DETROIT — In the wake of Mitch Marner’s interview last week, in which the former Toronto Maple Leaf and current Vegas Golden Knight said he feared for his and his family’s safety following Toronto’s elimination from the 2025 Stanley Cup Playoffs, Maple Leafs general manager Brad Treliving said on Tuesday that the team is as committed as ever to the players’ safety and security.
“In our business, your No. 1 priority is looking after your players, and I think we do a really good job of it,” Treliving told Sportsnet ahead of the NHL’s annual general managers and coaches meetings taking place in Detroit this week.
“I don’t have any concerns that we don’t do everything humanly possible to make sure that they’re looked after, but in today’s world, you never take anything not seriously,” Treliving continued. “In today’s world — and it can go for Toronto, it can go for any market with social media — the lion’s share of people can have good, honest discourse, but there’s always the ones that cross the line.
“It’s unfortunate, but we always take every precaution necessary to make sure our guys are looked after.”
Marner told TSN last week that directly following Toronto’s Game-7 loss to the Florida Panthers, his father-in-law notified him his home address had leaked on social media.
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“(He) goes: ‘I just want to let you know we’ve got people sending us screenshots of a guy posting your address online saying that if people want to come pay us a visit and say, you know, their goodbyes, in a quotation way, here’s the address,’ and it was a little tough, obviously,” Marner said. “I mean, we kind of dealt with it for the last two years in a way — the market’s very passionate, they love the team. I mean, I know it. I was born and raised there, I’ve been a part of the Leafs Nation for a long time. But, yeah, when your family’s safety comes into question, especially having a new son, I don’t think it’s acceptable.”
Treliving doesn’t, either.
When sked if the situation Marner dealt with reinforced his need to address current Maple Leafs players on the subject, Treliving said, “We go through that every year, so guys know we’ve got a security team, we’ve got people whose jobs are to look after them and make sure them and their families are very comfortable.”
Marner’s agent, Quartexx’s Darren Ferris, told the 100% Hockey podcast last week that the Maple Leafs’ security team helped get social media messages revealing Marner’s address taken down.
“There was another occasion where there was a death threat, and we traced it to a kid in Oakville, and the police went…” Ferris added. “You’re always concerned. You can’t just say, ‘Ah, it’s just social media,’ because if something happened, that would be the biggest regret you could ever have. So, you’ve got to take every one of those seriously…”
Treliving assured the Maple Leafs do just that, and that they’ll continue to reinforce to their players that they have resources available to them to best ensure their security.
“We have people that communicate with them whenever they feel they need to, so that’s something that we address with the players all the time,” Treliving said.
Treliving also addressed some other Leafs questions:
On the new-look Maple Leafs following Marner’s departure for Las Vegas and the off-season additions of Matias Maccelli, Dakota Joshua and Nicolas Roy, Treliving said…
“We’ve had some turnover. You credit the coaches because we’ve changed our identity a little bit. I thought they did a really good job of building that throughout the year. There’s lots of players that come back, and there’s lots of things that you carryover, but training camp is the time that you start building your team, so I think every team’s a bit of a work in progress when you come to camp.
“There’s changes, there’s new players coming, there’s young players, and I’m excited to integrate the new players that we have. But everybody’s sort of finding their role and where they fit. You spend all summer writing a lot of things on napkins and talking with the coach every day and figuring out where he sees everyone fitting, but it ultimately comes down the players and where the find chemistry. So, let’s get into camp and let’s get going, because that’s really the start of building our team. We’ve got the lion’s share of players returning from last season, but every season is different. We’re excited about the group we’ve got, but we’ll see what it looks like once we get going and get everybody up to speed and get the new players acclimated to the team, the market, their teammates, and really, where they fit.”
On the identity shift he referenced and what might be different about this edition of the Maple Leafs…
“I think there’s a lot, but let’s not kid ourselves: There’s a lot of the same personnel and talent, so you’re very mindful of that. I think one of the things (head coach) Craig (Berube) really instilled was playing behind people, being harder to play against at both nets, and that was the focus of our whole coaching staff throughout the year. And they’ve really tried to tie that into the talent of our players. We’re fortunate to have world-class players, and I wouldn’t say it’s been a hard sell at all. The thing that we’re fortunate about is that our top guys are also our hardest-working guys. They put in the most time, they work at their craft the hardest, they lead the way by example, so those were the nuances that I thought Craig (Berube) and the coaching staff tried to really focus on. It was how we managed the puck in critical areas, becoming more of a forecheck team, and then really focusing on both blue paints. At the end of the day, you look at Florida and the teams that have had success, every team has different nuances, but the recipe doesn’t change a whole lot.”
On whether the roster is set…
“We’re always looking. I don’t think you ever stop. Whether it happens or not, we’ll see. We’ve got a lot of bodies right now, so we’ll see. More than likely, unless something changes, we’ll go with what we’ve got and see where it all sorts itself out.”
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