Is there a Church of Dubas erected in Toronto that I've been completely unaware of this entire time? Would think so judging by some of the comments here.
Dubas is a promising GM talent that will more than likely go on to have a great career when all is said and done, but he had flaws as the GM and it seemed like he had wore out his welcome with the senior brass.
Of his fundamental flaws they seem to be driven by lack of NHL experience and the wisdom that comes over time. He bet big on his expensive core four, and doubled down on this failed vision of a team time after time.
In the cap era no team has succeeded with three mega contracts on three players, no less players all at forward position. It was clear as day that the team was being hampered due to this- depth, defence, Goaltending, size and grit all taking a back seat.
Considering his cap constraints he did an admirable job trying to round out the roster with shrewd pickups, but is really skirting around the main issue with the team rather than tackling it head on.
VGK and FLA are two teams that are analytic forward teams, that marry this with conventional hockey wisdom. Defensive play, depth especially at centre, size throughout the line up, tenacity and winning puck battles etc. all important coke postseason. FLA especially after their presidents trophy winning season took a hard look last offseason at how they played and reasessed their approach to their game which Maurice outlined in his presser upon hiring.
At a glance it seemed like Dubas was trying so hard to prove his core philosophy was right and rewrite the books on GM'ing instead of really being honest on his team and how they can change for the better.
For a supposed analytic heavy guy he clearly has misvalued critical elements of championship calibre hockey in whatever models he built.
Old school brass probably had enough of this new school experiment, and more comfortable that a veteran hand will be better placed to steer this forward.