The Toronto Maple Leafs have made a lot of dumb moves over their franchise history, but there's a recent transaction that specifically angers me.
If you've read any of my articles over the past five years, you'd understand pretty quickly that I'm a Kyle Dubas "stan." At such a young age, he's been able to accomplish more in his professional career than most people do in a lifetime and he was always disrespected by the fanbase as an "analytics guru".
He picked skill over size in multiple occassions, but I truly think he found a balance, as shown by the 2022-23 team. In my opinion, that team had everything it took to advance in the playoffs and the Ryan O'Reilly trade was one of the best he ever made. Unfortunately his number-one goaltender got injured and Sergei Bobrovsky turned into the greatest player of all-time, ultimately ending the Leafs Leafs' Stanley Cup chances.
One transaction that Dubas made that season was trading Dryden Hunt for Denis Malgin. It was a huge move and one of the best in team history (just kidding).
I don't want to speak to that specific trade involving Malgin, but would prefer to go back to February 19, 2020. Although I just praised Dubas for his great work as Leafs GM, that trade in 2020 was the worst trade in team history because he turned his back on something great he was building.
As the GM of the Toronto Marlies, Dubas built an unbelievable farm team that won a Calder Cup and produced everyday NHLers. From Zach Hyman, Connor Brown, Kasperi Kapanen, Andreas Johnsson, Travis Dermott, Timothy Liljegren, Rasmus Sandin, Justin Holl, and more, Dubas was able to develop these players and bring them into the NHL for cheap.
Trading Marchment for Malgin was Kyle Dubas' worst move as GM
It's okay that he eventually traded some of these guys, or didn't re-sign them as free agents because he got a ton of value out of them during their early contracts and the same thing could have happened with Marchment, but instead, he flipped him for Malgin.
Marchment was everything you wanted out of a prospect. The son of a former NHLer, Marchment's skating improved every year in the AHL, and although he never scored more than 13 goals in an AHL season, he had size (6-foot-5, 215 pounds) and scored goals in the biggest moments, including the Calder Cup winning goal in 2018.
Although Marchment was a late-bloomer, his size and ability to get into the dirty areas made him one of the most intriguing prospects and that trade frustrates me to this day. It's not like Marchment is going to turn into a Hall of Famer, but he's registered multiple 20-goal seasons and would have been an unbelievable fit on the team's second or third-line at left-wing.
Imagine Marchment beside Matthews and Marner, then Knies alongside Tavares and Nylander? No disrespect to Bobby McMann, but Marchment could have been the next Zach Hyman beside Matthews.
As mentioned, this trade probably wasn't the reason why the Leafs didn't win a Stanley Cup over the last five years, but it's the philosophy behind this trade that angers me. Trading a power-forward for a 5-foot-9, 180 pound "skilled" player was a terrible move when the Leafs needed more size and it's hands-down the worst move that Dubas ever made.