano Cortina 2026, the decision was made to trade away player assets for draft capital. As such, forwards Bobby McMann, Scott Laughton and Nicolas Roy were dealt in separate trades that netted Toronto a total of five picks.

It was a scenario that Maple Leafs fans had not seen in 10 years.

In the weeks leading up to the 2016 NHL Trade Deadline, then-GM Lou Lamoriello shipped out names like Dion Phaneuf, Roman Polak, Nick Spaling, James Reimer, Shawn Matthias and Daniel Winnik for six picks sprinkled over the next three drafts -- four second-round selections and two fourth-round choices. Less than four months later, Toronto took forward Auston Matthews No. 1 in the 2016 NHL Draft, sparking a run that saw the Maple Leafs reach the playoffs for nine consecutive seasons.

With a 10th straight appearance seeming improbable at this point, Treliving was asked why he thinks Craig Berube, in his second season behind the Maple Leafs bench, still is the right coach for this team.

“Like everything else, we all take responsibility,” he said. “I think Craig’s a terrific coach. It hasn’t worked, right? So when it doesn’t work, we all share a blame and we all share responsibility, right? So it starts with myself. It’s the coaches. It’s the players. We all are partners in this thing.”

McMann, who can become an unrestricted free agent July 1, was dealt to the Seattle Kraken on Friday for a conditional second-round pick in the 2027 NHL Draft and a fourth-round pick in the 2026 NHL Draft. The 29-year-old had 32 points (19 goals, 13 assists) in 60 games with Toronto this season.

On Thursday, Roy was traded to the Colorado Avalanche for a conditional first-round pick in the 2027 draft and a conditional fifth-round pick in the 2026 draft. The 29-year-old, who has 20 points (five goals, 15 assists) in 59 games this season, has one year remaining on a five-year, $15 million contract ($3 million average annual value) he signed with the Vegas Golden Knights on Aug. 8, 2022, and can become an unrestricted free agent after next season.

The puzzling deal involves Laughton; not so much for being traded, more so for what the return was.

The 31-year-old was acquired from the Philadelphia Flyers prior to the deadline last season for a conditional first-round pick in the 2027 draft and forward prospect Nikita Grebenkin. This time around, Laughton, who has 12 points (eight goals, four assists) in 43 games this season and can become an unrestricted free agent July 1, was traded to the Los Angeles Kings on Friday for a conditional third-round pick in the 2026 draft, which elevates to a second-round pick if the Kings make the postseason.

Why did the Maple Leafs receive less for Laughton this year than they gave up for him 12 months earlier?

“We communicated with everybody,” Treliving replied regarding trade talks involving the veteran forward. “And ultimately, the market dictates, right?”

For Matthews, it’s been a frustrating NHL season that likely will culminate with no playoff hockey for the first time in his professional career. Treliving said he’s had frequent discussions with his star center, including about the direction the team might be heading in.

In the end, the general manager said any comments regarding a rebuild or retool -- “re-words,” as he referred to them -- would come at the end of the season.

“There’s change that has to occur,” he said. “There’s changes we need to make.

“But that’s not for today.”