News Article: How Dubas' shrewd spending has paid off long-term for Leafs

[DarkKnight]

...I get 3 pages of results if i seach LTIR in his acquisition thread.

Hes had ongoing health issues for some time, this wasnt a surprise

I get revisionism from your comment. Seems kind of silly to argue that now. It wasn’t some flyer and we just LTIR him if it didn’t work out, that just reeks of Dubas apologist. We were desperate, the goalie market was quickly drying up so we signed the ”headcase” from the Caps and the big cap hit, injury prone, former star goalie.

 

[Gallagbi]

I get revisionism from your comment. Seems kind of silly to argue that now. It wasn’t some flyer and we just LTIR him if it didn’t work out, that just reeks of Dubas apologist. We were desperate, the goalie market was quickly drying up so we signed the ”headcase” from the Caps and the big cap hit, injury prone, former star goalie.

Personally I wouldnt have traded for Murray and said that a few times in the summer we acquired him.

Plan A was for him to be successful and finish out his contract. When he wasnt, given all of the injuries he suffered, LTIR felt like a likely possibility. Which is why it was so frequently referenced before he even played a game here.

 

[Buds17]

Not entering into "bad deals" does not necessarily equate to doing "good things". Campbell, Hyman, Andersen, Bunting, Murray, Samsonov...only one player from that lot is still contributing to the Leaf cause.

 

[DarkKnight]

Personally i wouldnt have traded for Murray and said that a few times in the summer we acquired him.

Plan A was for him to be successful and finish out his contract. When he wasnt, given all of the injuries he suffered, LTIR felt like a likely possibility. Which is why it was so frequently referenced before he even played a game here

Sure, sure, it’s your paint brush, go nuts.

 

[notbias]

deflecting what exactly ?

i said they've been bad but unlike Dubie's deals we won't have to pay to dump them

also i have no idea what your even doing on the Leafs board anymore , all you've ever done was praise Dubas so if the only reason to be on here is to show your love of our former GM why aren't you on the Pens board enjoying what you like to do best

We are paying with a wasted season... how is this hard to understand... you are upset Dubas wasted seasons, you should be upset now...

I am a Leafs fan for the 1000th time, I don't care about Dubas.

I'll watch this team play like trash every game I can and still cheer for them.

I am not sure why this is a hard concept, I enjoyed the team more when they at least had regular season success, if you prefer this iteration more, that is fine, I just don't understand it.

If this all comes together I will say Treliving did a good job... but some of his signings were head-scratching at the time and look even worse now.

Combine that with his track record and it is a worrisome thing.

 

[Brown Dog]

Nothing could be more boring than these Dubas/Treliving threads.

Dubas was our GM for a while. He made some moves. His teams performed well in the regular season and failed miserably in the playoffs. He's gone now.

Can we just leave it at that and move on?

 

[LeafSteel]

Nothing could be more boring than these Dubas/Treliving threads.

Dubas was our GM for a while. He made some moves. His teams performed well in the regular season and failed miserably in the playoffs. He's gone now.

Can we just leave it at that and move on?

I will drink to this.

Can we close the thread on this post?

Cheers

 

[hotpaws]

Nothing could be more boring than these Dubas/Treliving threads.

Dubas was our GM for a while. He made some moves. His teams performed well in the regular season and failed miserably in the playoffs. He's gone now.

Can we just leave it at that and move on?

was there moving on from Burke's rabid army of supporters even when we had to completely gut whatever shit he was trying to build ? there's still fans on here who believe he was doing a great job and just didn't get enough time

so the answer to your question is no they'll never be a time when this board moves on since his fan club will never let it go and will hold on to this for the rest of their lives

 

[GoonieFace]

We are paying with a wasted season... how is this hard to understand... you are upset Dubas wasted seasons, you should be upset now...

I am a Leafs fan for the 1000th time, I don't care about Dubas.

I'll watch this team play like trash every game I can and still cheer for them.

I am not sure why this is a hard concept, I enjoyed the team more when they at least had regular season success, if you prefer this iteration more, that is fine, I just don't understand it.

If this all comes together I will say Treliving did a good job... but some of his signings were head-scratching at the time and look even worse now.

Combine that with his track record and it is a worrisome thing.

They will all be wasted seasons until they break up the “elite” core

 

[Sypher04]

I was never really a Dubas hater, but good lord the pathological need to tie everything back to and prop up Dubas among some, like this writer, is insane. Oh Jack Campbell on waivers, time to write an article about why Dubas is a genius, while ignoring the myriad of blunders he made with our goaltending over his tenure. Easily his weakest point as a GM.

 

[Sypher04]

They will all be wasted seasons until they break up the “elite” core

I get this is common sentiment, but there remains today nothing to indicate moving on from some our best players to restructure the cap improves us. It’s as much or more of a crapshoot as continuing to build around the core. The difference is our core have at least proven to upper echelon players in the league that work in this market.

If you could move Tavares at this point, you make that move, but let’s not act like any of the others come with any garauntees of greater success.

 

[notbias]

They will all be wasted seasons until they break up the “elite” core

We fired the guy who said maybe it is time to do so...

I also don't really agree.

 

[Nylanderthal]

Such a brain dead article, thank Christ Murray is on long term, which is pure luck. So shrewd lol.

What’s luck about it? It was a calculated risk with little downside, he’s either a cup capable goalie or he’s on LTIR I never understood the hand wringing over the deal.

 

[Nylanderthal]

I get revisionism from your comment. Seems kind of silly to argue that now. It wasn’t some flyer and we just LTIR him if it didn’t work out, that just reeks of Dubas apologist. We were desperate, the goalie market was quickly drying up so we signed the ”headcase” from the Caps and the big cap hit, injury prone, former star goalie.

We received assets for a reduced cost 2x cup winning goalie who had known injury issues, which is why he came in reduced.
The gamble was always if he was going to be healthy enough to play or not. If not he’s on LTIR

 

[The Best Leafs Everr]

Well we weren't looking like a lottery team under him for sure.

 

[Gary Nylund]

I get this is common sentiment, but there remains today nothing to indicate moving on from some our best players to restructure the cap improves us. It’s as much or more of a crapshoot as continuing to build around the core. The difference is our core have at least proven to upper echelon players in the league that work in this market.

If you could move Tavares at this point, you make that move, but let’s not act like any of the others come with any garauntees of greater success.

Building around the core is what we probably will do, but this strategy is pretty much doomed to failure IMO. The cupboards are pretty bare, our roster is aging, Nylander might leave this summer and if he doesn't, we'll be paying him a ton, we have only 1 pick in the top 2 rounds next two years, we'll probably trade that at the TDL in a desperate attempt to win now, it's very hard to see this team as anything close to a contender a couple of years from now.

Then again, moving on from the best players is tough, those pesky NMC's make it tough so we're basically screwed no matter what we do.

 

[hotpaws]

Well we weren't looking like a lottery team under him for sure.

except for the season the mighty Blue Jackets prevented us from qualifying for the playoffs

 

[nuck]

What’s luck about it? It was a calculated risk with little downside, he’s either a cup capable goalie or he’s on LTIR I never understood the hand wringing over the deal.

No neither of those are the most likely option. Most frequently injured players do not LTIR out an entire season. Miss a few, return for a few, play poorly because they get interrupted resulting in a losing outcome that is usually beyond a teams control. He was acquired to be the clubs #1 guy and playoff tender, not to maybe be healthy and be the guy. The hip surgery that took him out for the season and saved the clubs bacon wasn't even on his list of historical problems.

The good news is he may be ready for the playoffs

 

[Lightsol]

They will all be wasted seasons until they break up the “elite” core

"You know what we have to do to succeed? Trade all the good players away and tank for more. If we're lucky, it won't take 15 years this time!"

 

[DarkKnight]

No neither of those are the most likely option. Most frequently injured players do not LTIR out an entire season. Miss a few, return for a few, play poorly because they get interrupted resulting in a losing outcome that is usually beyond a teams control. He was acquired to be the clubs #1 guy and playoff tender, not to maybe be healthy and be the guy. The hip surgery that took him out for the season and saved the clubs bacon wasn't even on his list of historical problems.

The good news is he may be ready for the playoffs

Exactly, the injury he got here wasn't even an issue when we made the trade. We lucked out this off season, we may have lost Cowen as a pick if he didn't get his last injury here. It was a desperate move to shore up the goaltending, we literally had nothing after Campbell left and Dubas was watching other goalie he wanted go elsewhere. This idea it was a calculated risk, if it didn't work out simply LTIR is a joke. Anyways....

 

[therealkoho]

Dubas put his eggs in the wrong basket. He designed this team with the intention that Matthews, Marner, Tavares and Nylander would carry them offensively. They didn't.

That's on him, and it's also on the top 3 + Nylander to a lesser extent.

Dubas made his mistakes with the leftover cap, but dealt with them. He also was better at player evaluations than Treliving has been so far [yes its very early].

Dubas actually thought that mid level and better, NHL players that worked their arses off from the time they were kids in order to realize their dreams were going to lay right down and play for peanuts for the pleasure of playing with the highest paid player in the league.

Sorry I was being facetious, ............ uhm again.

This team is as out of balance as the teams payroll is,

AND that dear sirs and gentle souls is where the problem lies.

 

[PromisedLand]

 

[AlienWorkShop]

'If you could please indicate to the court where Kyle Dubas touched you on this doll...'

 

[Confucius]

To a much greater extent IMO. He bet that these guys could get the job done, instead they lost 5 consecutive game 7's (CLB was game 5), most of them in embarrassing fashion. Then they finally won a round, only to get bounced by huge underdog Florida. You'd have to be Nostradamus to somehow know that these guys will always get to game 7, and then always suck in that game 7. I've never seen anything like it in 50+ years of following pro sports - can anyone give me one example where a team has lost 5 consecutive game 7's?

He bet on this core, 99% of GM's would have done the same. He made some bad moves, but also some good moves just like any other GM. And not having Campbell on the books for years to come was one of the good decision he made for sure. Long term, there are really no bad contracts we're stuck with at all, the reason were screwed is that we've traded our futures away in an attempt to "win now" but once again, 99% of all GM's would have been trying to "win now" with this core the last few years as well.

Keep piling on guys, but I stand by what I've said many times - Dubas did a lot better job here than most give him credit for.

Caps lost 5 game 7’s in 6 years, the spoiler was 2010/11 when they got swept in 4. Is that better? Lol!

Edit to add: and they lost 6 game 7’s in 7 consecutive playoffs.

 

[Gary Nylund]

Caps lost 5 game 7’s in 6 years, the spoiler was 2010/11 when they got swept in 4. Is that better? Lol!

Edit to add: and they lost 6 game 7’s in 7 consecutive playoffs.

Thanks for the info! That's pretty bad but our record seems worse as they usually lost in the second round whereas for those 5 years when it was down to one game and we lost it was the 1st round every time. I'm also not sure if WSH ever lost as a massive favorite the way we did to MTL?

In any case, my main thought was that I don't see how Dubas or anyone else could possibly know that a group of players can play well for 82 games, then 6 more playoff games and then fold in the last game without a fight, it just makes no sense.

Ahead going into the 3rd against Boston, lose the 3rd period 4-0 is where it started. Then I think they were outscored 11-2 the next 3 playoffs in the deciding games before finally putting up a respectable performance against TB losing "only" 2-1 in game 7.