The Toronto Maple Leafs fired Mike Babcock yesterday.
It was the best move the Toronto Maple Leafs have made since they fired Lou Lamoriello.
This is now officially Kyle Dubas team, and he deserves it.
When he was the assistant GM, Dubas has orchestrated the Phil Kessel trade, maneuvered at the draft to get the Leafs Travis Dermott, and (one assumes) was instrumental in making sure the team took Mitch Marner instead of Noah Hannifin (the consensus choice then of the people who currently hate Dubas, love Babcock and wish Hunter was the GM).
Since he’s been the GM, Dubas has signed John Tavares, acquired Jake Muzzin, Tyson Barrie, Alex Kerfoot and Ilya Mikheyev. He’s the only GM in the league to acquire a #1 centre and 2 top pairing defenseman over this time.
He also locked up the entire core without losing anyone, finagled his way out of Lou’s cap mess, and drafted Liljegren, Sandin and Robertson.
You have to really, really, really be a big Curtis MacElhinney fan to have anything bad to say about Dubas – objectively speaking, he’s been amazing.
So of course he’s earned the right to hire his own coach. I’m totally on board for the Toronto Maple Leafs getting a new coach because I couldn’t stand one more night of seeing Freddie Gauthier on the ice with the team down by a goal and the clock running down.
But I’ve got some questions that need answering,
Will the Toronto Maple Leafs New Coach….
……Use Cody Ceci on the top pairing?
……..Activate the D, go back to a more run-and-gun rushing style?
…….Pull his goalie in accordance with the analytics dept.?
…….Allow his extremely mobile, puck moving blue liners to rush the puck?
……..Play Auston Matthews and John Tavars more?
…….Let Auston Matthews play more than 50% of the team’s PP minutes?
……..Start his best goalie against the best team in a back-to-back situation?
……..Change up strategies sooner than a month after they clearly aren’t working?
……..Call up Rasmus Sandin (who clearly should be on this team)?
……..Rely so heavily on Guathier /Timashov or go with a more offensive oriented fourth line?
……..Make use of Nic Petan? (Did Babcock ever learn his name, even?)
……Allow Tyson Barrie to do Tyson Barrie things that make Tyson Barrie Tyson Barrie, or continue to make him watch Nikita Zaitsev highlights Clockwork Orange style?
……Finally give Morgan Rielly a peer for a partner?
…….Only time will tell? In fact, I wouldn’t be surprised if the Leafs stick with a Babcockian lineup and game scheme for the first little bit and make gradual changes.
I’d say there’s a good chance Ceci and Rielly are partners tonight, but a zero percent chance they still are next week.
It will be interesting to see what kind of difference Keefe makes.