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

[Maple Leaf]

Get rid of MLSE and the teachers

 

[Martin Skoula]

A rookie Niemela replacing veteran Brodie, one of the steadiest defensive hands we've had in 15 years, would be unlikely. A more reasonable progression would be a Liljegren or Sandin making a bigger jump on the development curve and Niemela replacing them in the bottom pair.

I'm just saying we don't need these guys to turn into 25 minute a night Norris candidates, hitting a guy who can play stable #3-4 minutes still saves us a difference-making amount of money.

 

[CDN24]

If JT wasn't a Leaf today, is Pietrangelo?

Probably, and if he avoided JT- kept Kadri, made smart moves to improve the D and then acquired Pietrangelo they would have at least made the finals in 2021 IMO

 

[Felix the Cat Potvin]

So far the team is about playing as I expected. Matthews and Marner are regressing slightly. Tavares is having a resurgence.

The bottom-6 can't score. The defence is declining. The goaltending is OK, but unstable. In no area are we improved from last year.

 

[Buds17]

If JT wasn't a Leaf today, is Pietrangelo?

Is it ultimately worth the two season wait in order to find out the answer to that question? I don't really know how I'd answer that one.

 

[WTFMAN99]

Probably, and if he avoided JT- kept Kadri, made smart moves to improve the D and then acquired Pietrangelo they would have at least made the finals in 2021 IMO

Is it ultimately worth the two season wait in order to find out the answer to that question? I don't really know how I'd answer that one.

I mean you're not doing too badly with Matthews-Kadri as the 1-2 punch, I believe one of the insiders said if we struck out on JT we were signing Derek Ryan for 3C.

There's a million things that could have happened...heck if Armstrong just offered signing bonuses, that deal was gonna get done.

 

[Al14]

Get rid of MLSE and the teachers

Didn't the Teachers Pension plan already divest itself of it's share in our Leafs?

A single owner of the team would be better, however our Leafs are far too valuable for a single rich man to purchase our Leafs from MLSE!

 

[Pebble live]

Get rid of MLSE and the teachers

Everything on this team SCREAMS corporate ownership. From the on ice product to the in game entertainment and production everything is risk averse and family friendly.

Ownership is more concerned with keeping things family friendly and PG so the brand reaches further.


I'd even argue the way this team plays is a result of ownership. There's no way this ownership group would support a mean heavy team.

 

[Havoc]

Why do we have to settle for matthews-kadri when there was nothing stopping us from matthews-jt-kadri. Always told cap this cap that from both pro and anti dubas. Well you're dead wrong, we could have had our Cake and ate it too being 3 C deep. Now we have to pay so much to restore what we already had.

I know even zeke is saying wtf at this point since they didn't do anything worthwhile after letting cap eating players go. What's the plan ?

 

[IPS]

Why do we have to settle for matthews-kadri when there was nothing stopping us from matthews-jt-kadri. Always told cap this cap that from both pro and anti dubas. Well you're dead wrong, we could have had our Cake and ate it too being 3 C deep. Now we have to pay so much to restore what we already had.

I know even zeke is saying wtf at this point since they didn't do anything worthwhile after letting cap eating players go. What's the plan ?

Actually no. Zeke was proclaiming Kerfoot > Kadri after we traded him away

 

[Hoglund4MvP]

Record regular season and no votes from peers for award,

You ever think dubas does try nice trades but nobody likes him?

I'm not trolling it's a genuine concern. I'm not sure if dubas well liked around the league by other gms. If not he won't get it done for us.

Not saying it's true, just a concern that came to mind.

 

[andora]

Record regular season and no votes from peers for award,

You ever think dubas does try nice trades but nobody likes him?

I'm not trolling it's a genuine concern. I'm not sure if dubas well liked around the league by other gms. If not he won't get it done for us.

Not saying it's true, just a concern that came to mind.

I could see something along the lines of most guys would pay a 4th, dubas has to pay a 3rd

 

[keonsbitterness]

Get rid of MLSE and the teachers

Teachers have been gone from the ownership structure for years.

 

[Menzinger]

Record regular season and no votes from peers for award,

You ever think dubas does try nice trades but nobody likes him?

I'm not trolling it's a genuine concern. I'm not sure if dubas well liked around the league by other gms. If not he won't get it done for us.

Not saying it's true, just a concern that came to mind.

The current front office doesn't seem to have much issue making trades though.

People can debate the merits of a few individually, but they've made a number of all different kinds, from larger ones involving core players to minor ones involving temporary retention for draft picks ect.

 

[Puckstuff]

Record regular season and no votes from peers for award,

You ever think dubas does try nice trades but nobody likes him?

I'm not trolling it's a genuine concern. I'm not sure if dubas well liked around the league by other gms. If not he won't get it done for us.

Not saying it's true, just a concern that came to mind.

The U.F.A market is the best place to get good values assets without giving up 1st round picks. Especially last free agency. In terms of 1st round draft pick compensation, what is a player like Marchment worth? What is Charlie Lindgren worth? What is David Perron worth? All of our needs which are depth scoring on the 3rd line, back up goalie and D could have been improved in the offseason.

For example... For less then the price of Murray, Muzzin, Engvall and Jarnkrok (who all have neutral or negative value) we could have signed Marchment, Perron and Lindgren for less money. Imagine if we had Marchment and Perron in our top 9 instead of Jarnkrok and Engvall. Imagine if we had Lindgren instead of Murray.

The 2022 offseason is looking like a disaster imho. To get the same players in free agency at the deadline will cost an arm and a leg in prospect/draft pick capital. The Dubas defenders are getting quieter and quieter.

 

[Gilmour1996]

Everything on this team SCREAMS corporate ownership. From the on ice product to the in game entertainment and production everything is risk averse and family friendly.

Ownership is more concerned with keeping things family friendly and PG so the brand reaches further.


I'd even argue the way this team plays is a result of ownership. There's no way this ownership group would support a mean heavy team.

Outstanding summary!

 

[Blowfish]

So far the team is about playing as I expected. Matthews and Marner are regressing slightly. Tavares is having a resurgence.

The bottom-6 can't score. The defence is declining. The goaltending is OK, but unstable. In no area are we improved from last year.

And some hungry young skilled/talented teams in Ottawa Buffalo and Detroit all pushing for a playoff spot. Going to be an interesting year.

 

[Larcos_Unal]

Dubas did a great job acquiring Samsonov this offseason.

The other adds were important ones, and we haven't seen any as notable hits so far. Will keep monitoring.

Defense is and has been this team's weakness since Dubas took over, he's failed to fix it. Holl in the top 4 is utter goddamn lunacy.

 

[Koolboss]

I mean you're not doing too badly with Matthews-Kadri as the 1-2 punch, I believe one of the insiders said if we struck out on JT we were signing Derek Ryan for 3C.

There's a million things that could have happened...heck if Armstrong just offered signing bonuses, that deal was gonna get done.

Been saying that from day one when JT was signed, its about time some of us realized how bad of a mistake that was.

 

[Mess]

Every year Dubas believes they can round out the bottom of the Leafs roster to supply secondary scoring to offset spending 1/2 the cap on the top 4 forwards.

Theses are the current results he is getting this year. Bottom 6 forwards and bottom 5 defensemen after 7 games.

9 X bottom 6 forwards combined for 5 goals 4 assists = 9 points
&
5 X Dman combined for 1 goal 3 assists = 4 points

This might be the weakest supporting cast in his 5 year tenure and that doesn't even include the goaltending situation.

 

[3blizzard4]

How Shanny can look at this and still say this is working is beyond me.

 

[Ianturnedbull]

Everything on this team SCREAMS corporate ownership. From the on ice product to the in game entertainment and production everything is risk averse and family friendly.

Ownership is more concerned with keeping things family friendly and PG so the brand reaches further.


I'd even argue the way this team plays is a result of ownership. There's no way this ownership group would support a mean heavy team.

These are shallow points.

If this were true then they would never hire Burke or even Shanahan to be president. Weirdly Shanny has gone against his own experience and principals to let Dubas sculpt this team. This is a hockey team. Fighting is in the rule books. Body checking is within the rules. Fighting is a penalty, and if there's no true instigator both players remain in the game.

If you don't like what you're seeing in the team it all leads back to Dubas and not a corporate mandate for family friendly 'figure skating'.

 

[TorMapleJays]

Dubas did a great job acquiring Samsonov this offseason.

The other adds were important ones, and we haven't seen any as notable hits so far. Will keep monitoring.

That was a gift horse. He had ZERO idea that Sammy was going to fall into his lap. He made his deal with another Soo Greyhound. How many people has he brought in from that mediocre OHL team?

 

[JT AM da real deal]

Get rid of MLSE and the teachers

Larry brought in Rogers (37.5%) and Bell (37.5%) and upped his interest to 25% when teachers/TD exited .. although no one has control Larry has legal rights to buy either partner out if either decide to sell for whatever reason .. and supposedly Rogers and Bell have some kinda verbal agreement to vote their interests together

 

[thewave]

These are shallow points.

If this were true then they would never hire Burke or even Shanahan to be president. Weirdly Shanny has gone against his own experience and principals to let Dubas sculpt this team. This is a hockey team. Fighting is in the rule books. Body checking is within the rules. Fighting is a penalty, and if there's no true instigator both players remain in the game.

If you don't like what you're seeing in the team it all leads back to Dubas and not a corporate mandate for family friendly 'figure skating'.

I think his points have some merit.

It's my belief they(Corporate) hire on name recognition. They pay big dollars to get the biggest names where they can and this includes over the hill players like Marleau. I highly doubt that Shanahan is a nuHockey type of guy, or that Dubas was his first choice. Do you really think Shanahan wanted to fire Babcock? Shanny knows it's a great well paying gig though, why rock the boat when you could just agree with Larry T and Bell/Rogers.

If I were a betting man, I would flat out say the Board wanted the family friendly vision that Dubas was pitching. No doubt in my mind they drank it up in the marketing dept etc.

Ultimately we don't know.