The Toronto Maple Leafs made a critical error two years ago when they kept Brendan Shanahan and fired Kyle Dubas.
Days after being let go by the Toronto Maple Leafs, the Pittsburgh Penguins signed Kyle Dubas to a seven-year contract, naming him the President of Hockey Operations. If he was such a terrible executive, why did a prominent organization hire him so quickly after he left the Leafs?
In my opinion, Dubas is one of the smartest executives in hockey and has accomplished more in his hockey career before the age of 40 years old then, then most do in their entire career. I know that the team never won a Stanley Cup during his tenure, but he built an unbelievable team that won it's first playoff round in 19 years.
By all accounts, it felt like Brendan Shanahan was intimidated by Dubas. With his contract expiring, Dubas reportedly was looking for a promotion within the organization, but Shanahan never gave it to him. Instead, he pushed him out the door, making sure that he was the face of the team. It was a selfish move that cost this team two years of Auston Matthews' prime and the franchise could have changed that summer if Dubas was still in charge.
After losing to the Florida Panthers in 2023, Dubas talked a lot about change during his post season press conference. He referenced how bold it was for the Panthers to trade Jonathan Huberdeau for Matthew Tkachuk, despite winning the Presidents Trophy in 2022. He understood that regular season success didn't translate to playoff success and knew that his core of players he had wasn't actually good enough to win.
Leafs should have fired Shanahan two years ago
When Dubas signed Mitch Marner to a six-year contract, he knew that the 2023 offseason was going to be a critical one, because Marner's no-move-clause kicked in on July 1, 2023. Not only that, but William Nylander and Auston Matthews were entering their last year of their contract, so big change could be looming.
If you watch Dubas' press conference you can see a person that is ready for changing the culture. In my opinion, he was ready to ship Marner out of town and very well could have sent Nylander with him. However, by getting fired days later and only having one month before July 1, newly appointed GM Brad Treliving was never going to make an immediate splash and trade the core-four, especially when Shanahan had to approve it.
Again, this is all speculation, but it feels like not only did Shanahan disapprove of Dubas' potential promotion, but he also didn't approve of trading the core-four and that's why he let Dubas go. Trading the core could mean less jersey sales and less marketable players, which could be a big reason why Shanahan said no to all of this. As much as Shanahan says he cares about winning, he also cares about the bottom-line and trading those pieces could mean less revenue for Maple Leaf Sports & Entertainment, which is unnaceptable!
If the Leafs re-sign Shanahan this offseason, I may never watch a game again because it will be the most tone-deaf decision they've ever made, so let's hope they move on from him, and then real change can transpire afterwards.