When Free Agency began for the Toronto Maple Leafs, Brad Treliving had only been on the job for about a month. It was clear that Treliving knew he needed to rebuild the team in a very significant way. Unfortunately time and money were both limitations for him and he was forced to settle in fixing the forwards instead of the defense.
In his history Treliving has always valued big physical defenders who can move the puck. Unfortunately in free agency there weren't many available options and the Leafs settled on signing John Klingberg to a one-year deal. The Klingberg experiment so far has been a disaster for the Leafs, with Klingberg being exploited defensively almost nightly, he has already found his way into the press box.
The revelation that this injury has been a chronic issue might just be a blessing for the Maple Leafs. Instead of needing to clear cap space, the Leafs could simply put Klingberg on long-term injured reserve to clear his cap hit. That facts was not lost on fans.
