The Toronto Maple Leafs made a huge error when they let Kyle Dubas go to the Penguins.
The Toronto Maple Leafs most vocal and least informed fans likely won’t agree with this, but it’s true.
The Leafs gave Dubas five years of on-the-job training, he’s about about 25 years younger than your average GM, and he’s the kind of smart person who’s best quality is learning from their own mistakes.
This is exactly who you want running your team.
Let’s not forget that his work as interim GM before Lou Lamoriello was hired led directly to the Leafs being in a position to draft Auston Matthews and Mitch Marner. Then, when he got the job full-time, the Leafs played four years as a top Cup Contender, posting nearly a .650 winning percentage and being one of the top regular season teams (at least, counting since Mike Babcock was fired).
Toronto Maple Leafs: Dubas Duel Role Suggests Short Tenure for Treliving
The Leafs may not have had playoff success under Dubas, but they did put themselves in a position to win every year, and that’s all you can ask. The NHL Playoffs are a tournament with extreme variance and the best team doesn’t usually win, so success in the NHL is being good enough to compete.
By that standard, the Toronto Maple Leafs were extremely successful under Dubas, and they had every reason to continue to be so. Additionally, he left his successor in possibly the best position another GM has ever walked into.
On Thursday it was announced that the Leafs ex-GM would be taking on the duel role of President and GM for the Pittsburgh Penguins.
It’s too bad, because he should have had both jobs in Toronto. The work of Brendan Shanahan pretty much stinks. I feel fairly confident in saying that it was Shannhan who forced the Leafs to make such traditional moves at the last trade deadline (O’Reilly, Lafferty, Schenn, Sandin) and he let us down further by not hiring a proper replacement for Dubas.
Treliving deserves a chance to show what he can do, but the early returns on his performance are embarrassing. He tried to sign Milan Lucic and Radko Gudas, to fireable offense, as far as I’m concerned.
Additionally, he completely wasted $11 million in cap space by signing Klingberg, Domi, Reaves and Kampf. It’s an absolute guarantee that Kyle Dubas would have done better.
The Leafs are in a bad cap space, and the best thing Treliving has done to date is put Matt Murray on the LTIR and follow Kyle’s goalie plan. I don’t mind Bertuzzi either, but that doesn’t make up for how far he set this franchise back this summer.
Good luck to Dubas in Pittsburgh, but also, I cheer for the team, not the GM, so hopefully the Leafs core can overcome their GM’s terrible work.
The important thing here is that Dubas named himself GM after Brandon Pridham decided to stay in Toronto. Hopefully this means that the tenure of Brad Treliving is short and Pridham is the Leasf GM eventually. I mean, why else would he turn down the chance to be a GM?