Brad Treliving on Auston Matthews' down season: "In my opinion, he's just entering the prime of his career... We have to continue to find ways to support him and get players who can help him"

"Our goal going in was to be as active as we could to regain as many young assets as we possibly could. Ultimately, you need to have an interest level, to whatever extent, in your players. At the end of the day, the market dictates what teams want, what they need, and ultimately, what they are prepared to pay."

"There were certainly some teams that were going to wait and see how they came out of the break in terms of where they would be. They might not necessarily be in a full sell or buy mode, but they may do a little bit less. We felt pretty comfortable that there would be a lot of players on the market."

"There wasn't the need or requirement for a lot of teams to retain money or move money. Obviously, there were some rule changes with the double retention process, but there was more money in the system. For those teams that were acquiring players, there was more cap space available than there normally was."

Brad Treliving outlined the Maple Leafs' deadline strategy focused on acquiring young assets through active trading. The team communicated extensively with other organizations before the deadline to understand their directions and needs. Treliving emphasized that market dynamics—including which teams were buying or selling and their specific requirements—dictated what players were available and what prices teams were willing to pay. He noted that post-Olympic break uncertainty affected some teams' decisions about whether to fully commit to buying or selling. Additionally, increased salary cap space across the league due to rule changes regarding double retention meant acquiring teams had more financial flexibility than in previous years.

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