Toronto Maple Leafs GM Kyle Dubas on future: ‘I don’t have it in me to go anywhere else’

Credit: (Photo by Steven Ellis)

The person running the Toronto Maple Leafs was more active than he’d ever been in trying to alter his team’s fate this season. It still wasn’t enough. And, as he revealed Monday, it took quite a toll.

General manager Kyle Dubas turned over one third of his lineup at the 2023 Trade Deadline alone. He added two top-four defensemen. He brought in a Conn Smythe Trophy winner. It helped get his team one series win – its first in 19 years, but just one in seven years of the Auston Matthews/Mitch Marner era. The rollercoaster of the 2022-23 season showcased an animated, publicly emotional version of Dubas, one whose reactions to officiating became a season-long meme and who squabbled with Lightning fans during the playoffs.

Were the emotions just borne of a passionate GM or someone who was feeling the long-term effects of a job dripping with pressure in a hockey-mad market? Dubas asserted Monday that the season did in fact have a personal effect – on him and his family. Dubas doesn’t yet have a contract for 2023-24, but he’s not yet certain if he’s up to staying in the job.

“It requires me to have a full family discussion,” Dubas said when discussing what he plans to do should the Leafs decide they want him back. “My family is a hugely important part of what I do. So for me to commit to anything without having a fuller understanding of what this year took on them, it’s probably unfair for me to answer where I’m at. I wish I could give you more. But we haven’t been able to have those full discussions yet. It was a very hard year on them. And it’s tough. What I would say is that I definitely don’t have it in me to go anywhere else. So it will either be here, or taking time to recalibrate, reflect on the seasons here. But you won’t see me next week pop up elsewhere. I can’t put them through that after this year.”

Dubas reiterated later in the presser that he won’t be interviewing with any other teams should he not be back with the Leafs in 2023-24.

Assuming he decides he still does want the job: did Dubas do enough to keep it?

For so much of Dubas’ regime, the focus was on building the Toronto Maple Leafs with an analytics bent. It yielded consistently dominant regular season teams but not teams capable of fighting through wars of attrition in the postseason. With seemingly every other angle exhausted, Dubas pivoted to an intangibles-focused philosophy this season, bringing in the experienced bruiser Luke Schenn, the clutch performing Ryan O’Reilly, the heavy-hitting Noel Acciari and Jake McCabe, the speedy Sam Lafferty and more. On paper, the moves actually made the Leafs far worse defensively during the stretch run. But the “heart over numbers” shift did help the Leafs achieve their most important result in 19 years. O’Reilly scored the tying goal with a minute left when the Leafs were trailing the Tampa Bay Lightning in Game 2 of the first round. McCabe had a strong first series. Acciari’s game popped all postseason as he blew up one opponent after another on the forecheck. Schenn was not only a stalwart with his physicality and experience but, even analytically, had a superb playoffs as a defender.

But when all the changes only advanced the Leafs a single round, does the blame need to fall at the architect’s feet this time? It was noticeable that team president Brendan Shanahan wasn’t on hand for Monday’s availability, though Dubas insisted the defeat was “my responsibility” and that he didn’t want to be shielded from it with anyone sitting at his side. Shanahan will address media later this week but, for what it’s worth, many of the Leafs players went out of their way to support their GM during Monday’s season-ending media availability sessions.

“I think the world of Kyle,” said defenseman Morgan Rielly. “I thought what he did for our team this year, whether it be his first meeting in training camp, right through to the trade deadline, right through to (when) I just spoke to him three minutes ago…He is a world-class GM. I am not in charge of what happens with his contract, but everything he did was in the team’s best interest, and he put us in a position where we had a chance to play and to win and to succeed, and ultimately, the players were on the ice at the end of the season.”

“I think he’s a tremendous leader,” added right winger William Nylander.

Dubas’ teams have consistently been among the most dominant offensively in the NHL since he took over from Lou Lamoriello as GM starting in 2018. The Leafs had the No. 1 power play in the league last season and No. 2 this season. Dubas repaired the Leafs’ once-sloppy defensive identity and made them an above-average defensive club the past few seasons up until the post-trade deadline swoon this year. One could argue that he has put the right pieces on the chess board in theory. If the Leafs and Shanahan accept that the personnel, not the GM, were ultimately the cause of the team’s downfall in, 2023-24, Dubas likely gets another chance.

If he ends up back, questions will abound about how he can get more out of his personnel, which the Panthers’ Matthew Tkachuk claimed had as much skill as any group in the league but couldn’t match Florida’s ability to play as a team. Is Dubas willing to break up the Core Four forward group of Matthews, Marner, Nylander and John Tavares, which he has been steadfast in not disrupting so far in his tenure? Dubas left the door open much more than a crack this time around when asked about it.

“I would consider anything with our group here that would allow us a better chance to win the Stanley Cup,” he said. “I would take nothing off the table at all. And I think everything would have to be considered.”

If the Leafs don’t break up the core, a coaching change would be the other path to consider.

At .678, Sheldon Keefe has the highest career points percentage of any coach in NHL history with at least 250 games. But his inability to make fog-of-war adjustments during the thick of a playoff series, seemingly recognizing weaknesses too late, brings his worthiness for the job in question. It took him five games to remove the defensive sinkhole that was Justin Holl this spring, and he returned Holl to the lineup after sitting him for just three games. Keefe stuck with Marner and Matthews on the same line in the Florida series even when they weren’t scoring.

Dubas, however, was effusive in discussing Keefe Monday. While he admitted he couldn’t conclusively speak yet on the long term plan for his coach, he said he felt Keefe and the coaching staff made specific adjustments after Game 1 of the Florida series that made them more competitive, from improving their play against the Tkachuk line to generating more odd-an rushes.

Keefe, meanwhile, was cautiously supportive of his GM Monday,.

“Kyle and I have a lot of history. I believe in a lot of things he’s done that have put us in positions to succeed,” Keefe said. “I’m hopeful it gets worked out but it’s out of my hands. Out of respect to him, I’ve left him alone. Obviously I have tremendous respect for Kyle.”

Monday made it clear how much Dubas and the Leafs respect each other. But it’s also clear so much of Toronto’s future remains in flux. For starters, their GM must decide if he still has it in him to helm this team.

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Toronto Maple Leafs GM Kyle Dubas on future: ‘I don’t have it in me to go anywhere else’

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