The Toronto Maple Leafs have yet to renew Kyle Dubas as General Manager, but he deserves it solely on the back of a genius move he made earlier this season.
That move saw 22 year-old forward Curtis Douglas dealt to the Arizona Coyotes with 24 year-old defenseman Conor Timmins sent to the Toronto Maple Leafs in return.
Conor Timmins, since his arrival has 10 points in 14 NHL games while Douglas has 4 points in 14 games with Arizona’s AHL affiliate, the Tucson Roadrunners.
The trade looks like an absolute home run for the Maple Leafs; Conor Timmins looks to be a perfect fit as an right-hand defense option paid just $850,000 this season.
Toronto Maple Leafs Won This Trade Hands Down
Of course, the Denis Malgin for Mason Marchment trade left a bad taste for Toronto Maple Leafs fans and any trade of a power forward prospect (especially a 6’9″ one like Douglas) leads to fear.
However, there were still very clear concerns with Douglas’ skating abilities and there’s every chance that he will never pan out as a true NHL option.
Conor Timmins on the other hand was a highly touted prospect, so much so that the Colorado Avalanche took him 32nd overall in the 2017 NHL Entry Draft.
At the time, he was widely looked on as a cornerstone, along with Cale Makar, of the future Avalanche defense corps.
Unfortunately, he suffered plenty of injury setbacks and ultimately his status as ‘damaged goods’ saw him dealt to Arizona in the deal that saw Darcy Kuemper traded to Colorado.
Everyone still knew that Conor Timmins had very clear NHL potential if he get get past his injury woes and that is what the Kyle Dubas and the Toronto Maple Leafs bet on when they made the deal.
It’s not easy to hands-down win a trade but the sheer fact that Timmins has earned enough trust this early on to feature on the powerplay speaks volumes about the player the Leafs added.
Add in his near point-per-game production and the Maple Leafs might very well have their future second pairing right-side option, assuming that Timothy Liljegren is the first-pairing choice.
Right now, it’s a real challenge to fit Timmins into the Toronto Maple Leafs line-up and that is possibly the only negative to Kyle Dubas’ deal.
Timmins arrived with the team with the defense in a real state what with injuries to Morgan Rielly, Jake Muzzin and T.J. Brodie and has proven a very worthwhile depth addition.
He speaks to Kyle Dubas’ genius ability to spot a player that is available incredibly cheaply and taking a balanced risk on his injury history.
With the way he’s performing so far as a Maple Leaf, this one move certainly adds plenty to any argument for Kyle Dubas getting a contract extension.