Brad Treliving Details Maple Leafs' Cap Plan to Be Ready for Future Stars
Photo credit: Hockey Patrol
Maple Leafs GM Brad Treliving outlined how his team is going to prepare for the star-studded 2026 free agency class that's potentially headlined by Connor McDavid.
With the 2025-26 season slowly creeping up on us, it's time for teams to get their rosters set and ready for the long road ahead as each team tries to push for either a Stanley Cup run, work towards a rebuild, or just play some good ol' fashioned hockey.
However it's next summer that's drawing a lot of attention because of the bevy of premium free agents potentially available. Connor McDavid, Nikita Kucherov, Jack Eichel, Cale Makar, and Kyle Connor are all names who could be on the market next summer though there are certainly going to be extensions along the way.
Why Treliving Says Balancing Today and Tomorrow Is Key for Toronto
For Maple Leafs GM Brad Treliivng, he is going to have to figure out a few choices for next year given that he is going to lose a few players and is in desperate need for a star.
He wasn't shy about his plans for next season however, and relayed to NHL Insider Pierre LeBrun his plans for the future and what that could entail:
"I would say this: The manager's job is to look after both today and tomorrow. Historically, a lot of pending free agents, even 10 months out, end up getting deals done.
You've got to manage not just for right now or for next summer, but always with the bigger picture in mind. We're trying to put the best possible team on the ice for 2025-26, but it has to make sense.
That's the job, and it doesn't change from year to year. It's always about the best use of your funds whether that's today, six months from now, or beyond.
Our focus right now is simple: if there's a way to make the team better; whether that's today, a month from now, or three months from now, we'd like to do that.
You've got to manage not just for right now or for next summer, but always with the bigger picture in mind. We're trying to put the best possible team on the ice for 2025-26, but it has to make sense.
That's the job, and it doesn't change from year to year. It's always about the best use of your funds whether that's today, six months from now, or beyond.
Our focus right now is simple: if there's a way to make the team better; whether that's today, a month from now, or three months from now, we'd like to do that.
It seems that while Treliving is very aware of what the next summer's crop is going to bring, his mention of helping the team a month or two down the line means that there could be something cooking that we are unaware of.
Right now, he seems confident that his roster is good enough to hang in the Atlantic and while that may be true for the most part, he is still going to need to figure out some scoring if his team can't find that facet of their game quick enough and it's about balancing what they have with what they can discover.
How Cap Flexibility Could Position the Maple Leafs for the Next Wave of Stars
Choosing to keep their money now and not overpaying for a veteran means that they are in good hands for next summer.
While they do have some free agents coming up themselves like Anthony Stolarz, Scott Laughton and Bobby McMann, the former is expected to be getting an extension shortly, and Toronto can replace the other two internally.
That means the team is going to have about $20-million in cap space to work with next season, and it really depends on how the team wants to do things.
We've seen the superstar experiment up front work out in the regular season but falter in the playoffs, and depending on who is available it could be a feasible option once again.
Or the team can decide to spread the money out equally through two or three different players and make them not only deeper, but fill some seriously glaring holes.
They have time before their stars' contracts are up, the defense is locked up long-term and it looks like the goaltending is going to be as well.
That means Toronto finally has some money to work with, and if they play their cards right this year, it might end up bringing them a jackpot come Summer 2026.
| POLL | ||
SEPTEMBRE 3 | 1454 ANSWERS Brad Treliving Details Maple Leafs' Cap Plan to Be Ready for Future Stars Does Toronto have a serious chance of signing Connor McDavid? | ||
| Yes | 695 | 47.8 % |
| No | 759 | 52.2 % |
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