Maple Leafs Facing a 'Treliving Tax' On Trade Market?

We all know the story: Brad Treliving bolted the Calgary Flames once the GM job came open for the Toronto Maple Leafs back in April of 2023. Are there still some hard feelings remaining in Calgary?

According to insider Jeff Marek, that very well could be. On his new Daily Faceoff podcast The Sheet, Marek referred to the potential difficulty the Leafs would have in swinging a deal for Nazem Kadri—a noteworthy Calgary trade target Toronto might have in mind, as we shared last week.

Marek calls it the "Treliving Tax": the belief that because of some bad blood, Treliving would have to pay a higher price in any trade offer to Calgary than other teams.

Last season, for instance, the Leafs tried to swing a deal for either or both of Chris Tanev and Nikita Zadorov when they were made available by the Flames, but Calgary GM Craig Conroy was having none of it, and sent each of them to other places (Zadorov early in the season to Vancouver, and Tanev at the deadline to Dallas).

But Marek wonders if Conroy was to benefit enough, he might be willing to ignore the "tax."

I don’t know if the alleged 'Treliving tax' would necessarily still exist if it’ll help Craig Conroy get to where he wants with the Flames and get him some renewed flexibility and assets in the process.

As for the Flames' feisty former Leafs forward, Treliving has his history as a Kadri fan, too, of course: He tried to trade for him in Calgary in 2019, and then signed him to a seven-year, $7M AAV deal in free agency in the summer of 2022.

Ryan Pike noted in Flames Nation, however, that the Flames might not have any desire to trade Kadri at this point. The team finds itself in decent playoff positioning, and "Kadri is also part of the team’s six-player leadership group and has been a key mentor for the club’s young forwards; with the Flames in a youth movement, they may prefer to retain Kadri as an on and off-ice mentor for their up-and-coming players."

All of this would drive the possibly inflated Treliving-taxed price even higher.