OverDrive - Treliving on the Maple Leafs' roster outlook, importance of sports science and clarity of the position

Episode Date: January 29, 2026

Maple Leafs General Manager Brad Treliving joined OverDrive to discuss the headlines around the Maple Leafs, the importance of sports science and the clarity around the position for the players, the losing skid views of the team, the leadership role, the next steps for the foundation and more.

Leaves in Seattle tonight. Four game roadie before they hit the Olympic break. I'm guessing they're happy to be out of Toronto. They may not say that on the record, but I have to believe they might be happy, considering the homestown they just went through. Well, let's go to the source. Here's the general manager of the Maple Leaf. Is that a bit too far, Brad, that you're happy to be out of Toronto,

or where to things stand right now with you guys in Seattle? Well, we've got a big game tonight. Let's call a spade of spade. It hasn't been a good week. It wasn't a good road trip, or excuse me, a good home stand. But as you have to do in this business, you park it, and you worry about the one that's in front of you, and that's the one here tonight. So that's where the focus will be. Well, we appreciate you doing this.

There's a lot to get into with you, but we want to begin by talking about what we were chatting about earlier this hour. And Jonas Siegel, a good friend of ours. Jonas is a big part of the show, as you know. and, you know, he wrote an article in the athletic today, and the title of it is, why did the Maple Leafs eliminate a job designed to keep players healthy? And, you know, he writes an article about how there used to be a couple of different guys who basically ran the sports science department for the Leafs.

And this past year, you know, the most recent guy who was running it, his, I guess contract was up and he's moved on to Pittsburgh, and you guys have not fulfilled that role. and there's more to the article, but I'd like you to respond to that. Where do you stand on that? Yeah, and I get it. And listen, I understand the job sometimes is to dig into different areas of the organization. First and foremost, I'd say, when we don't perform, we should take every bullet that we should take.

And in this particular case, with this particular article, I just take issue with it. And I stick up for our medical staff. I think the slant of the article is, quite frankly, completely incorrect. There was a gentleman here who had a Rich Rottenberg that was with the organization, left the organization, went on to Pittsburgh, a good man, did a good job. but his basically his duties was a coordinated position. We promoted somebody into that position to coordinate, you know, the oversee, if you will, and coordinate the daily job description and the daily duties of our medical staff.

And quite frankly, we've added more staff this year than we had last year. So the insinuation that we are, we've cut back in any way, shape, or form. in terms of the medical, the performance, or any of the care of our players is simply incorrect. It's wrong. And I think the gentleman that was quoted in the article is a previous staff member here. I've been here two and a half going on. This is my third year. This individual's never, I've never met him.

He doesn't, he hasn't been around to know the inner workings of. our staff, I would put our medical team and the care that our players get amongst the very best, not only in the NHL, but in professional sports. So I think that the article is not a true indication of the care that our players get. Like I said, we've added to our staff in terms of the player-facing. positions. The people that are touching the players, administering therapy to them.

It's something that we take very serious. And I think if you asked any player that's come through Toronto, the care that they get is second to none. And I think when you look at the injuries, there's certainly some injuries, as you guys know,

it's a contact sport, you're going to have injuries. I think if you really look at the numbers that we do, every single day, you've got close to 100 more players in the exact same time period from October 1st to January 28th from last year to this year. League-wide, you've got, it's almost exactly 100 more players that have been placed on injured reserve this year than you were last year. I think it's more of a result of a condensed schedule, more games being played in a shorter

period of time, and it has nothing to do with medical attention. So I bring that up not to arm wrestle with anybody, but just to let's get the facts involved here, that the medical care of our players has not, will not, and never will be compromised in any way, shape, or form. And like I said, the actual truth of the matter is we've increased our staff, we've increased the amount of people that are touching the players. I think we continue as every year to improve our operation, not go the other way. Has budgeting for something like this changed it all over the last 18, 24 months, basically since Keith Pelley arrived in terms of everything we're talking about, the all-encompassing treatment of players?

Do you have the same amount of money today to do whatever you'd like with it that you would have a year or two ago? it's increased since I've been here. So the actual expenditure in terms of what we put into player performance, the individuals, the staff size has increased, the expenditure is increased. So that is never an issue in terms of what we need. I look at our sports performance staff as our goal is to be on the cutting edge of

of whatever new and innovative technology is out there. And like I said, the fact of the matter is we've increased personnel, we've increased therapists, we've increased our strength and conditioning, you know, personnel and program. The success on the ice is not any, or the lack thereof that we've had so far this year. is not an indication to anything to do with the medical staff, nor is it, you know,

I think the headline was, you know, the process that we're going or the process that we have right now isn't conducive to keeping players healthy. I would push back on that as hard as I possibly can because it's, the process continues to get better, I think, each and every year.

And any, any, any, any, uh, description, otherwise just is simply false. With Brad Trilliving, and Dr. Bettel is the name of the individual that I guess was originally hired in 2015. He left in 2019. And then, you know, you referenced the doctor who's off to Pittsburgh now. And I think, you know, one of the arguments Betel was making, and he's the one that's quoting

this, and he was here before you got here, Brad, was indicating that you need somebody who is medically inclined to make a call on a player. if let's say a strength coach comes to you and goes, I think he needs to do this. And a medical or a therapist comes to you and goes, actually, I think he needs to do this. That's where you need someone who's qualified to do it. And his argument is a GM can't do it, a coach can't do it.

That's where you need someone at the top effectively to make those decisions in terms of injury prevention or making a decision on an individual player. how do you respond to that and how does that work today? Yeah, I would agree. I don't know this Dr. Bethel, but that's exactly how it works. The coach, no member of the coaching staff, no member of the management makes any decisions with respect to players' health, players return to player. We have a full comprehensive process that is directed by our medical directors.

And to your point earlier, the position that we had last year, which I think where Jonas has gone down a rabbit hole is in titles, we've gone from a sports performance director to a sports performance coordinator. And then we've invested more into the actual, the coordinating part has not changed at all in terms of how we go about our process. we've increased the number of people that are actually working on the players, which and really looking forward, I think it's the right thing to do and you're always evaluating it, but specifically last summer

when we looked ahead to this year and knowing that you've got an increased schedule, you've got games coming at you, at a faster clip, we wanted to increase the number of really hands on the players. And so, like I said, it's if we really wanted to dig into the actual workings of the medical staff, this is not a step back to me.

This is this progressive, an operation that I've seen, and we'll continue to be so. Tree, as far as on the ice, you talked about the homestand, like from your eyes, what are you seeing that led to the results that happened last week? Well, just generally disappointed, right? Completely disappointed in the homestown that took place. So, you know, as I said earlier, oh, you got to park that. And all you can focus on for the players and the coaches is tonight's game and moving forward. But as a manager's perspective, you know, you're looking at what happened before,

what happening now and what's going to happen in the future. I look at the home stand is you know we were flat when the first came back against Minnesota we were flat we we had fits and starts throughout the homestown

but just not the consistency level to be at the level that we needed to be against especially with the teams that were coming in just it wasn't good enough and we're like I said We knew the critical point and juncture of the season that we were in, and there's no excuse for it. We didn't perform well enough to win games.

And so you continue to watch and you continue to evaluate. But ultimately, there's all parts of the game. You can look at each individual game and pick specific critical moments out. but for me it just the consistency level or the level that we needed to be at we just we weren't we weren't we weren't there for for enough stretches and for long enough stretches and and the results you know we we we got the results that we got

so certainly disappointing but for for us we we have to focus on tonight that's that's there's nothing you can do the manager can be pissed off and and but but all we can do right now is focus on the one that's ahead of us and especially in a season like this where the games come at you quickly that's all you can do is focus on what's ahead of you and be ready to go at puck drop tonight so it was you know well documented that Craig Barubei had a meeting with the leaders of of your team prior to the game the other night and then we saw how the game played out how do you respond to that Brad that, you know, your coach is meeting with vets, your veteran team hoping for a response and then you lose in the fashion you did against Buffalo. Well, I think just the, I know there's been stuff mentioned about leader,

those are all things that are preset, right? There's regular meetings with the leadership group. So this isn't, you know, this wasn't a call to arms here. those are those are schedules in advance we you know both Craig myself as regular occurrence we meet with the leadership group on a regular basis of getting you know a feel for really its feedback both ways you know the Buffalo game again how we came out it's not necessarily how we came out again at critical moments it wasn't good enough you know at the end of the day you

you can go back. There becomes certain times where you just got to find ways to win. And, you know, ultimately, we haven't found ways to win. And so that to me isn't whether you're meeting with players, those things happen regularly. So I know, you know, things will get made about a player meeting or that. Those coaches meeting with players every day. but we didn't do enough good things in that game at critical moments to win. And, you know, when you're, the trouble you've put yourself in, as much as you're going to have,

you're going to have stretches where you go through parts of the season, as critical as that homestand was, it was made more critical by what happened in October, November. So you shortened your runway to give yourself, you know, room for air. You're not going to win every night. But when you put yourself behind the eight ball in a real competitive division and a real competitive conference, you've shortened your window for having rough stretches.

And we came off after a good road trip. We had been, you know, we've been playing better. We've been finding ways to accumulate points. You come back and you get one point in a fine game homestand. You're going to have stretches like that. but when you've had, you know, when you skinned your knee enough in the first two months of the season, that just, that makes it that much more, you know, profound of a stretch. So, yeah, Buffalo, similar to the other games, just not enough good play to put ourselves in a position to win a game.

So, Tree, you said you're constantly evaluating. Is there a timeline for you where you make a decision one way or the other on, you know, the trajectory of the group? or is it just a constant evaluation game by game leading into the Olympic break and then leading up to the deadline? Yeah, I think news you're always evaluating, but listen, we're very cognizant. I'm not going to come out and make any profound statements, but we're also very cognizant of where you sit in the standings and where, you know, you're looking at probabilities, you're looking at schedules ahead of yourselves. You know, the players and the coaches have their job to do, and that's to perform and be ready for,

for every game. And we certainly have four games remaining before the Olympic break. We've got a three-week break for the Olympics. We come back. And we've got a handful of games before the March 6 deadline. So you're always evaluating the short term. You're evaluating the long-term. And my job is and always will be is evaluating where your team is at,

but making decisions that don't just, you know, we look back, here, this team for a number of years, two years that I've been here a number of years before, we're spending a lot of assets. You're trying to win. Your team, you get to the deadline. It's the last opportunity for you to make additions to your team. You're trying to do things as all teams that are in that position are to push your team over the top. We're in a different position than we are than we've been in the past. So you take all that information. You're continually talking throughout the league and seeing, you know, what's in front of you. But you're planning based upon where your team's sitting and what you think is in front of you.

So it's the combination noodles of, yeah, you know where the game sit leading up to the deadline. But you've also got, you know, four months of information already in the rearview mirror. and you make decisions accordingly. Do you believe that the core pieces you have here, the ones that you have locked in, is there enough here for the cup window to be open years into the future, in your opinion? Yeah, you know what?

Listen, I think we've got some really good players. I'm not, I'm not, I'm not, I understand the question, Brian. I believe in our players, but you also, I'm not, to be sitting here making profound statements or doing an autopsy on on on the team here um we're certainly not in a position that we want to be in so you've always got to be able to you know read and react and and act accordingly but you know the top end of our our lineup you know willie's been out for a while battling an injury um but every team's got that right but listen i think we've got some really good players here.

But we've got to continue just to watch, evaluate, and make the necessary decisions. Obviously, you've got a deadline coming up that forces decisions on that. And then you go into, you know, the remainder of the season and the off season. So we'll continue to look at things. And like I said, without being vague, continue to evaluate. and see what the best steps for us are moving forward based upon where we're out. Well, you're in Seattle tonight. You know, as you said, looking forward the cracking tonight.

You got them through Western Canada, then a pretty long break. And then we reset and see where it goes down the stretch. Appreciate you, you know, the insight, and you take it time for us today. We always appreciate it, Brad. We'll do it again down the road. You bet. Anytime, guys. There he is, Brad. Tree Living, the GM of the Maple Leafs.

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