Triantis established himself as a favourite at Easter Road during two loan spells in the Scottish Premiership, and signing the defender turned midfielder on a permanent deal is a priority for Hibs this summer.
As much as Triantis has impressed in Scotland, the arrival of Habib Diarra and imminent signing of Noah Sadiki – plus the midfielders already in the Sunderland squad – means the 22-year-old is well down the pecking order at the Stadium of Light.
But the priority on Wearside is bolstering the squad before attention turns to shipping out fringe players, which is why Gray knew Hibs would always have to play a waiting game. With Europa League qualifiers to come before the end of the month, however, Gray does hint at the fact it will get to the stage where Hibs need an answer so they know whether or not they need to pursue other potential midfield targets. There has, however, been positive talks between the clubs.
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Gray told The Scotsman: “I think it’s like anything. You don’t want to just be waiting around. We’ve got a clear plan of what we need to do.
“We’re not just going to sit here and pin our hopes on a player deciding what he wants to do. We’ve made our interests very clear. Everybody’s aware of that. But we’re also working extremely hard to make sure we bring in quality in that position and the right type of people.
“We talk about that all the time. That work’s never stopped.
“Nectar was clearly a loan player last season as well. We were always going to be at this point, depending on if it went well or not. I think Nectar was fantastic last season. Loads of improvement.”
Triantis’ form at Hibs has turned heads elsewhere and clubs in Europe and the MLS are understood to be keen on the midfielder this summer.
Gray said: “It’s always going to be something that’s never going to happen overnight just purely because of how well he’s done. He’s going to attract a lot of interest.
“His parent club have just been promoted to the Premier League so they’re going through a bit of a transition as to what their plan is going to be moving forward.
“For us, he’s a big part of what we’ve done last season. When fit, he played nearly every minute of every game. He was a huge player for us last season.
“It’s a position we know we need to look at, that defensive-minded player. The conversations and the hard work is going on to see what we can do in that position.”
Gray also completely understands why Triantis doesn’t want to rush such a major decision as he decides on the crucial next step in his career.
“That’s part of being a young player at such a big club,” he said.
“That’s why nothing will happen really quickly at that stage because their priority will be dealing with the Premier League and what that looks like. How they jump from the Championship to the Premier League and the importance of trying to stay in that league and what that looks like.
“For a young player who’s been on loan last season and who’s done really, really well, they’ll still have to go back and see exactly what it looks like. I’m sure there’ll be conversations being had about what’s best for Nectar.
“There is always a process that everybody will have to go through and try and find out what’s best out for everyone.”
