Kyle Dubas admits the one Maple Leafs trade he still regrets

Former Maple Leafs general manager Kyle Dubas recently revealed what trade he deeply regretted making during his time in Toronto and it's only slightly surprising.

During a recent interview on Spittin' Chiclets earlier this week, the current Pittsburgh Penguins general manager was asked about that one trade that he just constantly thinks about and how he wished he didn't make. Dubas knew instantly.

Kyle Dubas reveals the trade he regrets while with the Maple Leafs

While there are a handful of trades that Maple Leafs fans wish that Dubas didn't make during his tenure, but for the man himself, there is one that comes to mind: Sending Mason Marchment to the Florida Panthers.

"The one I regret most is -- I've said this before openly -- it's Mason Marchment," Dubas said. "We traded Mason to Florida. He had come up with us the whole way. We signed him to a minor-league deal after his overage season in major junior. He was in Orlando in the ECHL for most of the first year. He didn't play for three months, like just working with the development team and that was my responsibility then. It was 2016-17 when with the Leafs, working for Lou and he came so far. A Calder Cup in 2018 -- I was a huge part of that -- then made his NHL debut the next year, which was awesome. And then, you know, he was 25 at the time, or 24, and we moved him to Florida. We needed the skill at that point. We had some guys out of the lineup; it was a younger, skilled guy that came in. Denis Malgin.

"Every time I see Mason play, no matter where he is, I just kick myself because I've really needed that style of player throughout. Just the competitiveness, the ability to score, the ability to get under people's skin, the physicality, the ability to get to the net. I always kick myself about that one."

It does make perfect sense. In the middle of the 2019-20 season (just a month before the global pandemic, actually) after just four games played for the Maple Leafs, Toronto dealt Marchment to the Panthers in return for Denis Malgin. Four games, that's it.

Marchment would then lace up for 33 games with the Panthers after the NHL returned to action during the 2020-21 season, scoring just 10 points. But it was the next season where he exploded with 18 goals and 47 points in just 54 games. Instantly becoming one of the best depth forwards in the entire league that brought everything Dubas laid out perfectly.

And now, while Marchment has travelled around the league and is on his fifth team as he's wrapping up his season with the Columbus Blue Jackets and is actually heading into unrestricted free agency this summer, he's established himself as a true middle-six talent that almost every single team would love to have.

Hey, maybe Dubas will reverse that regret and bring Marchment to Pittsburgh this summer.

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