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No one can truly know whether Friday’s dismissal of GM Kyle Dubas by the Toronto Maple Leafs is a much-needed course correction or the beginning of another significant downturn in the rich and troubled history of the franchise, but it is tough to sort through the news of the last five days and feel optimistic.
Based on everything that has been reported since Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman broke the story that Dubas would not be returning to the post he had held for five years, it appears that everything began to unravel after Dubas chose to speak to the media on Monday’s locker cleanout day and was unexpectedly emotional when discussing the toll the season took on his family and that he wanted to talk to them before deciding about his future.
Team President Brendan Shanahan indicated in his press conference on Friday that he suggested that Dubas not talk to the media until after a new deal had been agreed to, but he did not heed that advice, and afterward, his comments gave him pause about whether Dubas was still up to the job.
While Shanahan is the point man for the organization, what is not being said is that it is likely that it was one or more of the triumvirate of Bell Media, Rogers, and Larry Tannenbaum that began to have pause, just like they did 12 months ago when they put the hold on giving Dubas an extension prior to the season.
Up until Thursday, according to Shanahan, the path still appeared to be going down the road of an extension (Friedman reported on 32 Thoughts a five-year deal), but that a new offer from Dubas agent including a new financial package was presented and that ended up being the final straw.
Friedman on his podcast indicated that the corporate entities frown upon last-minute negotiations, but it is hard to believe that a franchise that has been spending boatloads of money on scouting and analytics would chuck it all for a last-second ask of extra money.
What the real issue may have been Dubas having more autonomy. According to James Mirtle in The Athletic on Friday
Multiple sources close to the team said that Shanahan had blocked transactions that Dubas wanted to make at key points in the past several seasons, creating frustration in parts of the management group. Shanahan had also at times dictated certain moves he wanted made that Dubas didn’t agree with.The president, as per his place in the hierarchy, typically won out in those battles. And, in some cases, the moves that weren’t made could have improved the Leafs’ ability to advance further in the playoffs.
If the new parameters of a deal had more to do with Dubas having more power to make decisions, that might have factored into whether head coach Sheldon Keefe stayed next season, or how extensive the roster upheaval involving the “core four… would be.
Needless to say, we will never know what Dubas would have done had he remained in place, and now the Leafs and Shanahan have just five weeks before the NHL Draft and July 1 to get a new GM in place and to take care of a number of important contractual issues. *******