Brad Treliving wasn’t in a revelatory mood on Saturday.
Not that we would have expected the Maple Leafs general manager to spill any trade secrets when he met with the media in Pittsburgh.
Treliving even took a playful shot at himself before getting into few specifics regarding the Leafs’ plans before the National Hockey League trade deadline comes on Friday at 3 p.m. ET.
“I’m not going to get into a whole lot about the deadline, other than to say we’re going to try to help ourselves,” Treliving said. “We want to try to improve our team. That’s a pretty breaking news there, isn’t it?”
Treliving said a few times that while he would like to make the Leafs better than they are now, he likes the group as it stands. For good reason.
Riding a four-game winning streak going into their game on Sunday afternoon against the Pittsburgh Penguins, the Leafs are in a battle with the Florida Panthers for first place in the Atlantic Division. Florida took a one-point lead on Saturday with a win against Calgary, but the Leafs have two games in hand.
Toronto has done more than keep its head above water in 2024-25 despite injuries to several key players — captain Auston Matthews, goalie Anthony Stolarz and now defenceman Chris Tanev among them — and is putting itself in a good position to go on a long playoff run.
Still, standing pat with a Leafs team that could finally have the pieces to make it work in the post-season doesn’t interest Treliving.
While speculation has Treliving interested in St. Louis Blues captain Brayden Schenn, without being asked specifically about the veteran centre, the Leafs GM played down the idea that he might be lining up to hit a grand slam in the coming days. Schenn would be in that category. So would Mikko Rantanen of the Carolina Hurricanes, if he is available.
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“It’s not, to me, about taking big swings,” Treliving said. “It’s where do you think you can help your team the most. Historically, these attention-grabbing deadline deals, look back at how many have really paid dividends.
“Sometimes moving the needle is maybe not the sexy headline-grabbing move.
“You have to determine fact from fiction, what players are actually available. There are still lots of teams in the race. I would say in comparison to years past, (talks are) a little bit slower just because there are a lot more teams that maybe haven’t declared yet (whether they will be sellers).”
What we do know is that Treliving will have to make some sacrifices if he adds a player of significance, and you likely can include prospects Fraser Minten and/or Easton Cowan in a trade of that type.
And you can bet the pros and cons of trading the team’s first-round pick in 2026 (the Leafs already have dealt their 2025 first-rounder) are being weighed behind closed doors.
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For anyone worried about the Leafs possibly going two years in a row without a first-round pick, remember that valuable pieces without a first-round tag can be found. Matthew Knies, for example, was a second-round pick in 2021 and Bobby McMann was undrafted.
Would Treliving trade either Minten or Cowan? He didn’t say.
“To me they are top players, they’re going to be NHL players, we think highly of them as we do with a number of other prospects,” Treliving said. “We think those guys are exactly where they need to be right now and are progressing well and we’re excited about them.”
Something else to keep in mind: How much interest would there be in what the Leafs have to offer?
Treliving might know that he probably won’t be able to rely on defenceman Jani Hakanpaa to make a large impact, if any at all. Knee issues have limited the big defenceman to two games, both in mid-November, since last March.
Similar to his team as a whole, Treliving does like his defence corps. That won’t stop him from attempting to acquire another D-man.
“We signed a bunch of defencemen (last summer),” Treliving said. “I don’t think we can ever have too many. If there is something there that makes sense to us, you are juggling that it all has to fit in terms in the cap, but it’s also got to fit in terms of what the prices are.
“How do you fit it in and ultimately what assets have to go out the door?”
We’re within days of finding out.