Quote:
Originally Posted by Vinny01
I agree that his work in Calgary was/is better and ultimately I think the good part of the Brad Treliving legacy in Calgary all revolves around Dougie Hamilton. His best moves as the GM of the Flames were the deals that brought Dougie in and the one that sent him away. Coming off a surprise run to the second round and with top young players in Gaudreau and Monahan along with recently drafted center Sam Bennett the Flames needed a top Dman to pair with those guys (they had a great top pair in Gio/Brodie who were older than the new core). Using known draft capital to make that deal allowed the flames to add a win now/long term piece.
3 years later and 2 playoff misses Treliving used the Hamilton asset to reset the roster. Sending him along with a player entering the last year of his deal and a top prospect who wouldn’t sign here he landed 2 former 5th overall picks at the age of 23 and 21. Locking those guys to sub $5M 6 year deals put the Flames on a better path. It turned out to be a fantastic deal for Calgary.
His UFA work got better as time went on. Tanev, Markstrom, Coleman, Kadri were all much better signings than Raymond, Brouwer, or Neal.
Blowing picks on Elliott, Smith, Hamonic were some of his worst moves as trades. The Tkachuk trade aged terribly and the Monahan trade was among his worst moves. Lining up contracts to lose Gaudreau and Tkachuk in the same summer was also a disaster.
Glad he is gone. A little surprised he has been worse in Toronto where he would have more resources, and allegedly more control.
|
My thoughts won't be a super specific analysis as I think you laid out a lot of the good and the bad. But with hindsight glasses on, and this might not be a popular opinion, I think it's hard not to look back on Tre's body of work here and not give credit where is due. The team, as it was assembled in that last season before everyone jumped ship, was a team that was built well enough, and assembled well enough to be a true contender. And that includes even with the bad luck of Monahan's health and (maybe not bad luck, maybe self induced) Bennett not reaching his potential here.
Treliving rebuilt a very solid team here in Calgary, that could have been good enough to win. Many many GMs fail to do that when put in the same situations as Tre, so IMO he showed his abilities.
Now, it all blew up on him in Calgary (not going to go deep on the why there and how much of that was his fault, bad luck or other) before we really got to see him get tested on the next part. Which is, pushing a team that is good enough foundationally, over the edge to actually win or become a perennial contender. That part of the job, which I think is understated as one of the hardest parts of a GM life cycle, "tinker" with a good team to make it a great team, was certainly left as a TBD on evaluating Tre here in CGY.
Point being with that, when he took the GM in job in TO, that's the stage of lifecycle he inherited there. Tinker with a pretty solid team, take them from good to great. So far, it's been a struggle for him, but I'm not sure that should be surprising.
One, because it's super hard part of the job, and very few do it well. Two, because despite his successes and learnings in CGY, this part of the job was one he hadn't really proven, or had a full opportunity to prove out his abilities on yet.