Toronto Maple Leafs Need To Run It Back, but With a New Philosophy

As Kyle Dubas’ time as General Manager of the Toronto Maple Leafs has ended abruptly, now seems like the appropriate time to ask the question: what’s next for one of the NHL’s richest franchises?

Working as the Toronto Maple Leafs GM for five years, Dubas’ most memorable moment on the job came in July of 2018 with a quote during an interview with Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman and Jeff Marek, stating “We can, and we will” in regards to signing all four of the Leafs’ core players.

Auston Matthews, John Tavares, Mitch Marner, and William Nylander all got what they wanted at the negotiating table and Dubas doubled down on the philosophy of skill over will to win this team its first cup since 1967.

Fast forward five years and the team has been to the second round of the playoffs once despite several signs of change needing to come, losing in the first round of the playoffs seven years in a row with the same four names.

Toronto Maple Leafs Need To Run It Back, but With a New Philosophy

With the person who was adamant about the core four working now exiting stage left, the new GM of the Toronto Maple Leafs will be tasked with one incredible offseason, with the pending contracts of Auston Matthews and William Nylander looming over the franchise along with the idea of a core piece leaving the building finally being explored.

So as the team looks for a new manager, many wonder what task will be first for that person, and are pointing to a major trade of a core four piece as the solution.

Maybe in a perfect world trading a star player like Mitch Marner or William Nylander for a player who brings a different element to the table at a lower AAV (average annual salary) sounds great in theory, but the odds of the Leafs winning a trade of this magnitude are slim to none given the history and here’s why.

Just last summer, the Calgary Flames were in a position similar with a GM who could be working his way to Toronto in a similar spot. Brad Treliving was back in a corner and forced to move Matthew Tkachuk to the Florida Panthers and get Jonathan Huberdeau and Mackenzie Weeger in return, a deal that looked like a steal in a bad situation for the Flames and GM Brad Treliving.

Fast forward to today, the Flames are a complete disaster with Huberdeau having one of his worst seasons and the Panthers playing in the Eastern Conference Final with Tkachuk as their best player. If you want other examples, look no further than the iconic Nazem Kadri trade, a move many thought was a win for the Maple Leafs, which ultimately turning out to be one of Dubas’ biggest mistakes during his tenure with the blue and white.

A less recent example, but far more extreme, came in 1996, when the incredible Teemu Selanne walked out of the Winnipeg Jets locker room over to the Anaheim Ducks, which will forever be remembered as one of the worst trades in NHL history.

Want to know how bad the deal was?

Selanne, who is a member of the Hockey Hall of Fame, would win the Stanley Cup with the Ducks in 2006-07 season, becoming the first player in the franchise’s history to have his jersey in the rafters and widely viewed as the best player to ever put on the black and gold. Meanwhile, the Jets would leave Winnipeg, becoming the Phoenix Coyotes until returning to the league in 2011. So yes, a major trade of a star play can quite literally ruin a franchise forever.

If you want my opinion as a loyal Leafs fan, you may not like it. I believe the right move, though not the popular one, would be to bring the core back for one last dance with new faces as General Manager and Head Coach, trying things out with a new approach.

I know the pain of what happened in the past is in the minds of everyone who loves and worships this team and the belief is this core four simply “can’t get it done” but the correct direction is to take this slow and not rush trading a superstar for pennies on the dollar. If the right deal is out there, of course, you can explore it and always should, but the last thing that should be done is rushing a trade to make a trade, rather take these playoffs as year one rather than year eight.

What I hope happens in this scenario is that the mentality changes. The Toronto Maple Leafs play hardball with their stars and take pride in the fact that this is one of the greatest organizations in all of sports and the contracts get worked out in a manner that helps the team more than the players. What I hope happens here is the team brings in a coach who will help these players get over the hump, bring them a different philosophy, and hold them accountable for their failures along the way.

I don’t know what’s next for the Leafs, but what I do know is this team had its most successful season in 20 years, as sad as that sounds. The team took a step in the right direction. The last thing the Leafs need to do is get Huberdeau’d, Kadri’d or Selanne’d and I fear a rash decision could put them down a path that’s far too known and common for long-suffering Leafs fans.