Toronto Maple Leafs general manager Brad Treliving met with reporters following Monday’s practice, where he indicated that the team will pursue a centre ahead of the trade deadline.

It has been previously reported that the Maple Leafs are looking for a centre with term remaining on their contract, and would be willing to part with genuine assets to facilitate any potential deal. Treliving also provided a general state of the Maple Leafs’ season, where he highlighted the team’s goaltending and toughness, while navigating several injuries during the first half of the campaign.

“You’re always watching — I know a lot of gets made of the deadline — but you’re always looking at ways you can improve your team. And it’s not always just external,” Treliving said. “The one thing with injuries this year and the amount of injuries we’ve had up front, we’ve got a chance to look at we’ve got internally, which is important. We’ve seen some guys come up and play well and it gives you a little insight into what you have within the organization.”

Yanni Gourde and Nazem Kadri have often been linked to the Maple Leafs as potential candidates ahead of the deadline, and Gourde fits the characteristics Treliving outlined — it doesn’t appear that the team is going for a home-run swing. Gourde has Stanley Cup-winning pedigree and has registered six goals and 16 points in 35 games with the Seattle Kraken this season. The Nation Network’s Jeff Marek also believes the Maple Leafs will inquire about Kadri at some point this season.

“I think we’ve got depth,” Treliving said of the Maple Leafs’ centres. “We got lots of guys who can play the position. Is it an area that we continue to try to upgrade? I would say this: the guys at the top of the food chain are pretty darn good. Auston, and how can you talk anything but positively about the year John’s having? So to say you’re going to get somebody above that, I don’t think that’s realistic. Is there ways we can continue to look at adding to that? Sure. I think there’s some depth there, is that an area we’d like to continue to look at? I’m sure it’s one, but we along with 15 or 18 other teams are looking at centre depth, so it seems to be a position de jour.”

Fraser Minten provided some secondary offence for the Maple Leafs through a November stretch where the roster was decimated by injuries. Minten has since been returned to the AHL’s Toronto Marlies, and Treliving provided a cryptic answer on whether the 20-year-old would be called up by the Maple Leafs, while gearing up for a postseason run.

“Fraser is having a real good year there. I think he had a great start with us when he came up. I think he just saw the effects of a league on a young player. It’s a hard league, first-year guy. I think the world of Fraser. Is he a guy who can help us? I think he can help us. Is that now, is that six months from now, a year from now? We continue to look at it every day. Is Fraser coming in ahead of somebody from the outside? I don’t know. Because I don’t know who that person is from the outside. So, those are all things that you balance all the time,” Treliving said.

Minten recorded two goals and four points in 11 games, before re-joining the Marlies.

Toronto has clearly identified its main area of improvement, as the team has struggled to generate consistent secondary scoring throughout the season. The lack of secondary offence can be explained by injuries, but there’s an imbalance between Auston Matthews, William Nylander, Mitch Marner, Matthew Knies, Bobby McMann and the remainder of the roster.

“You want good players,” Treliving said, when asked again about Toronto’s pursuit of a centre. “If there’s one out there that fits, reliable on both sides of the puck, certainly someone who can add offence… what you want, and sometimes what’s available can be two different things, so we’ll keep looking.”

It’s an all-in year for the Maple Leafs at this juncture of the timeline, and it appears Treliving and his staff will be active leading up to the deadline, in pursuit of some immediate upgrades down the middle.