Fresh off the announcement that hip surgery will end John Klingberg’s season, moving the defender to long-term injured reserve and opening up $4.15 million in cap space for the Toronto Maple Leafs, GM Brad Treliving offered something of a reality check to fans dreaming of a marquee trade coming down the pipe.
It’s no secret the Maple Leafs are looking for upgrades on the blue line — that much was true even before injuries sidelined lineup regulars Klingberg, Mark Giordano and Timothy Liljegren. But the rash of injuries and the club’s uneven play through the early going of the season has made the search more pressing.
According to Sportsnet’s Luke Fox, Treliving was among the managers recently vying for the services of big-bodied defender Nikita Zadorov, who was eventually traded from Treliving’s former club, the Calgary Flames, to the Vancouver Canucks late last month. Toronto was unable to close the deal as the Flames refused to retain a portion of Zadorov’s $3.75-million salary.
Though the Maple Leafs now have more cap space to work with — and eyes on other blue-line targets, namely Zadorov’s ex-teammate Chris Tanev — Treliving made clear the club won’t overextend to bolster its defence corps.
“Would we like to improve the defence? Absolutely. It all comes at a cost,” Treliving said Wednesday during an interview with Real Kyper & Bourne’s Nick Kypreos and Justin Bourne. “There just aren’t a lot of high-end defencemen that people are dying to give you for low cost.”
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Factoring into his club’s decision, Treliving added, is his predecessor’s history of trading away prime assets — last season alone, former GM Kyle Dubas moved out a slew of picks, as well as young defender Rasmus Sandin, to bring in the likes of Luke Schenn, Ryan O’Reilly, Erik Gustafsson, Jake McCabe, Sam Lafferty and Noel Acciari.
“You look at the assets that you have in terms of potential trades — you know, the team here has been trying to win, and spending some assets over the last couple years, [like] teams trying to win do. That’s normal, that’s what happens,” Treliving said. “So, you’ve also got to be careful — how far do you chase it?
“And ultimately, what is the cost that you’re going to have to pay for somebody that could come in and make a significant difference?”
While Treliving’s biggest swing to improve the Maple Leafs’ blue line went sideways due to injury issues hampering Klingberg’s season, the manager said he’s pleased with what he’s seen from a couple of other off-season acquisitions who’ve been thrust into bigger roles amid the injury crisis.
“I made it clear, coming into the season, that we would like to see if we can help ourselves on defence. … What we would say is we’ve had players that we signed over the off-season, in (William) Lagesson and (Simon) Benoit, that have come in and done a real admirable job,” he said. “I think they’re getting better. They’re big bodies, they’ve competed hard.”
Still, the goal is seemingly to continue hunting a deal to bring in more proven reinforcements until the injury list clears, a path made somewhat easier to navigate by the newly found cap relief.
“We’re no different than anybody else. Every team at this time of the year is trying to improve themselves,” Treliving said Wednesday. “It was an area we were looking to try to help ourselves before. We’ve gone through a lot of injuries in that area. We’ve had players that have come in, and I give them a lot of credit for how they’re playing. We’re hopeful that help is on the way in the not-too-distant future, with some of the players that are out returning to health.
“And in the meantime, we’ll continue to look to see if there are ways that we can help ourselves — at a cost that we think makes sense.”
