Dubas opinion based on his interviews and decisions.

[Duffman955]

A+ for signing Tavares

F- for improving the defense and not signing Nylander yet

Overall comes out to a C

 

[Confucius]

A+ for signing Tavares

F- for improving the defense and not signing Nylander yet

Overall comes out to a C

So with one trade that F- can turn into an A.
Its not over until its over.

 

[Stephen]

I would say some of his interviews can be toned down a little bit. Like maybe talk about what a success it was to keep the big three once all of them are under wraps, so no one feels like they are being taken advantage of by the Boy Genius. he Tavares signing is the Tavares signing. I think he managed the Sparks decision the way I probably would have on paper, though Sparks looks terrible at the moment. The defense needs a lot of work, not like nibbling away with depth acquisitions. So we shall see. Only a few months on the job.

 

[ottomaddox]

I think he’s done a great job on a lot of the “big” decisions. Amazing work signing JT, when he was offered more elsewhere. And also love that he was willing to let all of Bozak, JvR, Komarov, Polak and Moore walk - replacing them with JT, Lindholm and internal promotions. These were great moves that improve the team a lot.

On the flip side, he’s made some overly risky moves, that I think are gonna turn out poorly. Don’t like waiving McBackup to keep Sparks - McBackup is a great backup, Sparks is very unproven/sketchy. I feel he did this because Sparks is younger, didn’t want to lose an asset, but who cares about age with backups? Just stick with McBackup until he starts dropping off, then get someone new through trades/signings/waivers/whatever.

Likewise, I think he got caught up in “what if Ozhiganov works out great! Big 2-way RD!” thoughts, without actually looking at the player. He doesn’t look like an NHLer to me, it sucks that we waived Carrick to keep Oz. We’re now left without an NHL level 3rd pairing RD, and we’re going to have to address that, it’s a significant weakness.

Basically, why risk having major weaknesses at backup G and 3rd pair RD, when we already had good options there? Teams can’t have holes in the roster, the opposition will exploit them, and right now we have 2 big ones for no good reason.

Overall grade on Dubas ... dunno. Need to see more, he’s made some great moves but also some dumb mistakes. Hopefully he learns from his mistakes.

This is fair. I would add a couple things to this:

Toughness: No. I am not talking about bringing Colton Orr out of retirement to win staged fights, I am talking about finishing checks, retreving pucks, board work, blocking shots, etc. I don't see that characteristic in anyone accept for maybe Hyman (and that's not good enough).

A top 4 RHD.

I don't see Ron Hainsey coming back to form, and he's not going to improve this season. I really think they need to start moving draft picks and prospects (FFS).

A Backup goaltender.

Sparks is floppy sloppy. Go into the butterfly at every shot. Terrible.

Role playing bottom 6 forwards:
Our bottom 6 wingers are miscast. Why is Johnsson or Leivo playing so low in the line-up? They are just scorers that are not as good as our best guys. There are no lunchboxes on this entire team. Just wingers with less playing time.

 

[DarkKnight]

A+ for signing Tavares

F- for improving the defense and not signing Nylander yet

Overall comes out to a C

A- holding firm on Nylander.

 

[Not My Tempo]

A+ for signing Tavares

F- for improving the defense and not signing Nylander yet

Overall comes out to a C

You know it takes two people to sign a contract right? Dubas has to offer it and Nylander has to accept. If Nylander does want 8+ mil then holding it against Dubas for not signing him isn’t a negative

 

[ponder]

This is fair. I would add a couple things to this:

Toughness: No. I am not talking about bringing Colton Orr out of retirement to win staged fights, I am talking about finishing checks, retreving pucks, board work, blocking shots, etc. I don't see that characteristic in anyone accept for maybe Hyman (and that's not good enough).

A top 4 RHD.

I don't see Ron Hainsey coming back to form, and he's not going to improve this season. I really think they need to start moving draft picks and prospects (FFS).

A Backup goaltender.

Sparks is floppy sloppy. Go into the butterfly at every shot. Terrible.

Role playing bottom 6 forwards:
Our bottom 6 wingers are miscast. Why is Johnsson or Leivo playing so low in the line-up? They are just scorers that are not as good as our best guys. There are no lunchboxes on this entire team. Just wingers with less playing time.

I agree we need another quality RHD, but am willing to give Dubas time to acquire one for the right price. We don’t want to rush into a Hall for Larsson type deal. We’ve been weak at RHD for many, many years, not really fair to expect Dubas to fix that in months.

As for toughness, similar. If we can bring in guys who are tough AND skilled, I’d love that. But I’ll take skill over Komarov/Martin/Polak types any day. Before, when these guys came on the ice, we’d lose momentum and get hemmed into our own zone very consistently. Now, at least our 4th line controls the play, even if they aren’t big hitters. And unfortunately, guys with toughness AND skill are hard/expensive to acquire.

For me, keeping Sparks over McBackup and Oz over Carrick are likely to be clear mistakes, two moves that I simply don’t like. Not acquiring a quality RHD or skilled toughness, IMO not worth worrying about - there’s only so much he can pull off in a few months. And I’m glad he chose skill with average toughness/physicality over tough plugs.

 

[ottomaddox]

I agree we need another quality RHD, but am willing to give Dubas time to acquire one for the right price. We don’t want to rush into a Hall for Larsson type deal. We’ve been weak at RHD for many, many years, not really fair to expect Dubas to fix that in months.

As for toughness, similar. If we can bring in guys who are tough AND skilled, I’d love that. But I’ll take skill over Komarov/Martin/Polak types any day. Before, when these guys came on the ice, we’d lose momentum and get hemmed into our own zone very consistently. Now, at least our 4th line controls the play, even if they aren’t big hitters. And unfortunately, guys with toughness AND skill are hard/expensive to acquire.

For me, keeping Sparks over McBackup and Oz over Carrick are likely to be clear mistakes, two moves that I simply don’t like. Not acquiring a quality RHD or skilled toughness, IMO not worth worrying about - there’s only so much he can pull off in a few months. And I’m glad he chose skill with average toughness/physicality over tough plugs.

I really feel like we don't have any average toughness either.

 

[bikemike66]

just saw the Kyle Dubas commercial for e-harmony where he says he found "true love" I wonder if this will be a huge distraction from his career?

lol, that's exactly what I thought when I saw it too

 

[LeafsNation75]

A+ for signing Tavares

F- for improving the defense and not signing Nylander yet

Overall comes out to a C

Shouldn't Nylander's agent get some of the blame for not going down from his $8.5 million AAV request to make that amount of money?

 

[ponder]

I really feel like we don't have any average toughness either.

Yeah, we’re definitely on the soft side. I was referring more to having guys like Kapanen/Johnsson/Lindholm on the team vs guys like Komarov/Martin/Polak. I’d LOVE to have guys who are both tough and skilled, along the lines of Winnipeg and Washington, but it’s hard to get players like that. At the end of the day, I prefer the skilled options we had over the tough ones, and hopefully we can acquire the right kind of toughness over time.

 

[Judas Tavares]

F for being a young nerd with glasses.

 

[ACC1224]

Has anyones impression of Dubas changed because of the Nylander debacle?

I was uncertain about him to start but was willing to keep an open mind. The signing of Tavares and letting the UFA's walk made me more hopeful but I now find my faith wavering by this process dragging out.

 

[Nithoniniel]

Has anyones impression of Dubas changed because of the Nylander debacle?

I was uncertain about him to start but was willing to keep an open mind. The signing of Tavares and letting the UFA's walk made me more hopeful but I now find my faith wavering by this process dragging out.

You can't judge on results, you can just judge what he does with what he's given. Willy camp is being unreasonable, and the only way Dubas can force a deal through before that change is by caving. Thankfully, he hasn't caved.

 

[TheTotalPackage]

Has anyones impression of Dubas changed because of the Nylander debacle?

I was uncertain about him to start but was willing to keep an open mind. The signing of Tavares and letting the UFA's walk made me more hopeful but I now find my faith wavering by this process dragging out.

I wouldn't say my opinion has changed because I too was uncertain about him.

I like the fact that he is holding firm and not just giving in to Nylander's desires because he has another two huge negotiations to follow and it'd be unwise to blow the salary structure out of whack with this first one. But that comment of "We can, and we will" when it comes to signing the big three seems completely foolish and hollow at this point.

 

[ACC1224]

You can't judge on results, you can just judge what he does with what he's given. Willy camp is being unreasonable, and the only way Dubas can force a deal through before that change is by caving. Thankfully, he hasn't caved.

I like the fact he hasn't caved but at the end of the day he needs to find a way to resolve this regardless of Nylander being "unreasonable".
At some point you have to get things done.

 

[Nithoniniel]

I like the fact he hasn't caved but at the end of the day he needs to find a way to resolve this regardless of Nylander being "unreasonable".
At some point you have to get things done.

Sometimes there are no ways though. There's a limited amount of things that he can offer, that he can do. I'd expect that all such avenues are exhausted by now.

 

[ACC1224]

Sometimes there are no ways though. There's a limited amount of things that he can offer, that he can do. I'd expect that all such avenues are exhausted by now.

A person in his position has to find a way, I still believe he will.
He needs to get on with it though, put the distraction behind them.

 

[IBeL34f]

A person in his position has to find a way, I still believe he will.
He needs to get on with it though, put the distraction behind them.

What's more detrimental - The current distraction, or the value lost by making a sub-optimal move at a sub-optimal point in time?

It's a fine line, but I'd personally rather Dubas take his time and try to put out the resulting fires while working to get this done properly than get pennies on the dollar in a trade or contract negotiation for a potential superstar player just so that everyone can move on.

 

[Buds17]

Has anyones impression of Dubas changed because of the Nylander debacle?

I was uncertain about him to start but was willing to keep an open mind. The signing of Tavares and letting the UFA's walk made me more hopeful but I now find my faith wavering by this process dragging out.

It's still early in his tenure as GM. Pertaining to Nylander, I'd have to see how that situation plays out (a new contract and its terms, or a trade and how that works out), which, depending, is potentially a long way from its final development. Team still has a 6-3 record. I'd like to think Nylander in the lineup would've led to an improvement on that, but that can only be a guess.

 

[ACC1224]

What's more detrimental - The current distraction, or the value lost by making a sub-optimal move at a sub-optimal point in time?

It's a fine line, but I'd personally rather Dubas take his time and try to put out the resulting fires while working to get this done properly than get pennies on the dollar in a trade or contract negotiation for a potential superstar player just so that everyone can move on.

Why would he make a "sub-optimal move"? Anyone could do that, may as well have promoted Fletcher.

Get it done. Get it done to the Leafs satisfaction.

 

[Gary Nylund]

Why would he make a "sub-optimal move"? Anyone could do that, may as well have promoted Fletcher.

Get it done. Get it done to the Leafs satisfaction.

Easy to say. If Nylander is indeed being unreasonable, what would you do in his place?

 

[Judas Tavares]

For me, it's tough to judge someone based off of "something he didn't do or something he hasn't done." If its been a 5 year tenure and x and y weren't done to improve the team, sure. But 5 months in, really tough. So I only want to judge what he has done.

 

[ACC1224]

Easy to say. If Nylander is indeed being unreasonable, what would you do in his place?

I can't answer that but I'm also not the one who needs to find the way. That's his job and I assume he's being compensated very well to perform it.

 

[Sweet Leaf]

Has anyones impression of Dubas changed because of the Nylander debacle?

I was uncertain about him to start but was willing to keep an open mind. The signing of Tavares and letting the UFA's walk made me more hopeful but I now find my faith wavering by this process dragging out.

I have more faith because of the Nylander situation. Many GM's would have buckled and given him 8M especially an inexperienced one like Dubas.

He's the template for the way a GM has to manage in the cap era. You have a cap structure. You don't overpay now to steal from your future. You don't buckle with players who think you will.