The Toronto Maple Leafs’ dismal season has led to plenty of speculation about their potential offseason moves. The organization followed through on that chatter, firing Brad Treliving from their GM role on Monday night.
The move isn’t exactly a surprise. But what it does is unleash a search for a replacement. And one of the names that’s gotten the most press is St. Louis Blues GM Doug Armstrong.
Now, the timing of this entire situation is certainly a curious one. Armstrong is set to step back at the end of this season. Alex Steen is poised to take over, and, well, that was the plan all along.
But it just so happens that the Maple Leafs now have a vacancy that could prove attractive for Armstrong. That’s not to say that the Blues’ long-tenured executive will actually leave. The situation, nonetheless, should create plenty of talk around the Blues.
The only way that chatter will go away is if Armstrong formally shuts it down. By reaffirming his allegiance to the Blues, the chatter will go away and keep the wolves at bay. The Maple Leafs, for their part, will have to find their GM elsewhere.
So, it will be interesting to see if the Blues and Armstrong formally address this situation, if and when it comes to it.
Maple Leafs will walk a fine line with Armstrong
Since Armstrong is still under contract with St. Louis, the Leafs can’t just call him up to offer a job. Toronto will have to seek permission from the Blues to speak to Armstrong. That’s why the Leafs will have to walk a very fine line.
Any talk outside of approved parameters could be construed as tampering. And in that situation, the NHL could jump in to investigate.
Part of the ongoing chatter has been that Armstrong would be open to another role, but it would have to include the GM and President of Hockey Operations roles. It just so happens that the Maple Leafs have both roles currently available.
Also, the Blues would have to be amenable to letting Armstrong go. That would also be possible, as another bit of chatter has posited that the organization would allow Armstrong to leave if he got a better opportunity elsewhere.
It remains unclear whether the Blues would agree to such a thing. But then again, why would the Blues stand in Armstrong’s way?
The fact is that this situation is convoluted to begin with. If I had to bet, I’d call it 50/50. I don’t really see Armstrong jumping ship at this point. The optics would look really bad if he did.
The next couple of weeks should determine if Armstrong moves or shuts down the talk completely.