He painted himself into a tight corner now and a position of damned if he does or damned if he doesn't trade Nylander after publicly stating "as long as I'm GM, he doesn't intend to trade him".
You covered both sides of that dilemma quite well here, other than perhaps acknowledging that once he broke his word and would trade Nylander if the right trade came along as any good GM should, nobody would ever take Dubas at his word again. Not in contract talks with players or agents, not in the media or news conferences etc.
It was a rookie mistake to give Nylander a verbal NTC and then tell everyone that he did so, disclosing private behind close door discussions. The first thing Nylander did after signing his new deal was to tell everyone publicly what Dubas promised him, and locking that in permanently when Dubas was confronted and confirmed it.
