Toronto Maple Leafs: The Best 5 Moves Kyle Dubas Made as GM

Toronto Maple Leafs: The Best 5 Moves Kyle Dubas Made as GM

No. 5: Firing Mike Babcock

I’m going to try to write this in the nicest way possible, but Mike Babcock is straight up, a piece of garbage.

He’s an old-school hockey mind that bullied young players his entire career and everyone is thankful he’s back out of the NHL.

As shown by his recent activities in Columbus, Babcock’s gimmicks have no use in the NHL anymore, nor ever should have in the first place.

When Dubas took over as GM, all reports suggested that he wanted to fire Babcock immediately.

I’m not sure if there was animosity between the two but it was pretty clear that he wanted to hire his own coach, with Sheldon Keefe being his number-one choice.

Keefe and Dubas had spent years together with the Soo Greyhounds, then they won a Calder Cup Trophy together with the Toronto Marlies, so their bond clearly worked and they both trusted each other. Thankfully, after a shaky start of the 2019-20 season, Dubas got his wish and fired Babcock in replace of Keefe.

Currently in his fifth season as head coach, Keefe has been apart of four of the top five winning percentage seasons in Leafs history and clearly seems to be a great fit. I’m sure if the Leafs ever fire Keefe, Dubas will find a way to hire him right away, but that was one of a number of great moves Dubas made as GM with Toronto.