Athletic: Dubas Job on the Line this Season (contract expiring after this season)

[The Masters]

With contract expiring, Kyle Dubas' job as Maple Leafs GM is on the line this season

Dubas will soon become the Maple Leafs' longest-serving GM in 25 years, but will they keep him if the playoff woes continue?

theathletic.com

Kyle Dubas will soon become the Maple Leafs’ longest-serving general manager in 25 years.

The upcoming 2022-23 season will be Dubas’ fifth as Leafs GM, a run that outlasts Brian Burke, Pat Quinn and every other predecessor who came before him since Cliff Fletcher was fired in 1997.

This could also be Dubas’ last season running the Leafs. His job is literally on the line this season.


Dubas is entering the final year of the five-year contract he signed after replacing Lou Lamoriello as GM in 2018. Unlike team president Brendan Shanahan, who received a six-year extension in 2019, there’s been no apparent extension of Dubas’ contract. (Shanahan did not respond to a request for confirmation.)

Which is, well, interesting.

On the one hand, the rationale for not doing so is obvious. Dubas’ team (but also, of course, Shanahan’s team) has yet to advance past the first round of the postseason. The lack of an extension suggests that either Shanahan or ownership, maybe both, want — need — progress of some kind when it matters before they commit to Dubas beyond this season.

Understandable — sort of.

A lame-duck GM of a Stanley Cup hopeful, on the other hand, isn’t standard operating procedure.

It puts the GM in an awkward position, with moves suddenly scrutinized not just in the context of the team but the GM’s own personal future.

Another thing: The team that Dubas put together last regular season was — by far — the best in franchise history. The 2021-22 Leafs piled up 115 points — 10 points more than the previous franchise record-holder from the 2017-18 season. That team lost in the first round of the playoffs again, but by a goal in Game 7 to the two-time defending Stanley Cup champions.

Dubas’ last two regular-season teams rank first and second in franchise history by points percentage.

He is, without question, the franchise’s most effective GM since Quinn, and one of the more effective GMs in the league during his run in charge (if also the most harshly judged). (The praise of Senators GM Pierre Dorion this summer is a little rich considering his team has missed the playoffs in each of the past five seasons, falling 27(!) points shy last season.)

Only four teams own a better points percentage than the Dubas-led Leafs (.643): Tampa (.698), Boston (.667), Colorado (.660) and Carolina (.653).

And yet, even Dubas himself would surely acknowledge that regular-season success doesn’t mean a whole lot if nothing comes of it in the playoffs — repeatedly. And because the teams he’s built have come up short when it matters again and again, his biggest mistakes (trading Nazem Kadri, trading for Nick Foligno) look worse than they might have had the Leafs won even one round over the years.


Just one playoff series victory next spring probably ensures that Dubas is around beyond this season. Another dominant regular season, on the other hand, with the same old result in the postseason and who knows what the Leafs do with their GM or anyone else for that matter, including Shanahan, who’s overseen the team as president since 2014.

Could the Leafs keep Dubas if the playoff woes continue? Maybe with the stipulation that the coach changes. Sheldon Keefe is Dubas’ first and only head coaching hire as Leafs GM. Or maybe Dubas is forced to finally trade a core piece.

He could also leave of his own accord, and probably wouldn’t have much trouble at all finding another job in hockey.

This could also be the year that his team finally gets over the hump. The year that his loyalty to this group is finally rewarded.

That’s really what stands out most about Dubas’ tenure as GM.

Year after year, he’s stood behind teams that have repeatedly let him down when it mattered. He’s never taken a sledgehammer to the core of Auston Matthews, John Tavares, Mitch Marner, William Nylander, Morgan Rielly and Jake Muzzin. It’s hard to imagine almost any other GM in the NHL operating with that degree of loyalty. A trade to “change the mix” would very likely have gone down by now if say, Lamoriello, were still in the GM’s chair.

Dubas’ roll of the dice in goal, not once (Matt Murray) but twice (Ilya Samsonov), is all the more bold with what’s at stake personally, and for the team.

Maybe the overarching question for the Maple Leafs this season is whether the faith of their GM will finally be rewarded. In the end, loyalty — to those he knows, to those he believes in — will either be what propels Dubas to grander heights as Leafs GM, or what costs him his job.

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[All Mod Cons]

If I had a nickel....

 

[Tarmore]

It's almost like many of the articles at the Athletic are written by Captain Obvious.

 

[andora]

One thing i do believe in is dubas being of the mindset where his contract will not pressure him in this team decisions.

I do think he can seperate them...

 

[ACC1224]

I thought he had already been extended?

 

[Leaf Fans]

His contract will expire. Obviously, it might be his last season as a Leaf. He might choose to go elsewhere, be forced to go elsewhere, or sign an extension between now and June 30 or whenever the contract end. I suppose he could be fired in that time frame too.

I thought he had already been extended?

Someone did make that claim, but provided no evidence other than hearsay.

 

[All Mod Cons]

Hey look!!! Another useful thread!

Could it not have gone under one of the 900000000 other Dubas threads?

You should set up your own site. You hate this place.

 

[ACC1224]

I thought he had already been extended?

Perhaps it has been kept under wraps?

there’s been no apparent extension of Dubas’ contract. (Shanahan did not respond to a request for confirmation.)

 

[Suntouchable13]

When this season goes predictably sideways when his genius goalie tandem fails he will be fired, and rightfully so.

 

[acrobaticgoalie]

If we fail in the 1st round or this goalie tandem turns out to be a disaster, I can't see how he would possibly get extended. Results are what matters most and he hasn't had any playoff success. There isn't enough reason to keep him around if they don't get past the 1st round.

 

[ACC1224]

IMO, if it is true that he hasn't been extended they need to give him a two year deal immediately.

 

[BlueBaron]

I'm kind of used to Dubas and I like the way he conducts himself. He's certainly not perfect but I don't know what better options are available.

I would caution people on declaring our current goalie tandem will decide his fate. He's not too stubborn to make a change if it's not working by the deadline.

It's probably as simple as winning a round but this is a next year problem.

 

[hotpaws]

IMO, if it is true that he hasn't been extended they need to give him a two year deal immediately.

severance pkg ?

 

[zeke]

IMO, if it is true that he hasn't been extended they need to give him a two year deal immediately.

why?

 

[The Masters]

You should set up your own site. You hate this place.

Lol

 

[notbias]

I'd rather see him get rid of anyone who isn't Marner/Matthews than fire him.

Using most people's logic, it makes more sense to get rid of the players who have had more chances than the GM.

 

[capfit9]

If they give this guy an extension because the regular season is going well, that would be a shame

 

[Leaf Fans]

If they give this guy a extension because the regular season is going well, that would be a shame

They might want to sign him sooner than later.

 

[Notsince67]

Hey look!!! Another useful thread!

Could it not have gone under one of the 900000000 other Dubas threads?

Topics are a bit thin. Let's combine this one with stripping the C so we can discuss when and who replaces Dubas, who he would name coach and who he/she/they would prefer as captain. I might venture off to the main boards and at least pretend to talk hockey.

 

[Mess]

 

[darrylsittler27]

What a mess he will leave with not much in the cupboards.

 

[capfit9]

They might want to sign him sooner than later.

John Chayka

 

[deprw]

What a mess he will leave with not much in the cupboards.

Zero bad contracts, team with value and not great, but healthy talent pool. You have every possible option open at the moment. These hyperboles are pretty lame, when thrown by people, that wish our team will fail.

 

[hotpaws]

Zero bad contracts, team with value and not great, but healthy talent pool. You have every possible option open at the moment. These hyperboles are pretty lame, when thrown by people, that wish our team will fail.

no one's wishing the team to fail , you're just too emotionally invested in who the GM is to see the mess he's created

the teams carried by the players he inherited

goalies - massive question marks to put it nicely

defense - Gio/Muzzin are on their last legs , Holl needs to be replaced and Brodie's up there in age as well

frwds - outside of the top 3 that were already here when he was promoted there's a grossly overpaid and declining JT and not much else

so tbh i have no idea where your neverending it's all sunshine and roses posts are coming from

 

[Stephen]

If you think of Dubas as a Theo Epstein level innovator who is going to do X, Y, Z for your franchise and deliver a championship, he’s got one bullet left in the chamber but largely under delivered. But on the other hand I’m not sure you kick him out since you already paid for all the growing pains and largely kept the unique core together all this time. A new GM isn’t going to dramatically improve the recipe in a flat cap.