End of Season Pressers (Monday May 15)

[Stephen]

Imagine living in a hockey mad town. Your wife goes to the grocery store and she hears her husband being talked about. Imagine the online nonsense that your friends and family see. Sportsnet, TSN talking about your performance nightly. It goes deeper than that. but you get the point.

I don’t think the GTA is giving Leafs front office family members the full paparazzi treatment though.

 

[rumman]

Does this guy have any background at all in player personnel?
Thought he was just a Finance guy?

Isn’t he the numbers guy? Scouting staff could be a resource, they must have several pro scout that evaluate NHL level players?

 

[egd27]

Imagine living in a hockey mad town. Your wife goes to the grocery store and she hears her husband being talked about. Imagine the online nonsense that your friends and family see. Sportsnet, TSN talking about your performance nightly. It goes deeper than that. but you get the point.

If these events are causing issues for him and his family, then it's best that he step away now. In fact, MLSE should probably pull whatever offer they have presented and move to their Plan B.

 

[fahad203]

Not sure what this GM is crying about

You got your way here and you got plenty of rope

You wanted your coach, you got it
You wanted your goalies, you got it
You wanted the players, however, soft and small, you got it
You got to make the trades you wanted

The entire assistant coaches, are your hiree

Despite of all that, you complain about stress and not being able to handle the job. Ok bro,
Get a job in Arizona, they need all the help they can get and nobody will notice you. Your wife can go to grocery store and all she'll have to worry about is the tan

I'll say again, Kyle gets to return if he likes. But he has to hire someone with NHL experience, especially coaches

 

[rumman]

Running who out of town exactly?

Welcome to the big league. This is not Soo you are going to hide in the corner and nobody is going to notice you. This is what we pay you for, this is the job. Managing goliath that is the Toronto Maple Leafs

JFJ is the son of John Ferguasson Sr. Comes from one the most celebrated hockey family, having exposure to hockey all his life, worked with the St.Louis Blues, worked in NHL and he couldn't handle this city. Welcome to the big league

Running out of town you say?

Let me ask you this., If Boston Bruins had 3 of the highest paid players in the league, and you couldn't make it to first round 5 years in a row, you think they keep you employed at all?

Their fans would have dragged him to the street by now asking for every penny back. Welcome to the big league

Kyle is way out of his element here. It just occured to him how difficult this city can be on you. We let go off Pat Quinn who was beloved by this city. We let go of Pat Burns.

Welcome to the big league Kyle. Welcome to the show.

This city has ran Pat Quinn out of town and we loved Pat. He was the last GM/ coach to bring us any success.




Just because a family had a tough year doesn't mean they were harrased. There are no evidence of that what so ever. Leafs fans, however, demanding aren't even close to Quebecois or the Bostoners. Leafs fans in most cases are very civilized and respectful

Sure there will be cases people posting stuff on Twitter or responding to social media. But welcome to life in 2023.

Burn this Org to the gound? strong words bud

We dont' deserve anything?

Oommmm.... I didn't know we were the Chicago Blackhawks,
Vancouver burned half of their city down and so did Quebec
I guess you don't know about Jason Bailey and Anaheim Ducks, they wouldn't let him on a bus because of his religion
I guess you don't know about Mike Danton story

Yeah lets do it. Lets come down to 4 nhl teams who has no off ice issues

Not to mention Philly, hell they boo Santa in the city of brotherly love……..

 

[francis246]

Does this guy have any background at all in player personnel?
Thought he was just a Finance guy?

Isn’t it the same for Eric Tolsky from Carolina though too? He’s a finance/analytics guy. No other experience in player personnel. The benefit to Pridham is that he helped write the Cap rules. So his understanding of the salary cap is probably the best in the league. It’s why he’s so good at circumventing it when they need to.

 

[egd27]

Boy wouldn’t I love to know what plan B is, or for that matter plan C………

You may find out sooner rather than later.

IMO, as soon as Dubas played the family card publicly, Plan B should have been executed. (Maybe it has and is in progress)

 

[Drytoast]

Not sure what this GM is crying about

You got your way here and you got plenty of rope

You wanted your coach, you got it
You wanted your goalies, you got it
You wanted the players, however, soft and small, you got it
You got to make the trades you wanted

The entire assistant coaches, are your hiree

Despite of all that, you complain about stress and not being able to handle the job. Ok bro,
Get a job in Arizona, they need all the help they can get and nobody will notice you. Your wife can go to grocery store and all she'll have to worry about is the tan

I'll say again, Kyle gets to return if he likes. But he has to hire someone with NHL experience, especially coaches

You get to criticize him. That's fine. You harass his wife or children? Now we have problems. I couldn't think of anything more childish and immature a thing to do as a hockey fan.

 

[rumman]

You may find out sooner rather than later.

IMO, as soon as Dubas played the family card publicly, Plan B should have been executed. (Maybe it has and is in progress)

Should have, could have, would have……..I’m still expecting bad new tomorrow………..

 

[francis246]

Not sure what this GM is crying about

You got your way here and you got plenty of rope

You wanted your coach, you got it
You wanted your goalies, you got it
You wanted the players, however, soft and small, you got it
You got to make the trades you wanted

The entire assistant coaches, are your hiree

Despite of all that, you complain about stress and not being able to handle the job. Ok bro,
Get a job in Arizona, they need all the help they can get and nobody will notice you. Your wife can go to grocery store and all she'll have to worry about is the tan

I'll say again, Kyle gets to return if he likes. But he has to hire someone with NHL experience, especially coaches

I’m convinced people didn’t listen to the actual presser. No where did Dubas say the job itself is causing him stress. He said his family divulged information to him that has made him want to possibly step away. It has nothing to do with the job itself.

Whenever they threw a question at him in regards to doing something with the team he answered it as if he was going to be there to make that move or be open to that move. He spoke in present or future tense. Which should indicate outside of family maybe putting pressure to step away, he’s pretty committed to seeing this through and wants to continue working.

 

[CantLoseWithMatthews]

Isn’t it the same for Eric Tolsky from Carolina though too? He’s a finance/analytics guy. No other experience in player personnel. The benefit to Pridham is that he helped write the Cap rules. So his understanding of the salary cap is probably the best in the league. It’s why he’s so good at circumventing it when they need to.

Tulsky has definitely been involved in the hockey ops side. He's the head of their pro scouting department and is involved in all of their player personnel decisions according to the Canes website, as well as other hockey related matters. As far as I can tell, Pridham has only ever been responsible for cap compliance here

 

[Stephen]

I’m convinced people didn’t listen to the actual presser. No where did Dubas say the job itself is causing him stress. He said his family divulged information to him that has made him want to possibly step away. It has nothing to do with the job itself.

Whenever they threw a question at him in regards to doing something with the team he answered it as if he was going to be there to make that move or be open to that move. He spoke in present or future tense. Which should indicate outside of family maybe putting pressure to step away, he’s pretty committed to seeing this through and wants to continue working.

This is why I never understood why he was so forthcoming about his family in the press conference to begin with. It’s none of our business what his family thought process is, what they want for the future.

Go have your discussions before the presser and if you a) want to re-sign in Toronto and keep your job, nobody needs to know what was said at the kitchen table. If b) you need to step away, step away officially and explain whatever you feel like then.

There’s zero benefit in having fans now speculate on his personal affairs and to parse words while waiting for an answer.

If he’s used a corporate platform to acknowledge his family, well that’s a little bit unprofesh cause now it’s painted the job and market like this awfully taxing job.

It’s too much information.

 

[ACC1224]

Isn’t it the same for Eric Tolsky from Carolina though too? He’s a finance/analytics guy. No other experience in player personnel. The benefit to Pridham is that he helped write the Cap rules. So his understanding of the salary cap is probably the best in the league. It’s why he’s so good at circumventing it when they need to.

he'll need to be good at it if he doesn't know how the put a value on players.

 

[francis246]

Tulsky has definitely been involved in the hockey ops side. He's the head of their pro scouting department and is involved in all of their player personnel decisions according to the Canes website, as well as other hockey related matters. As far as I can tell, Pridham has only ever been responsible for cap compliance here

Ah thank you! That’s even more encouraging news. He’d be my pick to replace Dubas should things go array. I’d like a Tulsky/Pridham combination tbh.

 

[TheDoldrums]

Tulsky has definitely been involved in the hockey ops side. He's the head of their pro scouting department and is involved in all of their player personnel decisions according to the Canes website, as well as other hockey related matters. As far as I can tell, Pridham has only ever been responsible for cap compliance here

I think Pridham has a bigger role than that. He's the only actual AGM in the front office, the other ones have the title but with much more specific duties separate from the day-to-day and decision making. Spezza would be the only other guy that Dubas could be bouncing ideas off. Pridham has apparently lead all contract negotiations recently as well.

 

[francis246]

This is why I never understood why he was so forthcoming about his family in the press conference to begin with. It’s none of our business what his family thought process is, what they want for the future.

Go have your discussions before the presser and if you a) want to re-sign in Toronto and keep your job, nobody needs to know what was said at the kitchen table. If b) you need to step away, step away officially and explain whatever you feel like then.

There’s zero benefit in having fans now speculate on his personal affairs and to parse words while waiting for an answer.

It’s too much information.

I don’t think it was something he planned or even had as a talking point, may have just been an in the moment candid answer. Burn out in the job is real. They may have just caught him on a bad day where he was dealing with a lot of shit. At the end of the day these people are still human, no matter how upset you are with the on ice product, there should be a level of grace extended to his situation.

I think it’s really weird how in this sport there is a culture of people not being allowed to be candid or show raw emotion. Hockey is the only sport where that statement would really cause this much stir.

 

[fahad203]

Ah thank you! That’s even more encouraging news. He’d be my pick to replace Dubas should things go array. I’d like a Tulsky/Pridham combination tbh.

I can't see Tulsky being available to be honest. He'll resign with the Canes or take on a bigger role with them. At least we wont' know for another 4 weeks depending on how Carolina does

Kyle may move into where Brendan is and Brendan will move to "Senior Advisor" role

 

[egd27]

Anyways, if you don't want to support the team any longer, then that's your choice of course, but IMO just rip the bandaid off instead of posting on HFBoards in the offseason. Just my opinion.

Some folks really need to get over themselves

 

[TheDoldrums]

I can't see Tulsky being available to be honest. He'll resign with the Canes or take on a bigger role with them. At least we wont' know for another 4 weeks depending on how Carolina does

Kyle may move into where Brendan is and Brendan will move to "Senior Advisor" role

Disagree, I think Tulsky leaves pretty soon. He's a hot name with no baggage and Carolina does not spend a lot of money, I think there will be better offers for him out there.

Remember we were able to poach Chynoweth with no promotion, likely because of the pay disparity.

 

[francis246]

@Stephen also this market is taxing. Dubas is not the first person to flat out admit the effect this market has had on their family. Many players have spoken about it, former execs have spoken about it. It’s not some secret lol. Everyone knows playing/working in this market is great when you’re on top and a downright shitty place to be when things aren’t going well.

 

[A1LeafNation]

@Stephen also this market is taxing. Dubas is not the first person to flat out admit the effect this market has had on their family. Many players have spoken about it, former execs have spoken about it. It’s not some secret lol. Everyone knows playing/working in this market is great when you’re on top and a downright shitty place to be when things aren’t going well.

Pretty much all of Canada.

 

[CantLoseWithMatthews]

I think Pridham has a bigger role than that. He's the only actual AGM in the front office, the other ones have the title but with much more specific duties separate from the day-to-day and decision making. Spezza would be the only other guy that Dubas could be bouncing ideas off. Pridham has apparently lead all contract negotiations recently as well.

That's encouraging, but I still wouldn't feel comfortable with Pridham taking over as GM at this point. Tulsky would be the perfect candidate, but they need to act fast. Pittsburgh is already looking to hire him and I'm sure there's more teams that'd be interested. Pridham just strikes me as too inexperienced on the hockey ops side to promote him to GM now, and it seems like Dubas is having his own share of issues

 

[Martin Skoula]

The timing of the "other teams are considering asking for permission to speak to Pridham" was really interesting this week - a whole update about nothing, almost reminding everyone that Pridham is a high value asset to the organization.

Personally, if it's not Dubas / Dubas moves into the president vacancy, then I would much prefer the organization look externally for a new GM. Feels like we are at the point where a fresh set of eyes and a new approach would be very beneficial for this group.

Pridhams fine for a stopgap while they look for a GM, he’s the one that would have been negotiating the relevant contracts if Dubas stayed anyway. He doesn’t have to make any sweeping changes, just deal with Matthews and Nylander while they find a new guy.

 

[egd27]

Should have, could have, would have……..I’m still expecting bad new tomorrow………..

Sounds like some posters describing their playoff results.

 

[francis246]

Pretty much all of Canada.

Yup Treliving walked away from Calgary for the same reasons. Bergevin walked away from Montreal for the same reasons. (both were offered extensions and both were there for 10 years). Paul Maurice walked away from Winnipeg for similar reasons. I don’t think this is unique to Dubas.