Zizing 'Em Up: Treliving faces Flames for 1st time with Maple Leafs

GM takes on former team in Hockey Hall of Fame game after 9 seasons with Calgary

© Bruce Bennett/Getty Images

November 05, 2023

NHL.com staff writer Mike Zeisberger has been covering the NHL regularly since 1999. Each Sunday he will use his extensive networks of hockey contacts to write his weekly notes column, “Zizing ‘Em Up.”

TORONTO -- When Brad Treliving sees the Calgary Flames skate onto the ice at Scotiabank Arena for the annual Hockey Hall of Fame game against the Toronto Maple Leafs Friday, he won’t be surprised if he’s flooded with memories.

On April 17, Treliving and the Flames mutually agreed to part ways, ending his nine-year stint as Calgary general manager. On May 31 he was named GM of the Maple Leafs.

This will mark the first time his new team faces his former team since he changed jobs.

To date he hasn’t thought about it much, but admits he probably will as it gets closer.

About the city where his kids were raised. About the people and relationships he forged with the Flames.

And about Chris Snow. Almost always about Chris Snow.

“He was a special person in my life, in so many lives,” Treliving said Friday in a phone interview.

Snow was the Flames director of video and statistical analysis when Treliving took over as the team’s GM. His work ethic and outside-the-box thinking eventually led to Treliving promoting him to assistant GM.

In 2019, Snow was diagnosed with ALS and given 6-12 months to live. Refusing to give in, he valiantly fought it and tried to stay the course.

Snow died on Sept. 30.

To understand what Snow meant to Treliving, consider this: On Sept. 27, the day the Maple Leafs were playing the Ottawa Senators in St. Thomas, Ontario in the Kraft Hockeyville game, the Toronto GM flew to Calgary that morning to be at his ailing friend’s bedside.

“I wanted to say goodbye to him in person,” an emotional Treliving said.

“He was a close ally, a great worker and friend. And he never used his condition as an excuse. No matter his condition, he would say he wanted to keep doing his job as best he could while he still could. He was an inspiration and still is.

“There are so many things that click your memory to think about him. Like, seeing the World Series, it reminded me of him. He was a big baseball guy.

“When someone close to you passes, there are things that remind you in the weeks and months afterward. In the quiet moments, I think of him. And it could very well happen Friday too.”

Treliving spoke at Snow’s service last month and still stays in touch with Snow’s wife Kelsie. As he says, you don’t just forget relationships like that.

While he’s busy taking care of Maple Leafs business these days, he also sneaks a peak at how the Flames are doing now and then. As for suggestions by some fans that he’s partially to blame for Calgary’s slow start (3-7-1 through 11 games), he said he knows how to shut out the white noise.

“I’m not going to comment on the situation other than this. There are very good people in that organization as well as good players,” he said. “I know they’ve struggled a bit to start. But I’m confident they have the ingredients to turn it around.”

He only hopes it doesn’t happen against the Maple Leafs in the Hall of Fame game.

Among the candidates eligible for the Hall of Fame's Class of 2024: forward Patrick Marleau, who played more games (1,779) than anyone in NHL history.

And his kids don’t let him forget it.

“I’ll be coaching hockey and, let’s face it, sometimes kids don’t want to hear what you have to say,” Marleau said in a phone interview. “And that’s when my son Jagger (11 years old) will come up to me and sarcastically say: “Sure dad, what do you know? You’ve only played the most games in NHL history.”

“He’s a pretty funny kid. He comes up with a lot of one-liners.”

He’s also right.

But games played only scratches the surface of Marleau’s career.

For example, his 566 goals rank him 23rd on the NHL’s all-time list. Only two players who have more, are not in the Hall of Fame. That’s Alex Ovechkin, who’s still playing, and Jaromir Jagr, who can become eligible to be inducted into the Hall of Fame in 2026.

For his part, the 44-year-old says it’s “humbling” just to be mentioned as a potential Hall of Famer. Growing up on the family farm in Aneroid, Saskatchewan, he had one dream, one that was far more modest.

“I wanted to play for the Swift Current Broncos (Western Hockey League),” he said. “That was the ultimate goal. I watched Joe Sakic and guys like that play there.”

Who knew he would go on to a 23-year NHL career with the San Jose Sharks, Maple Leafs and Pittsburgh Penguins?

Certainly not him.

“I mean, when I was a kid and the bookmobile would come around, I would get those big stats books and look at all the guys and how many games they played,” he recalled. “I remember thinking how great it would be to make it and just try and play as long as you could.

“Like I said, I never really thought it would happen. It didn’t seem realistic.”

Except in his case, it did. And it was.

And it very well could earn him a spot in the Hall next year.

Meanwhile Marleau’s long-time sidekick and close friend Joe Thornton should be a lock for the Hall down the road. He’s 12th on the all-time scoring list with 1,539 points (430 goals, 1,109 assists) in 1,714 games with the Sharks, Boston Bruins, Maple Leafs and Florida Panthers.

But Thornton’s impact on the sport cuts much deeper than just his on-ice performance.

If there was a Hockey Personality Hall of Fame, he’d definitely be in there. Consider how fitting it was that Thornton made his retirement announcement last week while not wearing a shirt.

“What else would you expect?” Los Angeles Kings coach Todd McLellan, Thornton’s longtime coach with San Jose, said with a laugh. “That’s Joe. Shirtless was his style. Big personality, big stats, no shirt.”

Several days after Thornton’s announcement, his pal and former teammate, Maple Leafs forward William Nylander, paid homage to Jumbo Joe by holding a post-practice interview session with the media while, you guessed it, wearing no shirt.

How about if there was a Hockey Facial Hair Hall of Fame? Certainly his bushy beard would rate among the best of all time along with mustaches of yesteryear like Lanny McDonald’s and Harold Snepsts’.

During media day for the 2016 Stanley Cup Final between the Sharks and Pittsburgh Penguins, my final question to him during a 1-on-1 was how his recently introduced beard was going over at home.

“My wife isn’t crazy about it, but the cats love it,” he said at the time.

Seven years later, he still has it.

Cats 1, Wife 0.

For a unique inside look at the man, the myth, the legend known as Joe Thornton, we turned to Kings defenseman Drew Doughty for some insight.

The 33-year-old is from London, Ontario, just 29 miles north of St. Thomas, Thornton’s hometown. Being 11 years younger than Jumbo Joe, Doughty grew up in southwestern Ontario watching Thornton’s NHL career blossom.

The two ended up being teammates on Canada’s gold medal-winning team at the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver. As special as that experience was, Doughty soon discovered another side of Thornton.

“He’s a guy that, as a boy from London, I looked up to my entire life, my entire career. And the thing about Jumbo is, we were like buddies when we were on all those Team Canada teams,” Doughty said, breaking into his trademark wry grin. “And then we’d be getting ready to play against each other for an NHL game and I’d say, ‘Hey Jumbo, how are you doing?’”

No response.

“He wouldn’t even be friendly with me when we played against each other,” Doughty recounted. “It was an entirely different mentality that I learned about. When we’re playing, he’s focused. He’s serious. Whenever we’d play versus each other I’d try to be friends, and he’d have nothing to do with me.”

At least not in a cordial manner.

“The only fight I’ve been in was against him, and he smoked me good,” Doughty said.

What started it?

“He sticked me in (an unmentionable area),” he said.

“All in all, it [stinks] that he’s not playing any more. I played against him my entire career.”

The next phase in Thornton’s career: this week he was named co-GM for Canada’s entry in the Spengler Cup tournament, which runs in Davos, Switzerland from Dec. 26-31.

Keep this in mind: Thornton played for HC Davos in 2020. He’s married to a Swiss woman. They own a residence in Switzerland.

In Jumbo Joe’s world, nothing comes by coincidence.

Even going shirtless.

“(Pierre-Luc) Dubois, (Anze) Kopitar and (Phillip) Danault are as good a three centers as there are in the league.”

-- Ottawa Senators coach D.J. Smith on the strength up the middle of the Los Angeles Kings, who won road games in Toronto and Ottawa earlier in the week by a combined score of 7-3.

Recap: Kings at Maple Leafs 10.31.23

Sometimes the most heated debates revolving around the Hockey Hall of Fame involve players who fans, media, even hockey execs feel should be in already, but aren’t. In that vein, here’s my choices for such candidates. (Note: these are one person’s opinion, that’s all).

1. Alexander Mogilny: He scored 76 goals in a season (1992-93, Buffalo Sabres); had 1,032 points (473 goals, 559 assists) in 990 games (1.04 points per game); and was one of the few players who made you sit on the edge of your seat every time he touched the puck in anticipation of something electrifying happening. Only one thing needs to be said about all this: What’s taken so long?

2. Paul Henderson: He had a distinguished NHL career, but 477 career points (236 goals, 241 assists) won’t get a forward into the Hall, nor should it. But it’s not the NHL Hall of Fame, it’s the Hockey Hall of Fame. And when it comes to iconic moments in the sport’s history, none are more memorable (at least in Canada) than Henderson’s series-winning goal with 34 seconds remaining in Game 8 of the iconic 1972 Summit Series against the Soviet Union. The series, which Canada won 4-3-1, was played during the Cold War, and little was known about the Soviets, who used the series to revolutionize certain concepts in the sport like five-man units and passing backwards. Keep this in mind too -- Henderson scored the winner in each of the final three games, not just the last one. By Game 8, schools and offices were closed from St. John’s to Squamish so people could watch the finale. The Hall isn’t just for celebrating careers; it’s for honoring iconic moments in the sport too, and few, if any, were bigger than Henderson’s.

3. Curtis Joseph: He is seventh all-time in goalie wins with 454, yet he’s the only one in the top 12 not in the Hall. You do the math. It’s time to rectify this.