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The Toronto Maple Leafs end-of-season media availability struck a decidedly different tone as new Maple Leaf Sports and Entertainment CEO Keith Pelley accompanied Team President Brendan Shanahan and GM Brad Treliving on Friday to the podium in the wake of the Leafs seventh first-round exit in the last eight seasons and the firing of head coach Sheldon Keefe on Thursday.
“Good is simply not good enough. I can assure you, that is the collective position of ownership.” Pelley said at the Ford Performance Centre. “The fans here not only deserve, but demand a championship, and there's no complacency. We're not here to sell jerseys. We're here to win and we're going to do everything we possibly can to do that."
Although specificity is not something that can or will be provided in this setting, there did appear to be a change in the unwillingness to deviate from the “Shanaplan” that had been a staple of availabilities of the recent past, and an admission that things have not worked out and something needs to be changed.
"We do an analysis at the end of every season. We look at our team and we look forward and we look for ways to be better and we do that every year.” Shanahan said. “I believe that there are times where you talk about patience and I still believe that there are times where patience is the suitable call. However, when you see patterns persist and the results don't change. You have to adjust the way that you think about things. We will look at everything this summer and we will consider everything this summer. All with the intention of the one thing that we are here for which is to make the Maple Leafs better and to win."
Shanahan and Treliving were both asked about asking players to waive no-movement clauses and changing the core group, and did not offer any specific answers, simply because it would weaken the club’s leverage in potential trade negotiations if they did do that. It remains a long shot that team captain John Tavares will be going anywhere with a year left on his contract, but the status of winger Mitch Marner is more up in the air based on his want of a long-term extension, which is likely not going to happen in Toronto.
Treliving indicated that the dismissal of Keefe was not due to his quality as a coach, but more that a new voice was needed. He did not commit to any specific timetable for the hiring of a new bench boss but did say that he is aware of the number of clubs out there looking for coaches and how that would be a factor.
Injury updates from Brad Treliving:
Auston Matthews -- became really sick after Gm 2, suffered a hit in Gm 4 that presented "head injury" issues William Nylander -- severe migraines Joe Woll -- sprained back Bobby McMann -- MCL knee sprain Connor Dewar -- shoulder surgery
"We want to be thorough, but we also understand there's there's other openings(in the league)." Treliving said. "We're not waiting....this isn't something that's going to be hastily done, but we certainly know that there's some quality candidates out there and we want to get to them as fast as we possibly can."
The names that continue to be bandied about are former Philadelphia and St. Louis head coach Craig Berube, former LA Kings head coach Todd McLellan, three-time Cup winner Joel Quenneville, and the possibility of Carolina head coach Rod Brind’Amour becoming available if the Hurricanes bow out to the New York Rangers this weekend.
A new coach will be important, having a new MLSE chairman stating a focus on winning and not making money is important, and having Shanahan admit that the direction of the franchise needs to be augmented after repeated failures is important, but in the end, what success or failure comes down to is the players and the right construct of a roster that can achieve success in the postseason.
If you look at the clubs that are still competing in the playoffs, you can see similar structures with slight variations. Four of the eight clubs have excellent goaltending (Boston – Swayman, Florida – Bobrovsky, New York – Shesterkin, Dallas – Oettinger), something that Toronto has not had in the postseason since Curtis Joseph and Eddie Belfour from 1999 – 2004. Treliving indicated he is a believer in Joseph Woll, although he is concerned about his ability to stay healthy, which could mean finding a tandem partner to split time with him.
Teams have superstar forwards named MacKinnon, Robertson, Pastrnak, Panarin, Tkachuk, Aho, McDavid, and Pettersson, but they are balanced but Makar, Heiskanen, McAvoy, Fox, Montour, Slavin, Bouchard, and Hughes. The Leafs will need to allocate some of their cap resources away from the core four and use it towards giving some support to Morgan Rielly, who has been stranded on an island without much help since Jake Muzzin was injured nearly two years ago.
What changes are needed and how drastic they could be will be debated and analyzed all summer, but the one conclusion to be drawn from Friday’s presser is that it is coming.
Toronto Maple Leafs Blogger • 
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