Toronto Maple Leafs: The One Circumstance I’d Be Happy to Fire the GM

The Toronto Maple Leafs have the best management in the NHL.

That is my opinion, and I think it’s backed up by a lot of facts.  The Toronto Maple Leafs are in their fourth season playing + .600 hockey, and have been a contender the whole time.

I don’t hold their playoff losses against them – I think they were flukes.  I think the last four years of hockey have been a gift to this town, and to me personally. I’ve enjoyed almost every minute of it, and while others may be upset at the playoff losses, I tend to see them as steps on the road to eventual glory.

I think the pandemic screwed the Leafs worse than any other team, and I believe that the fact they could have won multiple cups anyways (if things broke their was as well as they broke for Tampa, who is no better over the last three years, just luckier) shows their management is beyond reproach.

I think that the Leafs should already have signed Kyle Dubas to an extension.  I’d be fine making Brendan Shanahan the President for Life.

There is just one circumstance in which I’ll bail.

The One Thing I’d Fire the Toronto Maple Leafs GM For

Just for the record, I think Dubas is the best GM in hockey. I think the Leafs are idiotic to base his future on this year’s random playoff tournament.  But, if we’re being idiots, let me participate.  I want in on the action, so I’m saying, go all-in, or get lost.

If Kyle Dubas overcompensates for being a Lame Duck, and instead of just going all-in, like he should, plays the deadline cool, acquires some depth players who are not stars, and the team enters the playoffs with it’s current roster, more or less.

If that happens, I’m done.  Even if the results are good and they end up winning the Cup, I will have already made up my mind. I

Timo Meier, Jackob Chychrun, Erik Karlsson, Dylan Larkin are the main players the Leafs should be targeting (though obviously, in Karlsson’s case, the cap probably makes it impossible).

Even with the best intentions, there is no guarantee that the Leafs can get one of the four big names on the market, and in that case, I will accept some kind of alternative addition, as long as it’s going to make a difference.

If the Leafs were to get Ryan O’Reilly and Vladimir Gavrikov, I’d be upset. I don’t think that is a big enough upgrade, but I don’t think I’d call for a firing. In my opinion, that is the bare minimum the Leafs can do.

I’d accept a Kane/McCabe package, though I think it’d be overrated and expensive.

I’d call for a firing if the Leafs acquired Connor Garland and Luke Schenn, because that’s garbage.

The Leafs are good enough to maybe win as is.  They are one of the NHL’s best teams, and if everything was going right for them, maybe the best one.

But you will recall that the best acquisitions of all-time are the three times Marian Hossa switched between elite teams, and made the Cup three  seasons in a row.

The Penguins, Wings and Blackhawks are three of the best teams of the Cap Era and they still found a way to add the best player available.  That is what the Leafs need.

At this point, being a top team isn’t enough. They have to make the moves needed to make their roster no-doubt the best.

Timo Meier or Jakob Chychrun can do that.  Dylan Larkin can do that.  If the Toronto Maple Leafs don’t recognize the rarity of their position and make the necessary moves to go all-in, I’ll be a lot more accepting of a new GM.

That said, I won’t like it.  That’s just how mad I’ll be if the Toronto Maple Leafs play it safe this spring.