Are you happy with the job Kyle Dubas has done since taking over as GM?

[ACC1224]

I think those saying they’re happy with the job he’s done probably mean they’re hopeful he can figure it out. I don’t think anyone can honestly say they’re happy.

 

[Superstar]

If we're talking about team results and success, he's done a poor job...he gets one more year to turn it around...if the same result is replicated next season or the Leafs bow out in the 1st round of the playoffs, then I think Dubas is gone...Shanahan might be too.

 

[Tairy Greene]

He's done some good things but also made a few mistakes. We can't keep trading water, and we havent really improved in 2 years. He had to take over some bad contracts like PM, but also some really good ones like Reilly and Freddy, so no excuses there. This is the first year where he has a clean slate so everything will fall on him and we will have a much clearer picture 1 year from now.

 

[DarkKnight]

Love his drafts, hate his negotiating skills, some good, some awful trades. His philosophy still a question mark, but nothing definitive. Overall, meh so far.

 

[kk87]

Completely indifferent. Made some really good moves, some headscrathers, and ones that didn't work out.

Certainly not as bad as some make him out to be, but I sure as heck don't think he has been this great next big thing GM wise who is going to revolutionize the way the game is GM'ed. I find him a little smug with his "I think I'm the smartest person in the room" tone, but whatever. On a personal level, he seems like a top notch guy.

I strongly disagree with this; it seems to me that a lot of the old school hockey minds have pretty massive egos, whereas Dubas actually has a ton of humility. He’s been quick to accept responsibility when he makes a mistake, and seems eager to learn from those around him within the organization. He’s embraced the direction the sport is headed in, whereas a lot of the old boys club still have their heads in the sand and refuse to budge. Personally, I definitely wouldn’t describe Dubas as arrogant.

 

[RomanianLeafs]

Imagine în 3 summers signing the 2 best free agents în the last 10 years! That would be sick, even he's haters would need to agree that

 

[Throw More Waffles]

This will turn out like the "Should Burke be extended" poll from late 2012. 80% of the leaf board voted yes. He was fired a month later. At first, the huge Burke defenders stood their ground. He was "unjustly fired". After a few months, the majority of the board came around to accepting he was a horrible gm, with only his very most loyal supporters still in denial. A year later it was almost nobody defending him. Today his tenure with the leafs is universally considered as horrible. So it went from 80% to 0%. That's how "loyal" leaf fans are in the present, and how unwilling they are to accept reality in the present.

It will be the same with Dubas. Most haven't realized that the overpayments ruined the rebuild top to bottom (although they're starting to realize it). Due to the overpayments, we will never have the depth necessary to be true contenders. Right now the apologists are still using similar excuses to the Burke apologists in 2012. "Unlucky goaltending". "Injuries". "Bad puck luck". The literal exact same thing will happen. Dubas will be fired due to the overpayments, and within a year he will universally be considered a horrible gm for the leafs.

 

[acrobaticgoalie]

i think Dubas is flat out brutal

he took the eastern winners to 7 games in the POs last year and failed to even make the POs to a team that got booted in round 1

his speed skill philosophy will be the death of us ,,he is Anthopolous before the light went on , regarding character and other factors that you don't see on a f***ing spread sheet.

his RFA deals are terrible , his handling of back up tenders atrocious

Dubas has some stains on his NHL record at this point no doubt but saying he has been flat out brutal is a little ridiculous. Nonis and Burke were brutal. Dubas has at least done a lot of good things. His mistakes have been bad but I would say he has had more pros than cons at this point.

I would say several of the options in the poll apply to him. I think he has 1 more year to prove he can correct the make up of this team and get us past the 1st round. He now has no bad contracts on this team to move so going forward we can judge him on his moves alone with no excuses. He can make some good moves but at the end of the day results are what matters.

 

[hotpaws]

Imagine în 3 summers signing the 2 best free agents în the last 10 years! That would be sick, even he's haters would need to agree that

it'll be "sick" if the team becomes a legit contender with the signings , if they continue to tread water because 5 players eat 50m of an 81.5m cap it'll be viewed as a destruction of what should have been a long window to potentially win the cup

 

[hotpaws]

This will turn out like the "Should Burke be extended" poll from late 2012. 80% of the leaf board voted yes. He was fired a month later. At first, the huge Burke defenders stood their ground. He was "unjustly fired". After a few months, the majority of the board came around to accepting he was a horrible gm, with only his very most loyal supporters still in denial. A year later it was almost nobody defending him. Today his tenure with the leafs is universally considered as horrible. So it went from 80% to 0%. That's how "loyal" leaf fans are in the present, and how unwilling they are to accept reality in the present.

It will be the same with Dubas. Most haven't realized that the overpayments ruined the rebuild top to bottom (although they're starting to realize it). Due to the overpayments, we will never have the depth necessary to be true contenders. Right now the apologists are still using similar excuses to the Burke apologists in 2012. "Unlucky goaltending". "Injuries". "Bad puck luck". The literal exact same thing will happen. Dubas will be fired due to the overpayments, and within a year he will universally be considered a horrible gm for the leafs.

lol your right , it always seems like groundhog day on this board

 

[LaPlante94]

To early to say really. Majority of his time as our GM he's been getting rid of bad contracts so we could keep our core together. The main thing I've disliked about him is the Marner contract but it's whatever. Sarting this offseason I believe we have every bad contract off the team and it's really is his team now so I'll start my evaluation of his GM skills from here on out.

 

[hotpaws]

To early to say really. Majority of his time as our GM he's been getting rid of bad contracts so we could keep our core together. The main thing I've disliked about him is the Marner contract but it's whatever. Sarting this offseason I believe we have every bad contract off the team and it's really is his team now so I'll start my evaluation of his GM skills from here on out.

The Dube's inherited bad contracts consisted of 1 yr too many for PM and .500k to 1m too much for Z . He also was gifted Rielly/Andersen and Kadri on very team friendly deals which more than made up for the former . Also there's much worse contracts that new GM's walked into than Dubas did like Lucic/Ladd/Erickson among others .

There's an endless list of excuses to defend Dubas and i have no idea why people are so obsessed with defending who the current Leaf GM is .

and Dubas has easily overpaid JT/AM/MM 5m combined at there term so if he fails this year it'll be the next GM stuck with having to deal with this gross misuse of cap space

 

[Faltorvo]

I strongly disagree with this; it seems to me that a lot of the old school hockey minds have pretty massive egos, whereas Dubas actually has a ton of humility. He’s been quick to accept responsibility when he makes a mistake, and seems eager to learn from those around him within the organization. He’s embraced the direction the sport is headed in, whereas a lot of the old boys club still have their heads in the sand and refuse to budge. Personally, I definitely wouldn’t describe Dubas as arrogant.

the bolded is beyond utter bull shit

Dubass "new age" hockey ain't here,, the final 4 was a hard fought brutal series,,,his RFAs get paid UFA money got completely dismissed by the rest of the league and how they handled their top end RFAs

his speed/skill vs size/grit/ heart could not even make it into the POs

none of his 2 core beliefs are even close to the reality in the real NHL

 

[Faltorvo]

Dubas has some stains on his NHL record at this point no doubt but saying he has been flat out brutal is a little ridiculous. Nonis and Burke were brutal. Dubas has at least done a lot of good things. His mistakes have been bad but I would say he has had more pros than cons at this point.

I would say several of the options in the poll apply to him. I think he has 1 more year to prove he can correct the make up of this team and get us past the 1st round. He now has no bad contracts on this team to move so going forward we can judge him on his moves alone with no excuses. He can make some good moves but at the end of the day results are what matters.

please,,,you list the good and then i will list the bad

 

[saffronleaf]

I was having some difficulty between yes, good & indifferent, ok. I went with yes, good.

On the one hand, I think he's done the right things for the most part, despite a few mistakes. On the other hand, the results show some regression.

 

[WestCoastLeafs]

The distribution says a lot. Despite the majority of reviews being positive, there's *way more* "terrible" than "great".

Suggests that those supporting him are giving an honest assessment, whule his detractors are hyperbolizing. This 100% matches the "eye test" of reading comments.

 

[ULF_55]

I certainly hope he isn't satisfied with the results.

I believe he is learning as he moves along.

I never expected him to have as much experience as lamriello but from comments some posters have made I suspect there are some who did. that is stupefying.

 

[Wafflewhipper]

Dubas has put himself in position that this is make or break season for him, and needs positive playoff results which speaks to his job performance to date in a results oriented business where individual transactions are measured by team success or failure overall.

Hey you wanted Tavares all the way before we signed him. You wanted him to put himself in that position.

 

[ACC1224]

To early to say really. Majority of his time as our GM he's been getting rid of bad contracts so we could keep our core together. The main thing I've disliked about him is the Marner contract but it's whatever. Sarting this offseason I believe we have every bad contract off the team and it's really is his team now so I'll start my evaluation of his GM skills from here on out.

If two contracts took up the majority of his time he may want to learn how to manage his time better.

 

[acrobaticgoalie]

please,,,you list the good and then i will list the bad

1. Signed the best UFA in a long time.
2. Muzzin Trade
3. Kapanen Trade
4. Drafting
5. Signed Mikheyev (one of the top Euro FA)
6. Signed Lehtonen (top KHL Dman)
7. Signed Barabanov (one of the top Euro FA)
8. Campbell/Clifford trade
9. Unloaded 2 horrible contracts
10. Hyman trade
11. Spezza signing (league minimum)
12. Keefe hiring (calder cup championship and good record with leafs despite injuries and poor goaltending)
13. Kessel trade
14. Getting a free 5th round pick just for eating a few months salary with dead cap space for Lehner.
15. Trading down at the draft and getting extra picks

 

[LaPlante94]

If two contracts took up the majority of his time he may want to learn how to manage his time better.

Yeah you might be right. Trading a 40 year old with a 6.5 mil cap hit is pretty easy and is done quite a bit. Trading a 3rd pairing defenceman on a 7 year deal with a 4.5 mil cap hit is also pretty easy and done everyday too.

 

[ACC1224]

Yeah you might be right. Trading a 40 year old with a 6.5 mil cap hit is pretty easy and is done quite a bit. Trading a 3rd pairing defenceman on a 7 year deal with a 4.5 mil cap hit is also pretty easy and done everyday too.

It certainly isn’t all consuming and there wasn’t any urgency.

 

[ViewsFromThe6ix]

People tend to evaluate GM’s too much on a black and white scale.

I would say I’m happy with a lot of the moves that have been made. However, the results haven’t been there, but that’s part of the process. You don’t win the cup until you well, win the cup.

Dubas has seemingly excelled in recruitment. Mikheyev is a big get. Barabanov and Lehtonen both seem like additions that could be very beneficial in the current cap world at under 1M.

Jack Campbell was probably the best type of goalie we could have asked for, and it’s an acquisition that now has a lot of fans wondering if we can move Freddy and go with a cheaper 1A/1B system.

Jake Muzzin is terrific. I think that’s all that needs to be said. John Tavares is great. Still surreal he’s in a Leaf jersey. Jason Spezza came home.

The decision to waive McBackup for Sparks still bugs me. The Nazem Kadri for Barrie/Kerfoot trade didn’t work out, but I do wonder how the perception of that trade is, if Keefe was our coach since the start, as Barrie was more effective under him (though, invisible in the play in). I still think you can understand the mentality that went behind the trade though. Sometimes trades don’t work. Every GM has them.


While the Mitch Marner deal is uh.... not good, I think the William Nylander has turned out terrific for us. We’ve seen the returns of that Kapanen deal already. Johnsson and Kerfoot’s deals make them easily trade able.



Overall? There’s some really good, some good, some not so good. Kinda like every GM in the league lol.


This summer appears to be a key one in Dubas’ tenure.

This is all fair, and at the end of the day is there one GM you'd be 100% confident in trading Dubas for? For me, there's nobody that I can say with absolute certainty is better than Dubas.

 

[ViewsFromThe6ix]

My rough evaluation of the most important aspects of his job:

Drafting: A. Dubas has proven at every opportunity, no matter the pick, he will look to optimize value by capitalizing on market inefficiencies wherever he can. I didn't love the Durzi pick in 2018, but besides that, his record is really solid. Robertson and Sandin both look like home runs - finding borderline blue chip talent in the late first and second round is pretty impeccable. He's done as well as you could hope with late picks as well.

UFA Signings: A. This is another area where Dubas has undoubtedly excelled. From winning the Tavares sweepstakes, to recruiting guys like Ennis and Spezza, he's had a lot of success in the North American market; overseas, he's been equally impressive, recruiting guys like Mikheyev, Borgman, Rosen, and now Barabanov and Lehtonen. Even though these guys won't all work out, the more bullets we have in the chamber the more likely we are to find some legitimate talent to bolster our lineup.

Trades: B. The Kadri trade looks bad in retrospect, but I still maintain it was the right move to make at the time. Kadri had already punched his ticket out, and Barrie was a better player in Colorado than he showed himself to be here. I still hate the Marleau trade, but that's a far greater indictment on Lou than Dubas. Besides that, he's made some pretty shrewd moves; the Muzzin trade and the Kapanen trade are good examples.

RFA Negotiations: C-. The Nylander contract looks very good now, despite the two month holdout; the Matthews contract was about a million above market value for that term, but at least he was locked up early; and the Marner contract is still the biggest stain on his record, about $2 million above market value, but Marner can still absolutely grow into that contract. The cruel reality here is that these negotiations occurred at the worst possible time, as there was no way of knowing a global pandemic would lead to a flat cap for years to come

All in all, it's hard to see too many negatives here. People faulting Dubas for our mediocre defence are pretty misguided in my view; from drafting Sandin, to trading for Muzzin and Barrie, to signing Lehtonen now, he's clearly taking strides to address it. It's not an overnight fix.

Ceci/Zaitsev trade should bump Dubas from a B to an A-. getting out of that zaitsev deal was a miracle.

 

[hotpaws]

This is all fair, and at the end of the day is there one GM you'd be 100% confident in trading Dubas for? For me, there's nobody that I can say with absolute certainty is better than Dubas.

you actually believe Dubas is the best GM in the league ? lol , ok then