I've never been an active poster here but HFLeafs is one of my only "check every day multiple times" websites. I don't agree with a lot of what gets said here but this website has been my "Leafs community" for the better part of 15 years. It's been great to see a lot of long-term members come back for these playoffs (looking at you Squiffy) and it's unfortunate that this season ended the way it did. I guess this is my season/Dubas post-mortem, so I apologize for the length of this post.
I think it's fair game to debate whether Dubas was a good GM in his tenure here. I think it's fair game to debate whether the Core 4 are good enough to win the Cup. I think it's fair game to debate whether Shanahan has done enough to keep his job. I think it's fair game to debate whether what Dubas said on Monday was a negotiating tactic (as opposed to an ill-advised moment of absolute honesty). In all likelihood, these will be points of contention for the fanbase for the foreseeable future.
However, whether you hate or love Dubas, I feel that the way things went down the past week have been a pretty terrible look for the organization as whole. Shanny's presser today has me feeling pessimistic for the future and I'll try to explain why. As full disclosure, I was more in favour of Dubas staying than leaving but I would not have been opposed to replacing Dubas with a concrete plan for improvement in place.
Here's (exactly) what Dubas said at his presser on Monday with regards to whether he wanted to stay on as Leafs GM (I transcribed this myself):
"But probably, more importantly, I'll speak to my wife Shannon and our family here in the tonight, tomorrow, see where we're at as a family and see how we want to proceed with everything. This has been a you, know, just learning in the past couple of days, a taxing year on them and that's obviously very important to me. So, we'll go through all that and we'll all make our decisions and roll from there."
Chris Johnston: Do you still have it in you? Do you still want to run the Maple Leafs?
"What I would say to that is that, I think it requires me to have a full family discussion Chris. So I can't, my family is a hugely important part of what I do. So, for me to commit to anything without having a fuller understanding of what this year took on them is probably unfair for me to answer where I'm at. I wish I could give you more but we haven't been able to have those full discussions yet. But it was a very hard year on them and thus it's, tough for me to... What I would say is that, I'm not gonna, I don't have it in me to go anywhere else. So it'll either be here or it'll be taking time to recalibrate, reflect on the seasons here. But you won't see me next week pop up elsewhere, I don't, I can't put them through that after this year"
Pierre Lebrun: I just want to be precise on this, you're either going to be Leafs GM again or take time away from the game...?
Dubas: "That's correct"
I think it's fair game to debate whether these comments show that Dubas didn't have the capacity to continue as GM. But what upsets me is that these comments caused Shanahan (who by his own account was completely in favour of bringing Dubas back on the basis of Dubas' performance the past season prior to Monday morning) to completely reverse course on brining Dubas back. Either Dubas was good enough to continue as Leafs GM or he wasn't. What Dubas said on Monday, in my opinion, was not enough for Shanny to completely change his mind on Dubas like he did today.
To be clear, I think what Dubas said was quite stupid (especially in hindsight). However, for Shanny to get rid of Dubas with no backup GM contemplated at all, to take four business days to reach this decision, to engage in his own form of "he said, she said" in front of the media and to do all of this in the face of the most important month and a half for the franchise is terrible leadership and doesn't bode well for the future. It's reactionary and it's the opposite of the meritocracy that we all likely want to see implemented in this franchise.
At the end of today, I feel that: the Leafs are without a GM who, according to management itself, performed well enough to return in that capacity, the Leafs are no closer to an adequate replacement for Dubas, the Leafs are no closer to decisions on what to do with 34/16/88 and the Leafs are no closer to any concrete plan to improving the team in the offseason.
You can be happy Dubas and most probably Keefe are gone. But I don't see how the past week inspires confidence in anyone with an eye to the future. For the Dubas haters, enjoy your "pound of flesh" (I say this sincerely... today is a good day for people who don't like Dubas). But I find it very difficult to feel that the Leafs are in a better place now without Dubas for the reasons Shanny gave at his presser.
