The Sheet with Jeff Marek - On the Sheet: Matt Larkin on Treliving's Press Conference

Episode Date: May 30, 2025

Matt Larkin jumps on to recap Brad Treliving’s press conference from earlier today, where the Maple Leafs GM talked about "changing the DNA of the team." What does that really mean? Who stays, who goes — and how deep do the changes go?#TheSheet #JeffMarek #TylerYaremchuk #MattLarkin #Oilers #Stars #StanleyCupPlayoffs #MapleLeafs #BradTreliving #NHLShout out to our sponsors!👍🏼 Fan Duel: https://www.fanduel.com/👍🏼Ninja Kitchen Canada: https://www.ninjakitchen.ca/products/ninja-crispi-4-in-1-portable-glass-air-fryer-cooking-system-zidFN101CGY?utm_source=youtube&utm_medium=olv&utm_campaign=25Q2-Crispi&utm_content=en👍🏼Budweiser: https://www.budweiser.ca/ca_enReach out to [e-mail] to connect with our Sales Team and discuss opportunities to partner with us!If you liked this, check out:🚨 OTT - Coming in Hot Sens | https://www.youtube.com/c/thewallyandmethotshow🚨 TOR - LeafsNation | https://www.youtube.com/@theleafsnation401🚨 EDM - OilersNation | https://www.youtube.com/@Oilersnationdotcom🚨 VAN - CanucksArmy | https://www.youtube.com/@Canucks_Army🚨 CGY - FlamesNation | https://www.youtube.com/@Flames_Nation🚨 Daily Faceoff Fantasy & Betting | www.youtube.com/@DFOFantasyandBetting____________________________________________________________________________________________Connect with us on ⬇️Link Tree: https://linktr.ee/daily_faceoff💻 Website: https://www.dailyfaceoff.com🐦 Follow on twitter: https://x.com/DailyFaceoff💻 Follow on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/dailyfaceoffDaily Faceoff Merch:https://nationgear.ca/collections/daily-faceoff Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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the home of possibilities made easy. Earlier this morning, another press conference from the Try Not To Make Beliefs this time The home of possibilities made easy. Earlier this morning, another press conference from the Toronto Maple Leafs, this time with Brad Treleving, their general manager, with comments on that. Someone who is there for it and barking questions away at Will is Matt Larkin from Daily Face Off. He joins me now. Matt, first of all, thanks so much for joining me today. How are you and how did you find this morning? Oh, I'm good, my friend. It's good to get on the sheet finally and yeah, this morning was interesting. You know, there was a lot of talking from Brad True Living. It was quite a long press or a lot of meat there or was there? If you got to listen to what he was saying. I think you got to play, you have to sort of know Brad for a while to sort of

and put on your Brad TrueLiving decoder ring here. I think one of the interesting things is with TreLiving is not necessarily sometimes what he says, but what he leaves out or what he tries to gray up a little bit. I think most notably that the one thing that everybody picked up on was, you know, he wasn't gonna commit to making a contract offer

to Mitch Marner or to John Tavares. I think that was, those were some of the front and center questions. Like what were your main takeaways from it this morning? Yeah, I think you're right in terms of being very non-committal. That was my number one takeaway. I think that he was very careful to give no specifics on anything to do with Marner negotiations and John Tavares. He did say that the fallout of Brendan Shanahan departing last week kind of delayed everything. It almost sounded

like True Living didn't expect it to happen. It kind of rocked his world. So that delayed things. But I did get the sense that he's being very careful not to create too much optimism or expectation when it comes to Tavaris but mainly Marner. I think if we're placing our bets, it's still likely that they find a solution with John Tavares, something team friendly. I always think about the Joe Pavelski contract, three times seven, something like that. I think it's a fair bet.

With Mitch Marner, I don't know. What do you think the chances are right now? 20%. And I think True Loving was being very careful, not just to leave the door open, but to sort of maybe lay some breadcrumbs. He talked about needing to change the team's DNA. And I feel like that messaging was very deliberate.

When you start to talk about changing a team's DNA, you don't throw that out casually, right? Like when you're talking about like that, that to me means see change. When that means like you need to profoundly change something, something to shock a team. You know, Brian Burke would always talk to me about, sometimes a team will need a jolt

and you need to make a trade to make a jolt. Or sometimes it could be sitting down a vet, scratching a vet, something, but this team needs, according to True Living, a jolt. And I think that's why he said it needs a change to its DNA. And what's the DNA of this team been? The core four. And to me, I looked at that and I said,

this is Brad True Living trying to tell us we are moving away from the core four. Is there a price that they're comfortable at for someone like John Tavares to come back? Yeah. And it's probably in a third line center role as well, not a second line role. Like I think we all look at the Toronto Maple Leafs

and say, they're gonna need two top six wingers. They're going to need a second line center. They're going to need a first pairing defenseman. Bradshaw Living seems quite confident in his, in his goaltending duo, but that's a big shopping list. And when you talk about changing DNA, well, that means even if you're bringing John Tavarez back, he's going to a lower role and you're probably doing this without Mitch Marner. That's how I read the whole thing. That's right. Yeah, I totally agree. I think Matthew Nyes is obviously safe. He already said to us last week, they pretty much said he's gonna not entertain any idea of an offer sheet, so he's fine. But if you look at who are the core pieces, if you want to make significant changes, how else can you do that other than letting Marner

in particular in that $13, $14 million walk? Because even if you look at, for example, the D-Corp, there are seven defensemen already signed not just for next year, for two years and beyond. So that part of the team is, I don't want to say locked up because I do think they need either of the public defensemen, but it's going to be harder to move. And the best way you can make change right now is to wade into the free agent market. The question is, does that mean overpaying Sam Bennett? Does it mean maybe going safer in terms of term and paying Brad Marshawn instead, maybe just for a couple of years? Does it mean

going after both if you really want to send the message that you want to have dogs in the clutch situations? Because to me, another thing that he touched on today, Jeff, was he talked about how Game Seven is going to stick with him for a long time. And after the Leafs went down one nothing, he felt like they completely fell apart. So what is the more reactionary thing to do than to go get two more Florida Panthers after getting three last summer? It's funny. It's just like, again, like the Stanley Cup goes to the state of Florida and if you can't beat them, hire them, pay them

and make them your own. Here's one of the interesting things that I, and I think he, I don't think Brad does anything frivolously. Again, I think he leaves like breadcrumbs here. One of the things that he mentioned in sort of passing, he said in reference to, I believe it was to a Mitch Marner question and about the contract and if we move off of that, you know, and he said something along the lines of, I mean, you'll remember it, you were there, I wasn't, something along the lines of maybe we need to sort of reallocate those resources somewhere else.

And that's why as much as you look at the blue line and everyone's locked up and everybody has term, knowing that whenever Brad Treleving makes deals and Brian Burke always reminds me, you got that from me in Calgary, we were together, he always goes and gets a defenseman. Like Brad Treleving is always looking for defensemen. So even though a lot of those guys are locked up, this is still an NHL where everyone's looking for defensemen. And if Brad Tre a living can grab another one, I'm very much of the mind that that sort of change in DNA or maybe that focus shifts perhaps more to the blue line than it has been traditionally upfront. Does that resonate with you?

It a hundred percent does. And it's something I've said for the last week or so, as much as there's talk of the core four and needing to beef up that forward core, I think the inability to move the puck out of Toronto zone and the defensive end was just as big of a problem as anything else in the playoffs. I was sort of saying, especially during the road games, every time Chris Cuthbert said to the line, but not out,

you could take a drink and you get pretty drunk. The Leafs would get hemmed into their zone. Even though Chris Tann of tremendous poise of the puck, Morgan Riley is not that guy anymore. I think he's regressed and Brad today, we did the scrum after the presser. He admitted that in sort of trying to commit to a heavier game, get accustomed to all his different partners this year, he felt like Riley's offensive game slipped a little bit. And if he's not that guy anymore, I do think the Leafs have to prioritize finding a true

puck mover who can skate the puck out of trouble. And I don't think there is one of those on the free agent market. You have to look for the trade market to find that guy. The interesting thing about that is, Matty, like I really do wonder, because listen, we all know where Craig Berube wants his defenseman in the defensive zone.

He wants them around the net. And the one thing about Morgan Riley this year is he wasn't afforded the luxury of playing the game that he's used to playing. Like Morgan Rielly needs to gallop. Like you got to let that horse go, right? Like that's always been his game. That is not what Craig Borube wants. He wants his D right there around the net. That's the defenseman's responsibility. It's almost as if, if you're Morgan Rielly, you're still the same player,

but everything else around you has changed. And not that it's like, trying to think of like the best example here, Jacques Lamar with Minnesota where everybody had like, you know, bungee cords attached from their hockey pants to the bench. I'm not saying it's like that rigid, but it's gotta be,

there's a part of me that really does feel bad for Morgan Reilly because he's in an environment now where he can't do what he's always been able to do because he's not allowed. And that has grabbed the puck and galloped. How many times have you seen him gallop out of the zone? It doesn't happen. It didn't happen this year. Yeah. I think you're bang on it.

He's basically, he's a fine Italian sports car, but he's with a fleet of ATVs and he's being asked to off-road. And even there's a message on the wall in the Leafs practice facility that includes the word North because they're playing a simplified game, North South, meat and potatoes, which was effective. And we see this is a team that when they have a lead, they protect it well now,

better than any other team in this era. But what they don't have anymore that they did have a couple of years ago, when the Leafs were down three nothing in a game, they could flick a switch and go gangbusters and play fire wagon hockey, come back. They did it against Tampa Bay in game four two years ago in the playoffs. Came back from four one in the third period. This year, if the Leafs got down to nothing, it may as well be five nothing. They don't have that ability to flick

a switch and play really sort of just hair on fire hockey anymore. Overall, a good thing, but you still need that element. And I agree, perfect example is Morgan Riley. I don't think he has the ability to be that stallion or the opportunity in terms of role to be that stallion anymore. What did you make of how Brad True Living discussed Austin Matthews and the injury at camp and working through it?

I mean, listen, we understand why the general manager wants to be as vague as possible about all of it. How did you feel that Tree Living handled that conversation? Yeah, it's different because he also mentioned, you know, everything with injuries is a player's choice, it's personal, but a year ago, when Brad did his year-end availability, he started by rhyming off a list of injuries

and surgeries for his players. So this was a change, the way he approached it today. And when we spoke to Austin last week, he was keeping it close to the vest. And to me, there's a little bit of a contradiction. More specifically with what Austin said last week, he talked about not wanting to reveal the injury for fear of it being targeted. Then he said he's going to be a hundred percent in training camp next year. Well, if it's going to be 100% in training camp next year. Well, if it's going to be completely healed, then why does it matter that you're worried about having the injury targeted?

To me, that makes me a little concerned that this is going to be something nagging that may come and go throughout his career. When it comes to your business, every second counts. From mega factories to mom and pop shops, Ericsson helps tens of thousands of companies around the world build powerful connections every day. Power your business with our connectivity and communication solutions. The invisible advantage driving your growth. Visit us at Ericsson.com slash power. That's E-R-I-C-S-S-O-N dot com slash power. That's what I wanted to get to. It does very much sound like this is something that is not going to be revealed because it's going to be something that Austin

Matthews is going to need to manage for his entire career. What it is we can all speculate as much as we want but it does very much feel like look I'm just gonna have to put up with this. Just like I've had IFBs in my ear my entire professional career, and so I've got substantial hearing loss in my left ear, I just have to manage that for the rest of my life. And Austin Mass, Matthew is gonna have to manage

whatever is wrong with him, and we're probably not gonna ever find out until he retires. Is that fair? I think it's fair. And I wonder if more often than not, we're gonna get this new version of Auston Matthews, who is still an effective player. I kind of joked that, okay, now he's Anzio Kopitar.

He's big, he's strong, he's defensively responsible, he can make plays, he's still a first line caliber player, he can win face-offs. He can do almost everything, except shoot the puck from distance. That trademark deadly release with a little waggle. That's the one thing that I think was the defining trait of his game made him a 69 goal score. You lose that you're a 33 goal score. I know he didn't play 82 games,

but you understand what I'm trying to say here. That's his best tool and it's not available anymore. And I do wonder if it's going to come and go for the rest of his career. Again, we are not doctors for anybody watching or listening, but we can use our deductive reasoning to make an educated guess on what's happening. He seemed quite, Brad did, true living, seemed quite confident in the goaltending tandem. Are you?

Yes, I absolutely am. If you are an analytics person out there, I tend to be a bit of a hybrid, but if you like the stat goals saved above expected goalies who played 30 or more games this year, the Leafs have two of the top seven in the NHL this year. Number one, ahead of Connor Hellebuyck was Anthony Stolarz. Number seven was Joseph Wohl. I think they're both great goaltenders. I think Wohl is more of an athlete. Stolarz is to me, he kind of reminds me of Ed Belfort. He's so calm and efficient in the crease.

He's a better puck handler than Joseph Wohl. But I think both goalies are pluses. Wohl was not consistent, I think, in these playoffs, but again, he was sort of thrust into a tough situation. In the past, he was kind of like your backup quarterback who can do no wrong with no expectations. He came into the playoffs because of injuries before or ineffectiveness and saved the team. This time, the Leafs were in a positive position.

They were winning in game one and then he comes in. There's way more pressure to maintain something. There's something to lose. I do think that affected Will a little bit, but overall, if you zoom out, I think they were a very effective tandem. And I think it's a positive sign that Anthony Stollers was available for game seven

because concussions, it's so tough to know about the timelines of recovery even the fact that it was a possibility for him to play makes me feel good about his status into the summer into training camp and next year. Let me ask about the Leafs organization one of the things that I'm really curious about here coming off the Keith Peli press conference with the Shanahan announcement and there'll be no direct replacement Brad Trulliving as you mentioned again today in his press conference, he'll report to Keith Pelley. Pelley is going to become more hands-on with the organization and hockey decisions. Does it feel very much to you like this is going to be the

reality around the entire organization that it is going to become leaner? This is an organization that has probably the most assistant general managers of any organization in the NHL. Does it feel to you like this whole operation is going to get leaner sooner than later? Yeah, I do get that sense. And even if you think about just what's been in the rumor mill over the last couple of years, trades that have been nixed and debates over deals that should have happened and didn't happen and fell through at the last minute because there are too many voices kind of at odds

with each other in the room. And yes, Keith Pelley is still gonna have a say and be hands on, but he also made it pretty clear that he does not consider himself a true hockey expert. And the implication there is deferring more to Brad Treliving on the big decisions. And I think he's gonna have more autonomy for pulling the trigger on trades. Also, Peli kind of implied that Craig Barube is going to have more to say. We did ask Brad about that. I think it was in the, not the televised part,

but it was the scrum today. And the way he explained it was, well, that's not going to be a big change because Craig and I always work together. We're in lockstep on pretty much everything anyway. But if you look at the two of them as a gym and coach tandem, I think they've really remade the team identity. What we've seen them become a harder team to play against a simpler style bigger everything, right? We know that new identity and I think having fewer voices is going to reinforce that identity going forward. Okay, let me finish with this one. The next most important thing for the Toronto Maple Leafs is blank. Okay. Well, my answer has been a puck mover on defense.

That's number one. But if I want to add a second thing, I think you need another bona fide top six winger. There was sort of the revolving door during the playoffs. It was sometimes Max Petruetti. We don't know if he's going to retire. Bobby McMahon, I think was quite a disappointment in the playoffs after 20 goals in the regular season. He struggled with his confidence. Max Domi occasionally brought up there in that role.

Pontus Holmberg was sometimes playing on the second line and I call him the play killer. He's a conscientious player, but he doesn't have the hands to be on the ice. Hang on one second, can you pause on him for one second? I don't know that there's another player in the NHL that I saw get hit more consistently and bounce right back up. The guy is incredible at how he's able to absorb physical punishment and not be affected

by it. Like he bounces, guys would hammer him consistently, bounce right back up. It's the more, I know that Swedes always have the reputation of being able to heal faster. Oh, Alpherson's six to eight, so he's back in two weeks. Like all the Swedes always heal their bodies quick, but Holmbrook, like he gets up after getting crushed faster than anybody in the NHL.

It's remarkable. And maybe he needs to stay down an extra second in order to draw more power. I think that's me. He probably needs to get better an extra second to draw more power lines. I think that he probably needs to get better. You're right. Yeah. So for me, I do think the Leafs were exposed for just needing one more. I mean, it could be a center too, but overall top six forward, let's say. But I think more importantly on the wing, someone that is not just playing up in the lineup on occasion, but who is just a bonaafide, every night, second line winger.

Listen, great job this morning at the Presser. Thanks for hopping on today. Let's do it again more regularly, please, Mr. Larkin. Yes, absolutely. I'd love that, buddy. Thank you. I slept 16 hours last night, every day this week, every day this month I can't get out my head, lost all ambitions day to day Guess I can call it a ride

I went to the dark man, he tried to give me a little medicine I'm like, nah man, that's fine I'm not against those methods but no It's me, myself and how this gon' be fixing my mind I do wanna break it I turn down the music I do wanna break it I turn down the music

It's turned up, up, down And sometimes lose it Helping on the days that went wrong. When it comes to your business, every second counts. From mega factories to mom and pop shops, Ericsson helps tens of thousands of companies around the world build powerful connections every day. Power your business with our connectivity and communication solutions.

The invisible advantage driving your growth. Visit us at Ericsson.com slash power. That's E-R-I-C-S-S-O-N dot com slash power.