Confirmed with Link: Kyle Dubas Not Returning

[93gilmour93]

This offseason is going to be quite the ride.

 

[Notsince67]

I think you need both to be in this position. Which , is why with my modest salary, I'm so humble and appealing to women.

You have much to be humble for...

 

[rumman]

For everything Shanny did for Dubas, Dubas pulling this stunt is telling. Like I said, a wolf is sheeps's clothing.

It’s a redeeming day for those who didn’t drink the Kool Ade…………

 

[sxvnert]

Is it me, or is Shanahan not getting enough heat here?

He gave Dubas everyone he demanded, and Dubas failed. The only heat Shanny should be getting is keeping Dubas around for so long.

 

[geo25]

Reading between the lines, sounds like Dubas lost his job with the way he talked to the media at the end of year presser.

The fact that Shanahan and the Leafs had no clarity after Wednesday is pretty crazy.

He lost his job becsuse he asked for a 50% raise....

 

[Leaf Rocket]

I mean you also laughed at the moves Sakic made last year at the deadline, as they marched their way to the cup, so you saying Dubas's new team is going to be better than ours, makes me feel that the leafs new GM will have a lot of success and probably win a cup. great things coming to the leafs! cant wait!

Sometimes it is the way for sure...

Burke after Murray set up things....Bowman after Tallon did all the work...Steve Kerr overtaking Mark Jackson

 

[notbias]

I mean you also laughed at the moves Sakic made last year at the deadline, as they marched their way to the cup, so you saying Dubas's new team is going to be better than ours, makes me feel that the leafs new GM will have a lot of success and probably win a cup. great things coming to the leafs! cant wait!

Genuinely curious, what is your obsession with me?

I laughed at his Manson move, and now Colorado fans don't seem too happy with it.

Also, Dubas has about 6 more seasons of failure to catch up with the amount of time Sakic had.

 

[Dave92]

Sounds like his ego cost him his job. He made an unecessary show of it being "his" decision whether or not or stay, and then tried to ask for more money.

Not everybody is a doormat like him.

 

[rumman]

Actually sounds more like Dubas said he didn't want to have to run every decision by Shanahan anymore. Shanny said fine, see ya later..... it was a power struggle, not money or performance.

If that gets out no experienced GM would want this job. We'll be getting another rookie that Shanahan can manipulate.

I bet Dubas' next job will be as a President & GM role.

yeah, president and gm of the Taco Bell in the Soo…….maybe………

 

[therealkoho]

So Kyle wanted to be GM and Shanahan wanted him to be GM as of 2 days ago.

Then there was a change in Brendan's mind.

Sounds like the board said no to Kyle after Monday.

No

Kyle over played his hand and pissed Shanny off

 

[Frank Drebin]

Your team will be better off without this twerp

 

[rumman]

Gord Stellick bang on “ looks he wanted to make the team sweat like they made him sweat with no contract and it blew up on him”.

Uh oh Spaghetti O’s…….

 

[therealkoho]

Toronto media just came lol

Well they were invited weren't they?

 

[Farsailor]

Is it me, or is Shanahan not getting enough heat here?

Always easy to sit there and put words in the other guys mouth when he is not there. That did not sit well with me.

 

[Smif]

I guarantee that shanny has someone already in mind.
There is always an alternative plan in place

The line for Leafs GM is always long, especially with the core we have in place. It's a guaranteed playoff team if you do nothing but sit on your hands.

 

[The Masters]

Well they were invited weren't they?

Lol re-read my message

 

[Leaf Rocket]

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 Wednesday, 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.

Nice to see you again after a while and hope is all well with you. This pretty much sums up perfect my view on things as well. Definitely doesn't inspire confidence that's for sure.

 

[Notsince67]

yeah, president and gm of the Taco Bell in the Soo…….maybe………

Heard they might be looking for a GM for the London Knights

 

[Cleetus]

Genuinely curious, what is your obsession with me?

I laughed at his Manson move, and now Colorado fans don't seem too happy with it.

Also, Dubas has about 6 more seasons of failure to catch up with the amount of time Sakic had.

not at all obsessed but you thinking that Dubas is going to a new team, and its going to be better than ours is laughable considering you laughing at Sakic, they hoisted the cup, and Dubas is a complete failure he failed, and is gone its a great day to be a leafs Fan moving on from a guy who couldnt get it done!

 

[rumman]

Dubas thought he was negotiating with himself.

I guess Brendan doesn’t know where the woodshed is……..

 

[Rare Jewel]

From the press especially. He didn't get a single difficult question and a lot of media guys are running interference for him.

Regardless of how one feels about Dubas - Shanny is the president, and was supposed to have a plan for how he was going to approach this offseason, and now it's clear whatever plan he had just went up in smoke in a blink of an eye and he's scrambling to figure out what comes next.

It's absolutely infuriating

Yeah, I'm not sure why he would even get to the point where he would let "his guy" get into this lame-duck position. If this is the case then he should've made a move last year.

I also thought it was a striking comment that when he watched Kyle's presser he got a different impression than when he talked to him directly. What's happening here? someone isn't being genuine because he made it clear it's here or nowhere for at least a year.

Perhaps it's just an awkward situation and neither of them really wanted to continue but didn't know to communicate it. Proper break-up procedure.

 

[3blizzard4]

Because they are playing 4D chess, the Zamboni driver will be the new GM of the Leafs.

 

[Smif]

Always easy to sit there and put words in the other guys mouth when he is not there. That did not sit well with me.

That wasn't a made up story, that was exactly how the situation played out, Shanny didn't blink an eye for a second in telling exactly what happened.

 

[notbias]

not at all obsessed but you thinking that Dubas is going to a new team, and its going to be better than ours is laughable considering you laughing at Sakic, they hoisted the cup, and Dubas is a complete failure he failed, and is gone its a great day to be a leafs Fan moving on from a guy who couldnt get it done!

10 years of failure for Sakic, would have been out by 5 here.

Success isn't linear, anyone who has had some will know this.

 

[saffronleaf]

you don't say that in a press conference though. You're announcing to the world that you don't have the stones to see things through. Is that the type of person you want making high profile decisions?

edit:

you're correct it is honest and reasonable but it's also honest and reasonable to not want someone like that running your Billion dollar organization.

yea, just not the appropriate venue. but also find it a bit hard to fault a guy for wearing his heart on his sleeve. but then again, yea its your billion dollar org... stakes are high. i guess it's understandable you'd have questions about it.