Leafs GM Brad Treliving Live Press Conference | Tuesday, November 18, 2025

yesterday, but I had a prior commitment. But, uh, just as we reach the 20 game mark here, just want to be available to answer any questions, uh, that you have. Um, I’d open it by saying obviously as we sit here today, uh, we’re not where we want to be or where where we envision to be. Um, obviously we’ve underperformed to this point. Um, and I take full responsibility. I’m in charge of the hockey department. Um I’ve put the people in place on the ice, off the ice. So uh the responsibility lies with myself and we start u today and every day trying to get ourselves back up and going and improve where we are. Um there’s lots of areas that we need to improve upon and my job is working with uh Craig and the coaching staff and our players to get us back going um and playing to a level that I I believe we’re capable of playing. Um and that’s that was sort of the focus here the last couple of days and as we go into tonight and beyond. So with that fire away with any questions you got. What is the biggest areas you see in need of improvement? Well, there’s lots, Mark, right? Like I think as we sit here today, our record is indicative of how we’ve played. Sometimes you you have a record um you look at each game some and obviously the results are we’re in the results business, but you can there’s nights that you play well and lose. Um there’s nights that you just score more than the opponent, right? Um but you you haven’t played well. I think far too often we haven’t even in games that we’ve won, we haven’t won the game. Sometimes we’ve scored more goals. Um so I look at it really in in a couple of areas in in particular. We just got to play a more connected game starting defensively. We’ve given up too much. Um and and that’s on our whole group from from our goalending right through our whole our whole group. We’ve given up too much defensively. that was not um that wasn’t this team last year, right? So, we’ve given up too much defensively. We’re not playing connected. And when I talk about connected, it’s it’s on both sides of the puck, right? Generating offense. We’ve scored goals, but to me, we haven’t done the things that you need to do to generate offense on a regular basis. Conversely, we haven’t done the things that you need to do collectively as a group to prevent uh to prevent the other team from scoring. go. Number one, it’s getting back to being a connected group. Um, I think the inconsistency of effort in in some cases and and and there’s there’s a lot of nights I don’t question the effort, but it there’s been some inconsistencies there. Um, and then I just the enthusiasm of our group. I think when you go through a difficult time, it’s it’s easy to, you know, everybody that you you feel a little bit tight. Um, we need to get that enthusiasm back in our group. Why why is the group you know there’s injuries now but whether it’s unwilling or unable why has the group not been able to to grasp the concepts that the way that you see the game to be played the way the coach sees the game to be played? Yeah, good question. First of all, injuries. Yeah, we’re going through injuries, but I you know what, everybody goes through injuries. So, so you look around the league, there’s there’s good teams that that that have injuries. So, I to me that’s that’s that’s a losing mentality. you lose, you you certainly there’s certain players that you’re not going to replace. I would say that I’ve been in this game a long time. I’ve yet to have the meeting with a player that says, “You know what? Give me less. Give me less opportunity.” Everybody wants more opportunity. Everybody wants, you know, more a bigger role. When you go through when you go through injuries, that allows people to have a bigger role, right? So, to me, your injuries are what they are. That’s not an excuse. We’ve got to find a way to get through that. Um, as far as that’s really the crux, right, to me is is, you know, whatever whatever analogy you want to getting on the same page. I use it being connected. Um, I believe fully in in Craig and his messaging. Um, when I talk to the players too, they believe in it, but there is that disconnect that we’re not doing it. It comes back to the inconsistency. So, it’s always the big question in sport, right? Why don’t you just go do it? Um, that’s what we have to work through. So, I’d love to I’d love to be able to say it’s this you have to keep hammering home the message. You have to keep working with these guys on a daily ba daily basis for them to grasp it. And uh that’s the challenge in front of us. But they seem to have grasped it last year and to have embraced the structure that Bubi uh prefers. So, what changed? Is it the personnel? What why can’t they do what they were doing a year ago? It’s great, great question, Rosie, and that’s what keeps me up at night. Um, I would say that just because you did it last year or last week doesn’t make it that you’re just going to do it. It you you got to dig in. You have to do it, right? Um, if I look at one of the things I I talked about just earlier was, you know, how we played last year, we we’d give up zone time and we’d give up just sort of talking a little bit technical, we’d give up zone time, we’d give maybe some shots. What we didn’t give up is a lot of stuff inside, right? Like we we kept things away from our net. The prime opportunities we didn’t um to me it’s just a commitment to doing the work, right? That’s really what it comes down to is um the plan is not a different plan. You have to just because you did it like I said last year, you have to commit to the work. And to me, that’s that’s a big part of it is, you know, the style that we want to play is a hard style. But and unless you commit to the work, it doesn’t matter what you’ve done in the past. And that’s that’s where I see a little bit of the falloff is doing it together, you doing your job so that I can do my job and then committing to the the hard parts of the game. And that’s that’s where we’ve fallen off right now. What does uh what you said fully you believe in Craig, Brad, what leads you to believe that he can lead the group out of this and there’s something tangible? Uh, I’ve seen it. I’ve seen what he’s done in the past. I’ve got a belief in the in the messaging that he’s given. Um, Craig didn’t become a bad coach overnight. I think when you go um when you go through difficult times, right, the the easy thing is and and it’s the natural thing. You’re going to pick off the coach, this, the manager, whoever. The the way out of it to me is not pointing fingers, but digging in together. And uh that’s what we intend to do right now is is dig in together, try to find solutions and uh but Craig and his staff are working hard at it and I and I support and have all the faith in the world in them. You mentioned the new guys, I’m sorry, you mentioned being responsible for the lineup. Now, what’s your assessment of the new guys you brought in? Well, the new guys, I think they would tell you, and I’m not here to to start singling out people, but I think there’s a different level that they can get to, right? If you would have said at the beginning of the year and pick out a large majority of our roster, right? If we were sitting here in September and said, “Okay, we get to the 20 game mark, this is what my game should look like.” think I think probably all of them would say it’s it’s under where the expectation is or our expectation or their expectation is. So they need to be better. Um we’ve got to help them get give them a path to be better. We’ve got to continue to work with them to be better. Um but certainly uh the expectation is they they can and and will be better. How much longer patience do you have with this group before you look to make moves? And how how much are your hands tied by the fact that you you know a lack of draft capital to in in any kind of trade? Yeah. You know what, Mike, you’re always looking to make your team better, right? Regardless of where your team’s at. So there’s there there’s not one path that you say, “Okay, today I’m going to ship out five guys.” The reality in the business is you’re not trading your way out of problems. um whether we were sitting where we are today, whether we were sitting where we were last year, the job of the manager’s job and and my staff’s job is always looking at ways that we can be better. So that that doesn’t change. Um I’ve got you’ve got you you have to have patience in this job, but patience doesn’t mean that you’re not patience isn’t inactivity either, right? You’re always looking at ways if there’s ways that we can make our team better. And it’s you can use any cliche you want at this point, right? Um so we always look at those opportunities if they’re out there. Um so we continue to do that, but the majority of the the problems we have need to be solved within that group. You’re not airlifting in 15 new people tonight. This is the group we’ve got. The job of all of us is to maximize the people that you got and get them to the play at the highest level that they can. Do you feel like this team has established Sorry. Do you feel like this team has established an identity or is that maybe part of the disconnect that you’re talking about? 100%. Um, I think there’s been too much vanilla with our team. Um, and that’s a big part of of what you try to establish your team is is what it’s going to look like on a nightly basis, right? When you’re going when you’re going well, you have a really good indication. There’s going to be good nights and bad nights, but you have a pretty good idea how it’s going to look like from night to night. A large part of the frustration is you don’t know how it’s going to look like right there. It’s been in spurts. It’s been in periods, it’s been within periods. Um, I think you can count on one hand how many full complete games we’ve had. So, that’s a big part of it is going back to how do we, you know, how do we want to look like and and trying to get to look like that on a more consistent basis. Before this season began, there was talk of Stanley Cup. From what you’ve seen through 19 games here, has the expectations for this season, have they changed? No, the expectations aren’t changing. You our expectation is getting our players playing at a high level, right? So, we’re not we’re not worried about uh anything other than the next day, right? That’s that’s really what you’re looking at. you you have expectations that um of where you want to see your team at the end of the day. Um but right now it’s getting our team to playing to the level that they’re capable of. So when you’re like this, there’s lots of holes in the game, right? There’s lots of areas that you need to improve upon. Um before we start worrying about expectations, it’s it’s getting the individuals and the team to get to the level that they’re capable of playing at and that’s that’s the focus. Nothing more than that. How is the team approaching the tanv in injury and when are you hoping he might be ready to return? How is the team approaching the tanv injury and when are you hoping he might be available to Yeah, Mark, I I and it’s not to be cute. I don’t have timelines on a lot of the guys like we’re we’re and I know uh we sometimes get criticized of saying um we’re being gray with with uh return dates. Uh probably know a little bit more in the next week or so. and Chris in terms of of you know clarifying a little bit more of a a clear return date. Um we miss Chris. You know at the end of the day the reality is it’s hard to replace top people right now. It comes back to it comes back to uh what I said earlier is everybody goes through injuries. I’m not going to sit up here and and make any excuses. We’ve got other people that need to step in and fill those roles. Um, but the reality is when you miss top people, um, those are big shoes to fill. So, we miss Chris, but it’s an opportunity for somebody else to dig in. Any clarity on Austin or uh, he’s coming along. Chris, he skated this morning. Uh, again, uh, we’ve listed him as dayto-day. Um, obviously not going to play tonight. Um, I would suspect Thursday is probably not a possibility. probably after Thursday at least we get a little bit better sense of how things are responding. Um I don’t anticipate too too long but probably Tuesday and Thursday are are out of the question at this point. Is there an area of the roster that you’re looking to improve? You know Jonah, you look at all of them, right? You look at you look at that’s pretty pretty general statement, right? Um if I if I break down the roster right now um and really from the goalending part out that that’s an area that we want to stabilize. Obviously, Joe wasn’t with us at the beginning of the year. We’ve gotten Joe back as we’ve gotten Joe back. Anony’s gotten injured. So, our hope is that we can get back, you know, get Anthony healthy and and and get our tandem back to try to stabilize that. Um, we’ve talked about Chris’s injury, you know, our defense. I think that’s an area that, um, I look, when I talked a little bit earlier about defensively, I don’t just pin that on our defense. To me, that’s more of a of a team aspect, but sure, our defense shares in that. Um, you know, an area of getting out of our end a little bit easier. Moving pucks is an area that we look at, but you’re you’re consistently and constantly looking at ways to to to improve your team. And like I said, it’s a motherhood statement, but we’ll continue to look at that at all positions. With the all the center injuries, do you have any regrets or want to do over on how the David Camp situation played out? regrets in terms of well maybe he he would be helpful right now. Yeah, David didn’t want to play in in in with the Marlies, right? So he he left the team um made it clear to us that he wanted a new start. Um worked uh worked with David on different opportunities to see if there was a trade for him. At that point in time, he decided that uh a fresh start and and moving on was what he wanted and and uh so we wish him all the best. Um, we again we’re we’re going through a little bit of injury issue at the at at the center position right now. I look at the other way. It it’s um an opportunity for Jacob Quillin to come in. We see what we’ve got there. I think when you go through injuries, you can look at it two way. Nobody wants to go through them, but at the end day, you’re going to have them, especially in a season like this where you’re condensed. So you can’t have there’s there’s zero excuses being made. I look at the other way is it’s a real opportunity to see the resilience of your group and uh you know people are going to be given more opportunity. Like I said earlier everybody’s looking for more opportunity. We’ll see now um who steps up. Just sorry the standings being so close does that give you a little bit of optimism that with a bit of a turnaround you guys are still in this? Yeah, I mean I the way we look at it too, I you don’t I don’t spend a lot of time looking at the standings right now, right? Like at the end of the day, you have to be process driven, right? Like we want to win the game. You you need the result, but if your process isn’t right, the odds of you getting the right result very rarely going to occur, right? So our focus right now is making the picture very small. What are the areas that we need to improve upon? continue to work at that. Once your process gets right, once your your game starts to get right, then you can start focusing on where things are in the standings. Certainly, u we’re aware of what’s going on around the league. Um it’s tight and we see it we’ve seen it. This is as tight and as competitive as I remember u the league being, but that’s it’s kind of inconsequential if you’re not getting your you know, you can’t expect everybody else to lose so you stay afloat. You got to get your game right. So that’s that’s where our focus is. Are you willing to give up future assets in trades, draft picks, prospects? Yeah, I’m not going to get into all sorts of speculation, right? So there’s ways to make our our team better. Um we’re not going to just go panic and start throwing things overboard just to just to just to do something, right? If there’s a way that we can make our team better. Um, but again, where where we’re at right now, you could bring in certain players. If we’re playing the way we’re playing, it it’s it’s it’s not so much an individual thing as much as it’s a team thing right now. So, um, put anybody in the uniform and and playing the way we’re playing, we’re probably going to have the same result. So, number one, get the group stabilized. Figure out the where areas and as we’ve talked about the areas that we’ve talked about and identified that we can be better in. But as far as as looking at the market, Jonas is stuff we do every day. That’s that doesn’t change regardless of where we are in the standings. What did you see from Anthony Stolars before the injury in terms of how he played, how he got injured? No. How like what do you like his game up into the injury? What did you see from him? I thought Anthony had a real real strong start. I think there was games early in the year that we got points for. It comes back to we had more goals at the end of the night. We didn’t outplay the opponent, right? I look at that as we we got two points, but we didn’t win the game, if that makes any sense. Um, so I thought he he was responsible for giving us some points early. I think then, as we were a little bit concerned about when Joe wasn’t here, I think the workload caught up to him. I think that uh um he’d be the first to tell you his game dropped a little bit. Um I think it’s tied a little bit into the the number of starts he had, right? Um so our hope is that we get Anthony healthy. Um got all the faith in the world in Anthony. Glad to see Joel back there. They’re a big part of our team, the tandem together and how how they play off each other. So I think his start was kept us kept us afloat in some games and then like our team there’s some areas that you need to improve upon. You mentioned um just patience in terms of So you mentioned patience in terms of like making trades or tinkering with the roster but in terms of whether you’d have to consider a coaching change like how much patience do you have there? Yeah I’ve got all the faith in our coach right now so I don’t look at that as as the issue. Listen, when you go through things like this, understandably, um, everything gets talked about and looked about. Um, my job right now is to support our coach, um, support his message and support our group, right, and and push the group. Okay. Thanks everyone.

Toronto Maple Leafs General Manager Brad Treliving provides an update about the team live from Scotiabank Arena. 

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31 comments

  1. Management should have a policy to NOT make any trades w Boston 🤦‍♂️ of all teams to do business with! The leafs still never fail to help their arch nemesis have success 😂😅

  3. Auston Matthews, Anthony Stolarz, Chris Tanev, Carlo, Roy and Scott Laughton are all out of the lineup due to injuries.
    So time to tell Reilly to play DEFENSE If not ask him to waive his NTC.
    If the team does nothing this week then it's the McKenna sweepstakes.

  4. Giving away Minten was SUCH a mistake. Fireable offense. I was miffed at the time, i'm so done with this team getting older and slower. That is all on Treliving, he is such a fan of old and slow… I miss the Dubas era. I miss the Keefe era. I miss fun hockey. This defensive and slow hockey is yaaawwwn…

  7. 1. ITS NOT BERUBE OR THE FRONT OFFICE FAULT

    2. Carlo trade worked out for us how they envisioned it to end last season. Hasn’t translated to this year unfortunately

    2a. The D as a whole is showing its age. Core group getting old and slow. And guys like myers regressing

    3. Offence looks disjointed on the backs of Roy, Joshua, and macceli having zero to no impact as they’d hoped.

    3a. Robertson has ALWAYS produced when out in the lineup. Just shows more when the team isn’t skating well and is showing no effort.

    4. Lastly, our best players have never been DAWGS, ( maybe JT in an unspoken sense ), which leads to no leadership when times get tough

  10. At the quarter mark of the season… The Leafs are 1 game below .500… at the quarter mark of the 2025 MLB season the Blue Jays were 1 game below .500. People need to chill, all it takes is a hot streak after figuring out the new team chemistry and everyone is back on the bandwagon.

  11. After listening to this press conference from Tree I have no doubt Leafs will be in a deep shit , Boston will be benefits the most one top line player from this draft top 6-10 pick and a extremely solid third line centre thx to this smart man Tree , did Boston send him to be undercover The Father build Boston Pizza and the son Build Boston Burins

  14. Clocks ticking, ‘Brad Trevling..DING,DING,DING,DING,DING,DING,DING’. That never gets old. Thanks Bill.
    This is the end of a Dynasty that never was!

  21. Normally, I like when Tre does these press conferences but this was terrible. No real answers, just confirmation that management is as perplexed as the fans are.

    Also, they need to stop being so elusive and vague when commenting on injuries. You don’t want to say what the injury is? Fine, but at least give a timeline. Most other teams at least do that.

  26. The hate was on Holmberg and he left town. He played defensive and was strong on the puck. Who replaced hime? Roy? Vermachelly? Domi? NONE! Marner is gone, they still have an hangover losing him. Shanny sold the farm for Carlo, not Tree. There are too many egos making the calls in the background with this Leafs team. Berube lost a good defensive coach. Signing Stoly long term was a mistake. Rielly should have been traded before signing a long term contract. "On paper…", we have heard this idea for decades! The good news is that this team is not completely out of making the playoffs, not yet, hopefully they will begin to play better and get some wins. We are in good company, the HAS is on a four game losing streak. LET'S GO LEAFS! 👏👏👏Kill the "go leafs go chant", it is lame and MELANCHOLY!

  27. That was complete garbage they don’t win any battles for the puck they all watch instead of compete and our leader is hurt again. I can’t even watch this team the whole game they are stuck in our zone and that is every game it’s hard to watch. If you look back at all brads teams they all go down after he puts his touch on them the same is happening to the leafs . To let go of Marner for nothing was a huge mistake and the players we got this summer are a joke another year wasted .

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