Brad Treliving is out as Leafs general manager
He’s taking the fall for a brutal season
In the midst of a disastrous 2025/26 season, the Maple Leafs have fired general manager Brad Treliving.
The team announced the news last night, as the Leafs were in California playing the Anaheim Ducks. The players themselves got the news from coach Craig Berube right before the game, reports The Hockey News.
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In a statement, MLSE president and CEO Keith Pelley said the team had been doing some “deep analysis” into what it would take to bring a Stanley Cup championship to Toronto. Pelley praised the outgoing GM as “a man that we all have deep respect and admiration for” but said, “The club must chart a new course under different leadership.”
Treliving was hired by the Leafs in May of 2023 after a solid record with the Calgary Flames. While the Leafs fared well under his leadership last year, he wasn’t able to repeat the trick this season. Since the Olympics wrapped up, the Leafs have won just four of 17 games, a showing so bad they may be excluded from the playoffs for the first time in a decade. For his part in the slump, Treliving has been criticized for trading away Fraser Minten, who has since become a star player with the Boston Bruins.
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There has also been some bad luck at play. This month saw the Leafs lose Auston Matthews to a knee injury delivered by Anaheim Ducks captain Radko Gudas at a home game on March 14. That slight was avenged in the Leafs-Ducks rematch last night, where Max Domi started a fight with Gudas mere seconds into the game, but Matthews remains out of action.
For their part, the players shouldered their share of the blame. “It’s on the players. It’s for where we are in the standings,” Morgan Rielly told The Hockey News. Likewise, William Nylander said, “It just shows that what we did this year wasn’t good enough. That sucks because that comes on the players too, so it’s not just his fault.”
Not everyone was upset about it. Comments on the Leafs’ announcement on X were full of celebratory gifs and memes cheering Treliving’s departure. While the players may be sad to see Treliving go, the fans seem happy to let him take the fall.
Anthony Milton is a freelance journalist based in Toronto specializing in long-form magazine writing. He previously worked as an assistant editor at Toronto Life, where he launched the Front Row newsletter. He regularly contributes all sorts of stories to the magazine, including deep dives on sports, business and housing as well as short-form commentary on our ever-changing city, from its obsession with cherry blossoms to its maddening NIMBYism. His work has also appeared in Maclean’s, Ricochet, TVO, the Trillium and more.
