The problem is Kyle did way more bad than good and really derailed us from what should have been a fairly plain sailing rebuild.
The Kadri trade
The Marchment trade
Exposing McCann for Holl (use your f***ing head Kyle)
The Marleau trade
Signing Mrazek
The cost to quickly remove Mrazek
The Johnsson signing
The Foligno trade
The signing of half a dozen Euro UFAs, to then give them away a couple of months later
Hiring his buddy to be the coach without interviewing a single other candidate
Dealing with RFAs
Like i can't honestly can't tell if he was trying?
Hmmm, "way more bad than good" eh? You think it should have been a "fairly plain sailing rebuilld"? What does that look like? What bar are we holding him to? The one set by his peers and other organizations or the perfection level, or even worse the one that is set by Dubas haters? I am not a hater, I am also not a "Dubist".
It's amazing that you "can't even tell if he was trying" yet his organization was one of the most successful in the league during his tenure. Wait, are you going to say success is only measured by cups? With the exception of Vegas, is there a recent cup winner that got there very quickly? Washington took years with their rebuild, so did Tampa and Carolina, Florida absolutely did. What is your bar for success and what teams in the Dubas era have achieved that and quickly?
As for your list, it's pretty slanted, no?
The Kadri trade? He had to go and yes, we didn't get fair value back but that was only after a deal was blocked by Kadri. But sure that's a loss.
Marchment? Hindsight is a great thing but no one in the organization thought he was lost asset to lose sleep over. No mention of Dubas acquiring Hyman for Greg McKegg?
McCann was never a Leaf, he was acquired for Hallinder, that's who we lost in the expansion draft. He did look pretty good as a 1C in Seattle, was he getting that opportunity here? How?
Marleau? That was a pretty crappy contract Dubas inherited and paid to get rid of, he then went out and traded Kapanen for a first to make up for the one we lost. That unfortunately didn't work out.
Mrazek didn't turn out. Sure. Are we really crying about trading down 13 spots (Minten) to unload 100% of it?
The Jonsson signing, sure. Injured and also unloaded.
Foligno. He had a good career before and after his Toronto stint. He was injured and all rentals look bad for teams that don't win. We didn't give up much that Covid draft year.
Euro UFAs? What? We try, if it doesn't work we move on and we do so in a way friendly for the guy that didn't work out. It helps us attract the next ones...like Mikheyev.
The handling of RFAs? You mean the big guys? Nylander's first deal was a steal, the others and JT came in right before the cap went flat. How might they look if we had $15M more to spend with a rising cap?
His "buddy" that he hired has the highest winning percentage in NHL history and was snatched up in 24 hours after we fired him. Lots of experts have NJ going to the cup this year with him.
How about trading down to draft Sandin and then turning Sandin into Cowan? How about Muzzin? Campbell? Hyman? Even Holmberg? Drafting Knies and Robertson outside of the first round? Turning Ritchie and a 2nd into Lyubushkin? Getting Schenn for a third? Timmins for nothing? McCabe and Lafferty?
You can't list the bad ones and not the good ones and please tell me who/which GMs did a better job in the Dubas era, there are probably a couple of them but not many.