OverDrive - Treliving on the Maple Leafs' season kicking off, Matthews leading the team and the market in the league

Episode Date: September 17, 2025

Maple Leafs General Manager Brad Treliving joined OverDrive to discuss the training camps beginning for team, Morgan Rielly's determination on the ice, the lines taking shape in camp, Auston Matthews' role entering the season and getting back to full health, the winger position on the first line, seeking the market to add, the goaltending choices in the crease and more.

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Loud, crowd, and all yours. No passports required, just press play. Tap into Made in Canada now on iHeartRadio.ca. Or the free iHeartRadio app. Here's the GM of the least, Brad Trillivoc. Brad, are you going to miss the physical era of the National Hockey League? You know, I said to the guys, I think, well, for the most part, listen, nowadays, it was different, no, and noodles days where you came in and you had to skate the rust off.

They're all in pretty good shape, but I said in the other day, I'm like, I think you guys are playing this all wrong. The coaches will think you haven't done anything, just going to rinse you for during camp. Why not just get on, settle the bike a little bit, make it look good, and everybody will think you're in shape. So we'll see, we'll see, but it's a new game. It's a new game now.

How curious are you guys going to be when everybody wheels into camp? Like, are you going to be just eyeballs looking around everywhere to see where everybody's at, Trey? It's going to be a different ballgame. Yeah, we talked about that. We'll worry about that next year, But I think for the most part, the way the guys come in right now, they don't take a lot of days off.

But we'll worry about the next little road ahead here and then get our heads wrapped around us here next year. With Brad, Trayliving, the Leafs Back in Action are on the ice as of tomorrow. And, you know, we're always tracking the size of different guys. Not that we know. Not that it really matters, you know, how much weight someone's gained or how much weight someone's lost. But I guess Morgan Riley has lost, you know, six pounds a year over year, and you know, you said today,

and I believe he was indicating that the two of you had a pretty candid conversation after last year, and he's taken that conversation to heart, and he had a great offseason. And I'm curious, you know, what the expectations are, how are the goalpost moving for Morgan Riley in terms of what you need out of him this year compared to maybe what you got out of him last year? Yeah, I think, I mean, for the most part, Brian, a lot of those things I'd leave just behind closed doors, right? The conversation you have with the players, you talk to your guys all the time. You know, what I'd say about Morgan is, you know, what do we need out of Morgan? We need the best version of Morgan and what he's capable of.

What I would ask to him is not anything that he's not capable of. you know, to get him back to, and I think we saw, I think we saw flashes of it, and I would say there was a little bit of a, you know, there's a little bit of him getting adjusted to a little bit new style of play last season, and I thought down the stretch in the playoffs in the second half was better for him than it was maybe in the first half, But, you know, we just talked a lot about getting, you know, getting, getting Morgan back to what he's capable of doing, not asking him to be anybody that he's not. To me, that always starts in the summer and your preparation. It's in your mindset.

And, you know, the great thing there is this wasn't a one-sided conversation. Morgan was fully on board and he knows what he's capable of doing. He's the first one to tell you there's more there than. what maybe we've seen last year. And this is a really, really good player. So, you know, this time of the year, you look around the league, and it's always filled with, today's always filled with, you know, the great line of best shape of his life, and this guy's gained 20 pounds,

and this guy's lost 20 pounds. But I can honestly say, you know, around the facility all summer, and there wasn't too many days, but Morgan wasn't the first guy in there, and usually the last guy to leave. So he's put the work in, and, you know, there's a real focus, a real seriousness, a real seriousness to him. So I'm looking forward to seeing, I'm really looking forward to seeing what he's going to bring.

So, Trey, you've got, you know, a big roster of guys that are sorted out as far as NHL players, but do you feel like there is some internal battles here at camp, and is it tough to, you know, monitor them with such a shortened training camp and then right into preseason games. Yeah, we do. I think everybody likes to say there's competition, and we all know for the most part there's a pretty good idea. We can all pencil when, you know, the guys are, for the most part,

they're going to be on the team. But I can honestly say there's, you know, if you look at it, especially up front, I would say that it holds true on the blue line, too, that, you know, there's more NHL bodies than there is seats. and, you know, that's not including some young guys that I think are, you know, are going to push, right? They're at that stage now where, you know, they're not 18 years old and not mature. They're ready to, you know, push for jobs here. So we've got, we've got more bodies than there is jobs.

So there's going to be competition, there's going to be competition to get on the team. And then there's always internal competition, right, of finding your role, you know, and, and to me, training camps always about, you know, about three things in terms of, and one of those is, is, it's finding a role, solidifying a role, and so I think you're going to see that internal competition of, you know, who's going to pick up some power play time, who's, you know, who's going to, you know, who's going to, play with who? Where are you going to be slotted in the lineup? What role are you going to fulfill to help us win? And so I'm intrigued about that and you know we've got I guess just under three weeks to figure it out.

Tree, we were talking about Matthews off the top who he's going to play with and just his basic, you know, expectation this year. We know whether obviously Marner is not going to be there but he should be healthy and raring to go and be dominant regardless of who's on his line.

I would agree with you. He looks really, really good. You know, we all know he was fighting through some stuff last year. Never, you know, never bitched about it. Just dug in and played. And, you know, he's an elite player. And so, yeah, it's always great to have as much talent around you. But elite players, you know, they drag others up with them.

And I think that there's, you know, I think that he, you know, just spent a lot of time with him over the last. He's been here for, you know, almost a month now. There's a seriousness to him, too. And I think he, like, you know, he looks great physically. I think he's in a great spot mentally. And he's determined to go out there. Some people say, okay, he had a down year. I'd like, you know, there'd be a lot of guys that pray to have a down year like he had.

And it's not just the goals and the points and everything else. You know, he drives our team. He drives it defensively. He drives it from preparation. And I think he's looking forward to the challenge. And listen, we all know, yeah, there's, you know, he's got a different right winger there. Who that's going to be right now? you know, that's what camp is for here right now is to try to, you know,

we're a collection of players, I don't care what happened the year before I don't, to me, I don't really believe momentum carries over how many guys you've got back, how many new guys, you're a collection of players right now that you're starting the process of building a team. So, you know, he's the tip of the sphere for us, and I expect him to be driving the group regardless of what changes. with Brad Trilliving. It is somewhat unique, though, to be in pursuit of a first line right winger as camp opens up. Like we talk a lot about battles and it's who's the sixth or seventh

defenseman, who could be the 13th forward. This is, you know, this is on the marquee. It's the top line with your captain here. Is that unsettling for you, Brad? You know, that it's such a prominent role and you guys are going in here still trying to figure out who it's going to be. Well, you know, at the end of the day, somebody's going to pick up the minutes right now. I said today, we met with the media today, and sure, we'd love to be able to go, we'd love to go be able to, you know, go plop somebody in there right now. That's, you know, we've been looking. Those players aren't readily available. You saw that, you know, there wasn't a ton of, there wasn't really a ton of action throughout the summer.

So we'll continue, you know, the player's jobs right now is to go out and earn, earn their, opportunity there manager's job is no different than every year how do you go find people to make

your group better so we'll continue to do that and I know we all get focused on first line second line to me

there's just fit sometimes listen we we've had a lot of Mitch was a great player he's a great

player was a great player for us you're not going to just go replace that player with one

player so how do we find, you know, whether it be internally, whether it be externally, somebody that can fit there. You know, you look throughout the league, there's a lot of guys that you would say, okay, is this guy a first-line player?

But the fit is there. The chemistry is there. They do, they have a job description that helps you know, one or two of the other players on the line accomplish what needs to be accomplished. So certainly that is an area that is

going to play out through camp and we'll continue to look at ways that we can help ourselves. But for the players, you know, to me, there's a great opportunity there. And I know there's guys that are itching to try to get an opportunity there, and we'll see where chemistry is. You don't know. Chief and I talked five times a day all summer, and we've got lots of great plans until you get out of the ice

and see where the fit is. Sometimes it's what you thought of. Sometimes it's not. So that's why you get into campus. and play the games and see where all the pieces fit together. Trey, how do you know when to pull the trigger making a phone call? Every team in the league thinks they're great right now, but the reality is that they're all not going to be.

And quickly, teams find out that they're not that good. How do you monitor that, you know, if you're looking for a guy to place that call? Yeah. Yeah, it's a good question. Oh, I think the fact that there wasn't a lot of movement doesn't necessarily mean there wasn't lot of dialogue. So you have a pretty good idea. You know, you have a pretty good idea where, what people may be looking to do. But you're right. The interesting part of this summer was, you know, you had, you had a lot of people, you know, I think, throat leaks.

Everybody was, regardless of where you are, everybody was trying to take a step, you know, regardless of necessarily where you were in the development of your team, whether you're looked at as a team that's, you know, in the contender status of trying to push through that to that end, whether you're a developing team, everybody was, there wasn't a lot of people that were looking to, you know, some of it's financially driven. There wasn't, there wasn't cap pressure in a lot of places where somebody had to throw a body or two overboard. You know, everybody, whether you were a developing team or rebuilding team, a team that's a mature team, everybody was trying to take a step. And so you monitor it. You, you know, you watch

That's all you do. You watch your team, you watch around the league, you stay as active as you can to make sure you've got your finger on what's going on around the league and continue to monitor if there's opportunities out there that can help you. So, you know, we're all, like we said, today was the last day of, you know, we're all, we all start to get miserable, you know, tomorrow at 9 o'clock and realize, figure out where our holes are and all 32 teams try to make themselves. as well is better start tomorrow here. So we'll just continue to watch our group and try to stay as connected as we can to see what's going on around the lake. Tree, well, healthy, you know, I wouldn't call it an argument,

but more of a debate about the goaltending. You know, you've got two good guys. You've got a kid in the minors who is a monster and has an opportunity to be an NHL goaltender as well. But, you know, are you looking for, I mean, maybe this is more between you and chief, but is this, are you looking for one to push through and play 50 plus? or are you just comfortable with going back and forth and having guys in that 40 range if they're healthy?

Yeah, it's a good question. Noodles, it's, you know, the more you look around in the league, you know, we all know the guys that, you know, are the guys that play every night, and there's becoming less and less of it. You know, a lot of it, too, sometimes is schedule-driven. We're in a year here. you know, everything's so compressed with the Olympic schedule.

You're playing every other night. You've got your back-to-box. Your three and fours, four and sixes, all that sort of stuff. So it's not necessarily we're not looking at it, say, okay, somebody's got to go play 50-55. We think strongly between the two guys, we're looking to have good goaltending each night. And we think that, you know, we saw it last,

a year ago at this time, we were sitting here and there's some question marks, right? We believed in both guys, but neither one. At the time, I don't know if anybody played more than 20-some-odd games. And so they both played career highs last year. They were both fresh. Obviously, Stoli went through an injury process throughout the year, but they gave us good goal-tending. So we're not necessarily focused of saying,

okay, somebody's got to go grab it for 50-plus. I think what we feel comfortable is we're going to get good goal-tending between the two of them you're right you know you've got the beast down there who's who's you know going into his third year now so you know he's he's coming along young act Yamov so we think we've got some depth there in the position but you know between Anthony and Joe

we want to keep them healthy and and if they are we think we think we're going to get good goal-tending each night, and that's the expectation. With Brad Tree Living, so, you know, this is the first time in over a decade. Brendan Shanahan is not running the operation down there, and that was obviously, you know, a significant change in terms of the organization's hierarchy, and he was the guy that brought you in. And I think a lot of people curious about, you know, the day-to-day operation with Shanahan not around.

I'm interested in that, or I guess I'm going to ask you that, Brad. in terms of your role and your day-to-day operations, how different is it this year compared to last year? Well, it's changed a little bit. Obviously, Shan, he had a big, I mean, he was the president of the team, and he had a big influence on the team, and, you know, we talked, you know, we talked, you know, every day and throughout the day, and so he'll be missed.

You know, my role, for the most part, really hasn't changed. you know it's focusing on our team it's focusing on our players our staff how do I best support them how do I you know at the end of the day how do we put the pieces here together and make our team as good as it can be and so the

the job description hasn't changed there's a few different things now that I'm more involved in than they were previously but we've got I'm very fortunate to have a great staff around me. And, you know, they've taken on some more, some more things,

whether it be through Brandon Pridham, Shane Donne, you know, throughout the organization and different departments. So there's a little bit more that there's a little bit more that's come through in terms of the transition, but, you know, I know where my focus is and that hasn't changed, you know, from last year to this year. And so, you know, where my energy is directed, it will be for the most part exactly how it's been since I got here. Well, it'll be fun to have you guys back on the ice as of tomorrow,

and you don't really use into it right back into games this weekend. It's going to be great. Hockey's back, and it's always great of you to find time for us. We appreciate you doing this. Thank you. You bet. Look forward to talking to you guys. and go jays down the stretch here, right?

Absolutely. Red hot, they don't lose. They do not lose. It's incredible. Thanks, Brad. Okay, guys. Brad, Tree Living, GM of the leaves. Seasoned gamer, or just video game curious, this week in gaming is the podcast for you. We break down the latest in the world of video games,

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