In a span of eight days, Kyle Dubas will have lifted the Calder Cup with the Toronto Marlies, and made his first selection as GM of the Toronto Maple Leafs after being named the 17th GM in team history just five weeks ago.
While most general managers around the league have allocated their time to meeting with their pro and amateur scouting staffs ahead of the NHL Draft, the second youngest GM in the league was busy balancing the Marlies playoff run while trying to make sure he was ready for what’ll surely be a busy off-season in Toronto. The tasks?
Getting restricted free agent William Nylander signed to a new contract, and trying to lock down Auston Matthews and Mitch Marner to long-term contracts will certainly be on top of his list. Adding a scoring winger, a depth centre, and upgrading the backend is high up there, too.
On Monday, Dubas appeared on TSN 1050’s OverDrive and was asked about a number of topics, including the immediacy of getting the three young forwards locked up on long-term extensions, and pointed out that he’s going to be patient in the entire process.
The time is now to show Leafs nation why he was able to graduate from the OHL’s Sault Ste. Marie Greyhounds and land a spot inside an NHL front office at age 28 because of his shrewd thinking. Dubas, now, 32, no longer has Lou Lamoriello or Mark Hunter to lean on for his advice - it's now his team.
How he plans to make his imprint on the Leafs will be one of the more interesting plotlines to follow over the next few years, especially with his analytical background while learning on the job from longtime hockey men Lou Lamoriello, Brendan Shanahan and company.
While Dubas has club control over Nylander, Marner, and Matthews, he’ll have to make tougher decisions on soon-to-be free agents James van Riemsdyk, Tyler Bozak, Leo Komarov and Roman Polak. While he didn’t get into specifics, Dubas mentioned that he hasn’t closed the door on the possibility of anyone of them returning.
So, Leafs fans, which UFA does this Leafs have the best shot at landing? JVR will be commanding a healthy raise on his $4.25M cap hit, and is currently listed at No. 3 on the top TSN Free Agents list. The Leafs have enough cap space to re-sign (CapFriendly has them listed with over $22million to play with), but could get into a bidding war that may become too rich to balance out the rest of the cap in the years to come.
The crop of centres isn’t that strong this season, meaning a team will likely entice Tyler Bozak with a multi-year contract that may be out of the Leafs price range relative to where’d he’d pencil in on their depth chart and what his value is on the open market.
Leo Komarov or Roman Polak could be brought back at the right price as depth pieces, but wouldn’t be moving the needle enough to satisfy the team’s true needs. Will Dubas look to upgrade the Leafs blueline through free agency, or perhaps pull the trigger and made a deal? Or, is he going big game hunting and trying to bring home John Tavares, or add John Carlson to the mix?
Make sure you stay tuned to the TSN Hockey Insiders on Twitter over the next few days, and check TSN.ca as we itch closer to the draft and free agency.
