Toronto Maple Leafs general manager Brad Treliving believes Anaheim Ducks defenceman Radko Gudas should have been punished more severely for kneeing captain Auston Matthews. Gudas received a five-game suspension for his knee-on-knee hit on Matthews.

“I think in any of those types of situations, I’ve made my feelings clear to George (Parros),” Treliving said during a one-on-one with TSN’s Geno Reeda at the NHL GM Meetings in Florida. “I get it, it’s a difficult job. I just felt strongly that the event itself — the hit, the play, the injury, and the player history — to me all leaned toward something that would be larger than that. But George has got a job to do. As I said, a lot of those conversations I’ll leave behind closed doors, but we certainly felt that a stiffer penalty should’ve been had. But that’s my feeling, and we’ll leave it at that.”

Leafs players who have spoken to the media since the incident have voiced their displeasure with Gudas’ actions and with his suspension being only five games. Head coach Craig Berube felt the punishment wasn’t severe enough, given that it resulted in his captain’s season coming to an end. Matthews’ agent, Judd Moldaver, sent a memo to The Athletic’s Chris Johnston and Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman, describing the suspension as ‘laughable and preposterous’.

Gudas stuck his knee out intentionally and clipped Matthews in the offensive zone during the second period. Matthews immediately crashed to the ice and was assisted off the ice by trainers after he was initially slow to get up while favouring his left knee. Matthews suffered a season-ending Grade 3 MCL tear and quad contusion.

“Well, he is doing okay. As we said, we’re probably gonna know a little bit more in terms of the next steps here over the course of the next few days,” Treliving said on Matthews’ recovery timeline. “That will determine the timeline, whether there is a surgical procedure or not. All things being equal, he is doing as well as he can at this particular time and then we’ll see where things go as we continue to review what the next steps are.”

Friedman reported on March 14 that while Matthews and the Leafs are hoping surgery won’t be required, there are currently no concerns that the recovery will carry into next season even if surgery is needed. He also stated that the incident is going to have major ramifications on the future of the team, especially given the fact that the four players on the ice did not immediately come to their captain’s defence after he got injured.

Treliving was asked how soon he wanted to hear from Matthews’ camp as the direction of the team is established, and simply stated that those conversations will be had at a later date in the offseason.

“Those are things that as we go forward, we’ve got a plan to put into place,” he said. “We’ve underperformed this year. As I said at the trade deadline, there’s certainly some changes that we need to make. All of those things are the plan that we’re going to formulate moving forward to get this team back to where we think it is capable of being. Those questions will be answered, and certainly we’ll look forward to letting everybody know what our plans are as we get closer to the end of the season.”