William Nylander Trade Rumors Expose Treliving’s Deadline Incompetence

The Toronto Maple Leafs Trade Deadline was underwhelming, to say the least. It was a deadline that initially seemed incredibly promising after General Manager Brad Treliving orchestrated a significant return for Nic Roy, which included a first-round draft pick. At the time, Roy was viewed as one of the Leafs’ less valuable assets, leaving Leafs Nation with hope that they’d receive similar returns for Bobby McMann, Scott Laughton, and Oliver Ekman-Larsson.

Instead, the team was only able to deal two of the three, receiving no more than a second-round pick in return.

The deadline in and of itself was a colossal waste of time for the Leafs, and multiple reports have stated that other NHL teams were frustrated with Brad Treliving’s indecision. The most recent reports even state the Leafs were only able to secure the Scott Laughton trade with a mere 30 seconds left on the Deadline clock.

Now, as the post-mortem of the deadline continues, reports indicate that the Maple Leafs were willing to take calls on a player widely considered “untouchable.” Heading into the deadline, the prevailing narrative was that the Leafs would listen to offers for every single player, except Auston Matthews, John Tavares, and William Nylander.

It turns out that wasn’t exactly true.

According to Nick Kypreos, the Maple Leafs are now at a point where they are willing to listen to offers on every single player, including that untouchable list. Kypreos, who also reported that the Leafs were close to dealing Matthew Knies to the Montreal Canadiens, is now reporting that the Leafs actively shopped William Nylander at the deadline.

While I don’t think it’s impossible that the Leafs would consider moving Nylander for the right return, this idea brought forward by Kypreos seems rather out there, to say the least. The glaring issue with Nylander is that the forward possesses a Full No-Movement Clause (NMC), so shopping him makes little to no sense without his direct involvement and approval.

But let’s hypothetically say these reports are true.

If Brad Treliving spent the critical hours before the NHL Trade Deadline gauging interest for William Nylander and Matthew Knies before finalizing trades for Laughton and McMann, that alone should be grounds for termination. The idea that an incompetent General Manager would spend hours discussing blockbuster moves that are nearly impossible to complete mid-season, instead of properly managing his assets, is the perfect representation of what this Maple Leafs season has become.

While I’d absolutely consider moving William Nylander, the time to do so is at the NHL Draft or before the beginning of Free Agency, not at the Trade Deadline. There is a reason players like Nylander or Robert Thomas were not moved at the deadline, and that’s because of how limiting the in-season salary cap is.

Instead of making meaningful improvements, the Maple Leafs have now lost 8 straight games. They have a rudderless ship of a coach behind the bench and are reduced to praying that the teams around them continue to lose while they look listless on the ice every night.

Someone recently mentioned that this was the Maple Leafs’ modern-day ‘18-wheeler’ moment. The sad truth is that the wheels have already fallen off, and we’re sitting on the side of the road a hundred miles away from the cliff, waiting for a tow truck. This team hasn’t even been good enough to drive this season off a cliff. Instead of drawing the usual ire from the fanbase, they’ve found something far worse: complete indifference.