Brad Treliving on whether he is the right man to lead the Leafs back to competitiveness: "Those decisions will be made by others... I want to correct the areas we need to get better in"

"I have not been feeling great for a long time with how we've been playing. Early in the season, we looked at as many options as we could to help bolster our team. But as far as probably getting into what happened over the last few days or the direction of it, it was prior to the break."

"You watch your team, not only from a point production and win-loss standpoint, but also from a point of view of how you're playing and what is happening around the league. We were active prior to the break and throughout the break, talking to teams and getting a feel for what they thought of players we may make available."

"To me, today and leading up to today was an opportunity to try to get as many young assets as you can, to retool or refigure your team, or whatever 're' word you want to use. You need to have as many bullets as you possibly can. That was the objective over the course of the last few weeks."

Brad Treliving, Maple Leafs GM, explained that the decision to enter sell-mode at the trade deadline was made prior to the Olympic break rather than being reactive. The team had been underperforming for an extended period, prompting evaluation of roster direction based on play quality and league dynamics. Treliving and his staff actively communicated with other teams before and during the break to assess player availability and potential fits. The primary objective centered on accumulating young assets to retool the roster for future competitiveness. Limited trade activity occurred before the freeze, with most significant moves happening in the final days before the deadline.

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