The Maple Leafs saying ‘it’s on us’ after the Treliving firing should worry every GM candidate
Photo credit: Morgan Tencza-Imagn Images
William Nylander, Morgan Rielly, and John Tavares all made it known that the team is to blame for the firing of Brad Treliving. That's a scary situation for any new GM to walk into knowing that he could do whatever he wants — the core issues remain intact.
The more things change, the more they stay the same for Toronto.
While the Maple Leafs did end up getting a win against the Anaheim Ducks on Monday night, it came with a lot of extra attention due to the fact that 90 minutes prior to the game the team fired GM Brad Treliving.
Every Maple Leaf player just repeated the same thing whenever someone else gets fired
But it was after the game that drew even more attention considering that the Toronto players feel heavily accountable for their former GM being let go.
William Nylander, Morgan Rielly, and John Tavares all commented on the firing and for any prospective GM — it's a worrying sign.
Nylander admitted that the players are certainly at fault for this, though didn't exactly let Treliving off the hook either and laid the blame:
Obviously it's sad ... Just shows what we did this year wasn't good enough. That sucks because that comes on the players too. It's not just his fault.
Tavares was the next to make a comment and the former captain was about as eloquent as he could be though also placed blame on himself and the rest of the roster:
It's really difficult. It's still hard to understand the grasp of it all, but mostly we're extremely disappointed as a team. It's a real tough one, because Brad brought us all in here, tremendous belief in us & we just didn't deliver & it falls on us starting with myself.
Finally it was the longest tenured player in Rielly who followed in his teammates footsteps and explained that a lot of this falls on he and his teammates' shoulders:
We haven’t had much time to sit with it. Still processing it. In times like these, how I feel is that it’s on the players.
Here's the thing, this trend has just been a continuation of the same nonsense. It's a revolving door of coaches and executives over the last decade, but while those changes are made — that roster issue still remains.
The Next GM of the Maple Leafs inherits a locker room that has zero experience with consequences
So the team fired Mike Babcock and the core stayed, same with Sheldon Keefe, Kyle Dubas, Lou Lamoriello, Brendan Shanahan, and now Brad Treliving. They have gone through every person you can think of and still come out as failures.
At what point do you look to the players and wonder what blackmail they might have hidden away. No matter what, they get to stay and everyone else gets the boot.
'It's on us' is a sentiment that Toronto has used for ten years. That is inexcusable. Whoever comes in not only needs to shake things up but actually cut the fat if they want to succeed.
You can forgive Tavares and Nylander considering they have at least put in some pretty fantastic numbers through their careers and especially now with Auston Matthews out — they are pulling themselves up.
Rielly on the other hand has not been good, and he should be the first one to face some serious consequences. He is not good enough to be a #1, he's slow, defensively inept at times and the offensive side has fallen off a cliff.
Toronto needs someone wiling to be a little cutthroat, and adding an executive like Doug Armstrong or Chris Pronger would make getting rid of Rielly and others a lot easier. It's not a loyalty game. It's a business where you win.
Knowing that you're walking into a locker room full of talent is a great feeling as a GM. But when that room continually takes blame for issues that never change, it's time for them to start looking in the mirror.
The most important hire Toronto can make isn't a President or GM — it's someone who says 'enough is enough' and it's time for a change.
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