Confirmed with Link: Kyle Dubas Not Returning

[LBloor]

I'd love for this to happen just ton seen the heads explode

Please no.

 

[Clark4Ever]

Brendan Shanahan just established himself as the Alpha male in the Leafs' organization.

He just gave Kyle Dubas and the whole World this message: "Don't screw around with me."

I mean, any competent employer should have the same mentality.

 

[thewave]

Kyle is all kinds of shady here.

If that press conference didn't happen and he just talked to Brendan about his home pressures, cleared things up with his wife, and asked for more money to stay on with whatever conditions behind closed doors, we'd probably have a very different press conference Friday afternoon. Business as usual, no idea about the sausage making process.

How is a guy from the Lou Lamoriello school of using time if you have it and a cone of silence telling all like Prince Harry and not keeping things in house? He didn't use time to get things in order and he blathered on his organization. The organization he's supposed to be leading and championing to free agents...

If you didn't know you were being extended but thought you may be. Is it not at least plausible that a person would create a personal narrative to make it seem he is in the drivers seat? It could be something as simple as that and it backfired.

It's honestly hard to say.

 

[Phion Keneuf]

I'd love for this to happen just ton seen the heads explode

Much rather this than him and Spezza going to Ottawa

 

[RoadWarrior]

You know what we dont know the story. You are right.

But if the wifey asks for a divorce that can't be last minute. And why would'nt you go to pla Shanny and tell him this is it for you?

From how it has played now we know it wasn't about family and it was about $$$.

It wasn’t only about $. Shanahan said as much himself. I think the strange Dubas press conference where he stated that he wasn’t sure about returning didn’t match his earlier communication with Shanahan. Combine that with his attempt to re-up later on it seemed to a Shanahan that Dubas was attempting to leverage the team after losing badly in round two.

the only way that makes sense is if Dubas had another offer on the table.

 

[57 Years No Cup]

I defended Dubas after his press conference and thought he was being genuine. If that was really the case, he would have contacted Shanahan to state that he's ready to finalize the framework of their previous contract negotiations. To ask for more money and more autonomy after speaking to his family just reiterates that his comments to the media were in fact a negotiating ploy.

I fell for it and so did many others. I have lost respect for Dubas as a result.

It would not surprise me in the least if Dubas is hired very soon by another club despite his loyal proclamation on Monday that it's Toronto or nothing in the foreseeable future.

Absolutely. You do not make the power play he made without backup. The only reason he needed to talk to his "family" (aka his wife, because his kids are too young to understand any of this) was to ensure she was totally on board with moving to the backup destination, which is most likely in the US.

 

[BLONG7]

How many GM's have agents? This seemed weird to me?

 

[HockeyVirus]

 

[sxvnert]

I think Shanny has 2 years left, if there aren't any results he's gone as well.

The smart play for Shanny is trading all three (Marner, Matthews, Nylander) for high picks/top prospects and selling the fanbase on a new core. This will give the leafs another 5-7 years (hopefully longer). Last time around the leafs had next to nothing to begin with.

 

[Stephen]

Dubas said that the last year was hard for him and his family, and he didn't know if he could put his family through that again. He said that he needed time to speak with them. Not unfair IMO.

He also said that he did not have it in him to be anywhere else.

Not sure why he interpreted it so negatively TBH. To the point where he no longer thought he was the right guy for the job. Makes no sense to me

I think Brendan was clearly ass hurt by the counter by Dubas, and was not going to let Dubas alpha him even though Shanny needs Dubby more than Dubby needs Shanny

All the things Dubas said on the surface were valid, but the audience was wrong and performative.

He could have said everything to Brendan in private, because why are you appealing to public sympathy? He could have made his family decision this week. He could have negotiated harder, asked for the moon and stars. But he didn't. He aired it out in public, made an appeal for sympathy and tried to create a pressure point on the eve of the offseason. And was completely willing to come back a few days later.

Could he not have followed through on this whole process in private? Doesn't pass the smell test.

 

[djdev]

Nope, but he made the front office, coaching staff, and the players loyal to him and people all over twitter saying they're furious. You think guys like Matthews, Rielly, Tavares, and Nylander who are all known to have very strong relationships with Dubas (and Spezza) are going to just take this?

What's to stop them from demanding trades? Whats to stop high ranking members of the FO from resigning with Spezza? The more that comes out the more the organization has clearly botched the whole process.

this aint the NBA here man, players dont demand who an organization hires and fires. we functioned before dubas and will function next year as well. calm down.

 

[Mr Knies Guy]

The Shanaplan just failed.

Dubas was Shanahan's guy.

Hello?

lol

Absolute Shanafail

 

[ToneDog]

Kyle is all kinds of shady here.

If that press conference didn't happen and he just talked to Brendan about his home pressures, cleared things up with his wife, and asked for more money to stay on with whatever conditions behind closed doors, we'd probably have a very different press conference Friday afternoon. Business as usual, no idea about the sausage making process.

How is a guy from the Lou Lamoriello school of using time if you have it and a cone of silence telling all like Prince Harry and not keeping things in house? He didn't use time to get things in order and he blathered on his organization. The organization he's supposed to be leading and championing to free agents...

He used his family as a negotiating ploy. Not the kind of character I want in my organization. Thank God he was too stupid and too arrogant not to STFU.

 

[57 Years No Cup]

He's under contract for another year, and would forfeit next year's salary if he resigns instead of getting fired.

It's very, very unlikely that Keefe will be coaching the Leafs again.

Unlike Spezza, he doesn't have tens of millions of career earnings to fall back on.

I don't blame him. Get the max severance pay. Nothing wrong with that.

 

[Morgs]

Hopefully the players have enough professionalism to not force their way out just because Dubas is now gone. But if they do, then it would really say a lot about them and not in a good way

Them having loyalty to someone who treated them fairly and with respect gets shit on by the organzation and they're expected to just "do their jobs"?

Maybe it's just me, but if something like that happened in my job there's very little chance I'd be working there longer than I need to.

 

[Stephen]

The smart play for Shanny is trading all three (Marner, Matthews, Nylander) for high picks/top prospects and selling the fanbase on a new core. This will give the leafs another 5-7 years (hopefully longer). Last time around the leafs had next to nothing to begin with.

In our heart of hearts I think we kind of want that anyway.

 

[HEAVY DUTY]

Seems fair since Leafs gave the Flames permission to speak to Pridham.

 

[ToneDog]

this aint the NBA here man, players dont demand who an organization hires and fires. we functioned before dubas and will function next year as well. calm down.

Somebody needs to talk him off the ledge.

 

[Kaladin]

I'm shocked by this move, truly.

Think they will regret this, as I thought he was doing a good job overall and worked wonders getting a lot of talent on that squad, especially with the salary cap the way it is. I always thought the problem was Keefe getting out coached, so I guess Dubas's loyalty to Keefe was really the deciding factor.

Will be interesting to see what happens to Dubas, I imagine he can have any job he wants outside of Montreal.

You imagine wrong.

 

[SeaOfBlue]

Kind of crazy that people think that Shanny made the decision to let Kyle go when clearly it was the other way around. This was 100% Dubas' decision to leave. He was not fired. And the takes that I have seen... Woof.

Now the reason is not entirely clear, but I do not think it is a major stretch, based on what Shanny had to say about money not being the issue, to think Kyle decided that it was not worth it if he did not more control over the vision of the team going forward. And I would not be surprised if that is effectively what yesterday's email said... And that is not possible in this market or with Shanny on board. Because more or less, that means Dubas wants Shanny's job.

Sucks that he decided to leave, because he is probably better than every candidate available to replace him right now, but I do not blame him for pursuing an opportunity that he will almost certainly be able to get elsewhere that is better for him and his family than whatever he would get here. He can move up the ladder, probably have a less stressful environment, probably have more control over the roster and how to build it, and the money will likely still exceed what he gets as only a GM in Toronto even if it is a smaller market. The only downside is that the team may not be quite as good as Toronto is right now, but he can probably build it up to that in a short period of time.

I just hope that Shanny doesn't go for a recycled puppet just because he has experience. I would rather go for someone who is inexperienced and unproven, but obviously still qualified and prepared to take on a role of this magnitude, than someone who has been proven to be poor at their job... Like most available experienced GM's are.

This is certainly going to be an exciting offseason though!

 

[sxvnert]

He could have said everything to Brendan in private, because why are you appealing to public sympathy?

Thats the whole point.

 

[Trapper]

What a strange day. Dubas is out and Babcock interviewing for coach jobs.
After he was paid 25 million of course.

 

[ToneDog]

I don't blame him. Get the max severance pay. Nothing wrong with that.

What severance. His contract is up June 30th. Turns down $4m x 5. What a maroon.

 

[Menzinger]

Kyle is all kinds of shady here.

If that press conference didn't happen and he just talked to Brendan about his home pressures, cleared things up with his wife, and asked for more money to stay on with whatever conditions behind closed doors, we'd probably have a very different press conference Friday afternoon. Business as usual, no idea about the sausage making process.

How is a guy from the Lou Lamoriello school of using time if you have it and a cone of silence telling all like Prince Harry and not keeping things in house? He didn't use time to get things in order and he blathered on his organization. The organization he's supposed to be leading and championing to free agents...

My reading of it is Shanny severely misjudged how unsettled Dubas' likely was about a few things - family stuff, lack of extension in place maybe ect. Dubas probably more upset than anticipated hence the blow up at the initial media presser.

The fact that Shanny has been physically distant for much of the season (he lives in NYC) probably helped cloud the relationship

 

[sxvnert]

Shanny using Kyle words against him was brilliant.