Maple Leaf Sports & Entertainment President and CEO Keith Pelley “will oversee the search” for fired GM Brad Treliving’s replacement, making a hire that will “determine whether the Leafs return to the laughingstock status they flirted with for the first 10 years of the salary cap era or start to turn things around,” according to James Mirtle of THE ATHLETIC. A source said that Pelley, the face of MLSE, “was ‘very present’ during the Leafs’ bungling of the trade deadline.” Pelley spent the intervening weeks “surveying Leafs staff and people around the team and league about where things went wrong, and Treliving’s role in that decline.” He then went to Rogers Communications leadership — Chair Edward Rogers and President Tony Staffieri — “for permission to begin cleaning house” by firing Treliving. The focus “immediately shifts” to Pelley attempting to find a new Leafs president and GM by “targeting the biggest names in NHL management.” Given ownership’s track record, it is “fair to wonder if the Leafs can use that largesse effectively” and “identify the right candidate to lead the team.” The first job will be determining whether a retool “is even possible,” and if not, they need to be “willing to pull the plug on this era and rebuild through the draft.” Whether MLSE entertains rebuilding with “season tickets to sell and TV ratings to boost” will be “telling” (THE ATHLETIC, 3/31).

NO TIME FOR IDLING: GLOBE & MAIL’s Cathal Kelly wrote firing Treliving now “makes even less sense than keeping him through the trade deadline” as “all it accomplishes is giving off a sense of panic, a month after panic might have done you some good.” The marching order for the next Leafs GM “is clear from Pelley’s note — no backsliding.” There “will be no rebuild” as that “might get in the way of delivering a Stanley Cup championship to the city.” Things “are so desperate,” and the Blue Jays “are so much fun, that the club can’t afford to wait another two weeks for the season to end” (GLOBE & MAIL, 3/30).

NEW PLAN: In Toronto, Dave Feschuk writes what is “clearer now than ever is the Leafs need a new vision.” For as much as Treliving’s Leafs “got bigger during his size-coveting run as GM, they also got progressively older and slower without getting meaningfully tougher or better” (TORONTO STAR, 3/31). CBSSPORTS.com’s Austin Nivison wrote the “quickest way” for the next GM to build a Stanley Cup contender in Toronto “would be to hire the right coach and build around the current core,” which includes players like Fs William Nylander, Matthew Knies and John Tavares. That would mean keeping C Auston Matthews and “aggressively trying to upgrade the roster around him while risking a tight championship window.” If the next GM “takes a long-term view, it wouldn’t be shocking to see Matthews on the trade block at some point over the next 18 months.” If that is the case, it “would likely generate a blockbuster deal the likes of which we don’t often see in the NHL” (CBSSPORTS.com, 3/30).

BAD DECK: SPORTSNET.ca’s Luke Fox writes Treliving was an exec “dealt a tricky hand — too many no-move clauses already in place, too few draft picks and prospects coming” — and he “passively let his chips dwindle away with the hope.” Fox: “Perhaps because of the organization’s blind faith that they had enough talent to survive, Treliving was allowed to oversee a second troublesome trade deadline but not the conclusion of this, the most disappointing campaign of the Maple Leafs’ 109 years” (SPORTSNET.ca, 3/31).

SOME FAULT: THE ATHLETIC’s Jonas Siegel writes Treliving “never took big, bold and imaginative swings, not like his counterparts in Tampa and Florida did.” His Leafs “stopped finding talent in hidden corners” like former GM Kyle Dubas did in “uncovering useful pieces” in LW Michael Bunting, D Justin Holl and W Bobby McMann, among others. The Leafs “became conventional under his watch, never outsmarting their opponents” (THE ATHLETIC, 3/31). In Toronto, Steve Simmons writes year after year, the “stars came up short.” In what “used to be called the Shanaplan, the Leafs went through three head coaches and three GMs and now a fourth about to join the club, and the high-priced help remained the high-priced help, disappointing at the largest of times.” Treliving “understood this mess of a season” and “never hid from it.” He “wanted the opportunity to fix it” and he “truly believes he could this time around.” Pelley obviously did not “have the stomach or the belief to let him continue” (TORONTO SUN, 3/31).