BUFFALO -- Keith Pelley is on the clock.
And so are the Toronto Maple Leafs.
As the president of Maple Leafs Sports & Entertainment met with the media Tuesday afternoon, just 17 hours after announcing the firing of Toronto general manager Brad Treliving, he didn’t mince his words when discussing the relevance of needing to make the right choice in the selection of the person -- or people, as the case may be -- to lead the franchise into the future.
“At the end of the day, this is the most important decision that I will likely make it in my tenure at MLSE,” he said.
In a press conference that lasted almost half an hour, that comment resonated deeper than all others.
Because, as he pointed out, the rest of the NHL’s Atlantic Division, top to bottom, is getting stronger.
And, right now, the Maple Leafs are not.
Pelley didn’t need to say that. The standings do.
At the exact time he was addressing the media in Toronto, the Maple Leafs were in seventh place in the Atlantic with 77 points. The only team beneath them was the defending Stanley Cup champion Florida Panthers, a banged-up group feeling the effects of three consecutive trips to the Stanley Cup Final that is expected to contend next season after an offseason of rest and healing.
Other than that, the remaining six teams -- the Tampa Bay Lightning, Buffalo Sabres, Montreal Canadiens, Boston Bruins, Ottawa Senators and Detroit Red Wings -- are all still in contention for Stanley Cup Playoff spots with two weeks remaining in the regular season.
More importantly, none appear to be showing signs of regression moving forward.
Can the Maple Leafs make that same claim, given the lack of prospects and draft capital they currently have?
For a franchise that hadn’t missed the postseason since 2016, maybe the Maple Leafs took for granted just how deep the division was, especially after they came within one win of reaching the conference final last spring for the first time since 2002.
If that indeed was the case, it was a miscalculation on their part.
“The only thing that I would say is we need to be better,” Pelley said. “We need to be able to adapt quicker. And we definitely didn't see the train coming, which was the Buffalo Sabres and the Montreal Canadiens, and how strong those two teams are, along with the likes of Detroit and Ottawa. Boston, with a strong spine, have been able to retool. Florida and Tampa are always strong.”
He then circled back to the Sabres and Canadiens.
“Buffalo and Montreal have shown that they’re young, energetic teams,” he said. “They're going to be here for a long time.”
Here in Buffalo, fans are giddy at the prospect of the Sabres reaching the playoffs for the first time since 2011. They’re led by captain Rasmus Dahlin, the 25-year-old defenseman who is one of the poster boys for the youthful stars in the division who haven’t even reached their respective primes yet.
Look at Montreal. The Canadiens’ core of forwards Cole Caufield, Nick Suzuki, Juraj Slafkovsky, and defensemen Lane Hutson and Noah Dobson are all under 27-years-old and are under contract until at least 2030, while electric 20-year-old forward Ivan Demidov might end up proving to be the best of the bunch.
In Ottawa, forwards Brady Tkachuk, Tim Stutzle and defenseman Jake Sanderson are also under 27 and continue to trend upwards in their careers. The same holds true of forward Lucas Raymond and defenseman Moritz Seider of the Red Wings. And as for the Lightning and the Panthers, a pair of veteran teams who have represented the Eastern Conference in the Final for the past six years, there still is enough left in the tank to make significant title runs for the next handful of years, health permitting.
In the case of the Bruins, their current retool is and will be helped significantly by the generosity of the Maple Leafs thanks to the trading of prospect Fraser Minten and a 2026 top-five protected pick to Boston for defenseman Brandon Carlo a year ago. Minten is now playing on the Bruins’ top line, while the odds look to be in favor of Boston using Toronto’s pick somewhere between No. 6 to No. 10 overall, depending on the final standings.
To be fair, the Maple Leafs made that deal last season while in win-now mode. In the end, they only went on to win one series before being eliminated by the Panthers in seven games in their Eastern Conference Second Round matchup. In the process, they gave the rival Bruins two assets they themselves could use right now -- a high draft pick, and a young talented player.
In the end, unless that Maple Leafs first-round pick ends up being in the top five, in which case they’ll retain it, Toronto won’t pick until the third round when the 2026 NHL Draft comes to Buffalo June 26-27.
As for Toronto’s roster, 23-year-old Matthew Knies and fellow forward Easton Cowan, a 20-year-old rookie, are the top talents among the under-27 players who could be key cogs moving forward.
Yes, there is still plenty left in the tank for marquee forwards William Nylander and Auston Matthews. But with just two years remaining on his contract with the Maple Leafs, questions are swirling regarding Matthews’ future and his desire, or potential lack thereof, to be part of a possible rebuild, retool, whatever you want to call it.
It’s one of the issues that the incoming regime Pelley eventually decides on will have to deal with.
Much like finding ways to bring in young talent and draft capital will be.
Because right now, the Maple Leafs are a slow, aging team in a division that, for the most part, is anything but.
