Dubas details his 'biggest mistake' as Leafs GM in new book

[belair]

No shit, Sherlock.

GMs aren't anything special. These guys aren't smart.

 

[Sasha Orlov]

This guy is the biggest fool in hockey

 

[KevinRedkey]

In hindsight, yeah, dumb signing overall. But at the same time, imagine the backlash if he DOESN'T sign Tavaras. Imagine the Toronto fan and media reaction: O.M.G. you have a 1ov talent like Tavaras that wants to play for his boyhood team! OMG how could you not sign him! That's the kind of 1C franchise player you MAKE ROOM FOR! Huge opportunity missed! OMG if they don't win, it will be because of this!

I think for Tavaras, he was damned if he did and damned if he didn't.

If we believe rumors... Tavares probably signs for 13.000 in San Jose if Toronto doesn't cave to his demands. No reasonable hockey fan in or outside Toronto is going to play the 'how did they not sign him?!' card after inking a deal that ridiculous.

 

[capfit9]

I just find it funny that Kyle Dubas is being interviewed for a book with the title “The Franchise: The Business Of Building Winning Teams”.

 

[McJC]

It wasn't his fault these spoiled brats keep folding in the playoffs

 

[GirardSpinorama]

Again I don't entirely disagree with you. The acquisition of EK maybe does show that he didn't learn anything. Pittsburgh has also fallen into the same cycle that most long term successful teams fall into with having elite core players still playing and essentially needing to keep pushing until they retire. Caps are doing the same thing.

But when he first hit the scene in Toronto as a rookie manager, I can honestly understand how some of those mistakes may have happened. We see plenty of long tenured GM's make equal or worse errors for their team.

All that aside I'm still not a fan of the guy, and I'd be lying if I said I wasn't a little happy about how he played out in Toronto, but that's just lighthearted ribbing from me.

We can say he deserves no benefit of the doubt being a rookie GM in a hugely scrutinized market, but I just don't think it's a realistic critique. Young managers, employers, and workers make mistakes all the time. That's how you learn. You can't expect anyone to just step into any situation as a rookie and not make any errors. The fact that they work for millions of dollars doesn't negate that, at least not for me.

I just dont think its an error due to lack of knowledge/experience but rather an ego driven move intended to please the masses.

Maybe with experience he learns that GM's job isnt to make the media happy but win hockey games?

 

[Mr Positive]

It's a bit of a "damned if you do, damned if you dont". He wanted to add the veteran top center for no trade assets, but you also don't want to speed up negotiations on these key RFAs, because it is about leverage and chiseling them down. You can't just leave Tavares waiting while you sort your RFAs out, and it's not like Tavares signing was a certainty before July 1st.

Dubas should have pushed those RFA deals sooner no doubt, on even the chance Tavares could be signed. I can't recall another GM doing it quite this way but I'm sure it has been

 

[MCR74]

His biggest mistake. Taking a job he was/is totally unqualified for.

Twice!

 

[BostonBob]

This guy is the biggest fool in hockey

Wrong - the guys that hired him are.

 

[Sidney the Kidney]

Literally everyone knew that except him lol.

And literally everyone argued that Tavares' cap hit impacted what he paid the other guys other than some Leaf fans at the time who insisted they'd still have gotten as much even without Tavares setting the bar.

 

[Nothingbutglass]

I just dont think its an error due to lack of knowledge/experience but rather an ego driven move intended to please the masses.

Maybe with experience he learns that GM's job isnt to make the media happy but win hockey games?

Ego driven, but not to please the masses. He thought he was the Billy Beane of hockey and could take advantage of analytics and market inefficiencies to outsmart everyone on how to build a team. It failed. People forget that billy Beane didnt win shit either and now the A's are in the gutter.

 

[Bouboumaster]

Lol Pittsburgh you're f***ed

 

[TheNumber4]

Ultimately, Dubas is just a reflection of the market he operated in. Everyone in Toronto wanted to steal Pajama boy from NYI, no matter the cost. Everyone believed in “We Can and We Will”, and Dubas made all the moves that proved that he could. Hard to blame Dubas really, which is probably why he got a job in Pittsburgh immediately.

 

[JKG33]

Made it difficult for every team. Which playoff team couldnt use the extra cap room?

This. I hate when people use that excuse for Dubas, as if the covid flat cap world was only a problem for the Leafs.

They were just the most poorly equipped to handle it, because 30 other GM's weren't stupid enough to give their RFA's overpaid UFA style deals

 

[GOilers88]

Ego driven, but not to please the masses. He thought he was the Billy Beane of hockey and could take advantage of analytics and market inefficiencies to outsmart everyone on how to build a team. It failed. People forget that billy Beane didnt win shit either and now the A's are in the gutter.

Moneyball doesn't work. It was just a flash in the pan. For small markets it might garner other avenues for some success, but on a whole, you don't win championships with it.

 

[JKG33]

Dubas didn't write the book, he was just interviewed for it.

While it is funny that he didn't realize he f***ed up Toronto's contract situation, at least he... somewhat seems to get it now. Some GMs never learn.

The Erik Karlsson trade within a couple months of naming himself GM would suggest otherwise

I mean on one hand, when Eichel got 10 million/year that kind of set the floor for whatever Matthews and possibly Marner were going to get providing they didn't bust.

Eichel got 8 years

 

[Joe Sakic]

Well, at least he knows it and admits it.

The JT singing in itself wasn't the killer imo. Singing the other 3 (especially Matthews and Marner) to such insanely high AAV's when they were RFA is what did it in my opinion.

 

[JKG33]

Blame dubas!!!! Not the 4 ppg players who get clowned every year and do nothing and get completely clamped in the first round

Who brought in and overpaid those 4?

I think Dubas, Keefe, and the overpaid 4 are all worth about as much as the gum stuck under your shoe

It's a bit of a "damned if you do, damned if you dont". He wanted to add the veteran top center for no trade assets, but you also don't want to speed up negotiations on these key RFAs, because it is about leverage and chiseling them down. You can't just leave Tavares waiting while you sort your RFAs out, and it's not like Tavares signing was a certainty before July 1st.

Dubas should have pushed those RFA deals sooner no doubt, on even the chance Tavares could be signed. I can't recall another GM doing it quite this way but I'm sure it has been

The thing is, even with the Tavares contract, the RFA's still had 0 leverage. Yet Dubas caved all the same

 

[Prairie Habs]

Never before in history has one single pencil necked geek attracted as much bizarrely unwarranted media adulation at this guy.

Chayka

 

[BraveCanadian]

When stuff comes out about GMs like this, I truly believe most of HF users could run a team. Not even kidding.

It is not that complicated a job, at all.

The amount of money these people get paid to manage 50 contracts and delegate some farm team management to assistants is crazy.

A coin toss for making decisions would perform as well as most of them

 

[Mr Positive]

Who brought in and overpaid those 4?

I think Dubas, Keefe, and the overpaid 4 are all worth about as much as the gum stuck under your shoe


The thing is, even with the Tavares contract, the RFA's still had 0 leverage. Yet Dubas caved all the same

High end RFAs have more leverage than typical RFAs. Even if the logic of that seems flawed, the evidence is all around us. The high end RFAs win their standoff league wide. The only way to really play hardball is to sell an internal cap like that great Redwings team did. It's hard to do so when you go out and sign Tavares at that high number. It's no coincidence that Marner and Matthews got similar numbers.

 

[JKG33]

High end RFAs have more leverage than typical RFAs. Even if the logic of that seems flawed, the evidence is all around us. The high end RFAs win their standoff league wide. The only way to really play hardball is to sell an internal cap like that great Redwings team did. It's hard to do so when you go out and sign Tavares at that high number. It's no coincidence that Marner and Matthews got similar numbers.

Even after the fact, what RFAs have gotten contracts as bloated as Matthews and Marner?

 

[Golden_Jet]

I just find it funny that Kyle Dubas is being interviewed for a book with the title “The Franchise: The Business Of Building Winning Teams”.

That will generate some memes.

 

[TheGoldenJet]

How do busy people write books? Too many people write books

Doobler outsourced it to his intern, who outsourced it to an NVIDIA AI chatbot.

 

[capfit9]

That will generate some memes.

they can & they will