The Montreal Canadiens are not only in solid position to make the playoffs, but they are also within striking distance for first place in the Atlantic Division. Then there are the Toronto Maple Leafs, who were expected to compete for a Stanley Cup this season, instead missing out on the playoffs altogether. On Monday, the Maple Leafs got a head start to their offseason, firing general manager Brad Treliving with one year remaining on his contract. Now, the Leafs will begin the process of overhauling their front office.
Maple Leaf Sports and Entertainment (MLSE) CEO Keith Pelley fielded questions from reporters on Tuesday afternoon to discuss the firing of Treliving and their plans to replace him. When asked about where their season went wrong, Pelley said he "didn't see the train coming" in regards to the Canadiens and Buffalo Sabres, both of whom are playoff bound.
When asked what went wrong for the #leafs this season, Keith Pelley says "we didn't see the train coming" in reference to the Montreal Canadiens and Buffalo Sabres.
— Chris Johnston (@reporterchris) March 31, 2026
“We definitely didn’t see the train coming which was the Buffalo Sabres and the Montreal Canadiens, and how strong those two teams are," said Pelley. "…But Buffalo and Montreal have shown that they’re young, energetic teams they're going to be here for a long time. The prospects that they have from Michael Hage from Montreal to Radim Mrtka from Buffalo, they're strong. They're going to be strong for a long period of time, and the Atlantic division is a really strong division, and we're really going to have to improve and be good to compete and win the Atlantic division again."
Maple Leafs CEO credits rise of Canadiens for team's collapse this season
This quote has to be music to Montreal fans' ears. One of the figureheads of Maple Leafs ownership crediting the Canadiens for being a part of their team's collapse from potential playoff contender entering the sesaon to being stuck in seventh place in the division by a significant margin.
As for Montreal, they have embraced their youth movement, and it's panned out tremendously. Cole Caufield is on pace to score 50 goals this season. Nick Suzuki is the favorite to win the Selke Award for best defensive forward. Not to mention, Juraj Slafkovsky, Ivan Demidov, and Lane Hutson, all under 23 years old, all have more than 50 points to their credit each. You couldn't ask for more, and it's a testament to the work that general manager Kent Hughes and executive vice president of hockey operations Jeff Gorton have done over the years to turn the team around from a rebuild to Stanley Cup contenders.
The Leafs, meanwhile, went from Atlantic division leaders last season, to plummeting down the standings. The team moving on from Mitch Marner has played a partial role in that. But their struggles on defense and in net resulted in their lack of success this season.
In head-to-head matchups this season, the Canadiens won three of their four meetings. The Canadiens outscored the Maple Leafs 12-9. Five of Toronto's goals output came in one game.
For the maple Leafs, they will now have. to find a general manager and potentially a president of hockey operations that could potentially build teams like Montreal built. That means it could take a while before Toronto is back in playoff contention. That could be music to Canadiens' fans ears, especially if Montreal is to win a Stanley Cup in the very near future.