Maple Leafs GM Treliving says change is coming after 2nd-round playoff loss

TORONTO (AP) — Toronto Maple Leafs general manager Brad Treliving says to expect changes in the offseason after another early exit in the Stanley Cup playoffs.

And not just to the roster — but “between the ears,” too.

Using the defending Stanley Cup champion Florida Panthers as an example, Treliving said at a season-ending news conference Thursday that there must be changes in the “DNA” of a team that continues to struggle in big playoff moments despite regular-season success.

“We’ve got to continue to change and evolve our mindset, and we’ve got to find a way to create the team ... to be our very best at the most critical moments,” Treliving said.

Toronto finished the regular season in first place in the Atlantic Division and defeated the Ottawa Senators in the first round for just its second playoff series win in the past 20 seasons.

The Leafs looked poised for a breakthrough when they won the first two games of a second-round series against the Panthers and went up 3-1 in Game 3, before handing the momentum back to their opponent and losing in seven games.

Part of the collapse included painful 6-1 losses at home in Games 5 and 7, made more frustrating by a 2-0 win in Game 6 in Florida in what was perhaps the most complete Leaf performance of the season.

“Champions have the ability to be calm and at their very best when it matters the most,” Treliving said. “That is an area we have to improve in.”

Treliving said that the Game 7 loss “is going to live with me.”

“I felt really good that morning,” he said. “The vibe around the team ... and then we had the result we had.”

Treliving credited Florida, which just eliminated Carolina in five games in the Eastern Conference final to advance to its third straight Stanley Cup Final, with always finding a way to perform in the moments that matter.

“There’s a reason why they’re the champions, there’s a reason why they’re going back again for their third crack at it,” Treliving said. “They’ve set the bar in our division, they’ve set the bar in the league. And that’s what we aspire to.”

The changes have already started in Toronto, with the team declining to renew the contract of president Brendan Shanahan after 11 seasons. Maple Leaf Sports & Entertainment president and chief executive officer Keith Pelley said he will not replace Shanahan and instead work more closely with Treliving and head coach Craig Berube.

Under Shanahan, the Leafs rebuilt a struggling team around the “Core 4” forwards of Auston Matthews, Mitch Marner, William Nylander and John Tavares.

While the team found individual and regular-season success — the Leafs have advanced to the postseason in each of the past nine seasons and Matthews has won the Hart Trophy as league MVP and three Rocket Richard awards as the top goal scorer — the Leafs have faltered in the postseason.

They are 0-6 in Game 7s over the past eight seasons, with two of those defeats coming on Treliving’s watch. Players seem to struggle under the pressure to deliver for a rabid fan base that has not celebrated a Stanley Cup title since 1967.

Treliving made some changes before the season to try to address that issue, adding stalwart defenseman Chris Tanev and goaltender Anthony Stolarz, who had a fantastic season before being injured in Game 1 of the second round. Berube, a no-nonsense coach who led the St. Louis Blues to a Cup title in 2019, was brought in to replace the popular but ultimately unsuccessful Sheldon Keefe.

The changes this offseason are likely to be more significant, with both Marner and Tavares set to become unrestricted free agents on July 1.

Marner is expected to be one of the top options on the market, and Treliving faces a tough task re-signing him — even if the Leafs front office believes he still fits into the team’s future plans.

Treliving called Marner, who has borne much of the Toronto fan base’s anger at the myriad of playoff failures, a “star.” And he called himself a “huge John Tavares fan.”

But his short answer when discussing the future of the UFAs — “We’ll see.”

“It’s emotional right now,” Treliving said. “My discussion with Mitch is ’Let’s all take a step back, let’s all take a deep breath. I need to decompress.”

AP NHL playoffs: https://apnews.com/hub/stanley-cup and https://apnews.com/hub/nhl

Toronto Maple Leafs general manager Brad Treliving holds an NHL hockey press conference at the Ford Performance Centre in Toronto, Thursday, May 29, 2025. (Cole Burston/The Canadian Press via AP)

Toronto Maple Leafs general manager Brad Treliving holds an NHL hockey press conference at the Ford Performance Centre in Toronto, Thursday, May 29, 2025. (Cole Burston/The Canadian Press via AP)

DHAKA, Bangladesh (AP) — Huge crowds flocked to the area outside Bangladesh’s national parliament building in the capital Wednesday to attend the funeral prayers for former Prime Minister Khaleda Zia , who died a day earlier at the age of 80 after a prolonged illness.

Waves of people from Dhaka and elsewhere had been streaming in toward the venue on Manik Mia Avenue, outside the parliament building, since early morning. Witnesses said many cried, calling Zia their “mother” as they arrived at the venue, with some traveling overnight from rural areas to join the prayers. In neighborhoods kilometers (miles) away, crowds also spilled into major streets to pray.

Zia’s funerals were expected to draw hundreds of thousands of her supporters and people from across the country while dignitaries from India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Nepal also arrived in Dhaka, with local media saying foreign envoys and representatives from 32 countries joined the funeral ceremony. She will be buried beside the grave of her husband, a former president who was assassinated in a military coup in 1981, in a park outside the parliament building later Wednesday.

Zia came to politics after her husband’s death and rose to prominence as an opposition leader during a nine-year movement against a former military dictator who was ousted in a mass uprising in 1990. Zia became prime minister for the first time in 1991, with a landslide victory in a democratically held national election as the country introduced parliamentary democracy. She was the leader of her Bangladesh Nationalist Party till her death.

Zia, who was known for having a calm demeanor, maintained a strong political rivalry with her archrival and former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina. Hasina, who heads the Bangladesh Awami League party, ruled the country for 15 years before she was ousted in 2024 in a mass uprising.

Zia's coffin, draped in Bangladesh’s national flag, was carried in a van escorted by security officials and party supporters from the hospital to her residence and then to the funeral venue.

Authorities said about 10,000 security officials including soldiers would be deployed around the venue to maintain order on Wednesday.

Bangladesh’s interim government headed by Nobel Peace Prize laureate Muhammad Yunus announced a three-day mourning and declared Wednesday a public holiday to facilitate the funerals. Flags were kept at half-staff Wednesday across the country to show respect to Zia, the country’s first female prime minister who served two full terms and another brief term.

Zia’s eldest son, Tarique Rahman, is the acting head of her Bangladesh Nationalist Party, which is the front-runner in the nation’s next elections in February.

Hasina, who has been in exile in India since Aug. 5, 2024, was sentenced to death in November on charges of crimes against humanity involving last year’s uprising.

FILE - Bangladesh's main opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party chief and former Prime Minister Khaleda Zia looks upwards as she attends a rally of her supporters outside their party headquarters in Dhaka, Bangladesh, Monday, March 12, 2012. (AP Photo/Aijaz Rahi, File)

FILE - Khaleda Zia takes an oath of office as the prime minister in Dhaka, Bangladesh, Oct. 10, 2001. (AP Photo/Pavel Rahman, File)

FILE - Bangladesh's former prime minister and Bangladesh Nationalist Party leader Khaleda Zia, center, leaves court after a hearing in Dhaka, Bangladesh, Aug. 10, 2016. (AP Photo, File)