Brad Treliving says he understands firing by Maple Leafs

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Brad Treliving was in a bit of a reflective mood on Wednesday afternoon.

In an interview on TSN’s OverDrive, the former Maple Leafs general manager provided a few reasons for the Leafs’ miserable 2025-26 season, which included his firing and the team missing the playoffs.

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“When you’re the manager, you take responsibility for it,” Treliving said. “So the responsibility is mine.

“But I always say management, coaching, players, we all share. We all have 33% of the pie. You can look and say there was injuries, but everybody goes through injuries. There was a fall-off there.

“We didn’t have the buy-in. You can debate how we played a little bit. Biggest challenge for me, and I talked a little bit about it in November, was even the games we won on the scoreboard we weren’t winning, whether it be shot share, controlling play, driving play.”

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Was Treliving surprised he was fired?

Treliving, speaking from the world championship in Switzerland where he’s helping run Team Canada, has been in the game long enough. His dismissal at the end of March didn’t catch him off-guard.

“Disappointing it came to an end, for sure, loved every minute, but I understand it was a tough year and when you go through a year like that, there’s consequences,” Treliving said. “There are lots of good people there and wish them all well and hopefully they can regroup for next year.

“We just didn’t get it done. There’s all sorts of reasons. To me, (it was) a little bit of a death by a thousand cuts. I don’t think our record was indicative of the type of team we had.”

Of his relationship with coach Craig Berube, who was fired last week, Treliving said: “There was never a time we weren’t on the same page. You’re always going to have debates on certain things, but I consider Craig a good friend, a close friend. We talk regularly.”

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What does Treliving think of Tavares, Rielly?

With Canada, Treliving is back in tandem with the Leafs’ John Tavares and Morgan Rielly. Tavares has been playing the wing, something that Treliving figured could happen with the Leafs in the near future.

Given the thinking by some that Toronto needs a second-line centre, how Tavares fares in the tournament as a whole will be intriguing.

“It might be something that (the Leafs) look at because he has been really good,” Treliving said.

And Treliving had this to say about Rielly, who may be approached by new Leafs GM John Chayka to consider waiving his no-movement clause: “I still think there’s lots of game left in Morgan. Sometimes a change is good for everybody. I don’t know what the future holds for him, but I still think there is a good NHL defenceman there.”

There had been no discussions between the Leafs and Rielly in that regard prior to the world championship.

tkoshan@postmedia.com

X: @koshtorontosun

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