May 25, 2023 – Toronto, thy name is drama. Actually Brendan Shanahan really impressed me. Kyle Dubas frankly seems as manly as Kyle Beach at this point.
There’s certain really bad drama going down in Leaf Nation.
Here’s the bottom line. If you have a number of years to prove yourself as a GM with the support that the Toronto Operation gives you, the blame lies with you. Kyle Dubas had a great core, but frankly, the agent in him allowed him to give some contracts that just were too heavy to fill out a strong team.
How do you GM a team with Brendan Shanahan as your prez without having a Shanahan powerforward type player be part of your core?
Now most of us will never really know what happened in the Leaf organization. Who said what, who made which decisions, but bottom line is being GM of the Leafs is a very special priviledge.
Listening to Kyle Dubas, or frankly anyone, in a plum gig start to talk about their family is frankly, bush.
Mr. Dubas may have blown his gig with that one statement. Being a GM of a iconic gig comes with pressure. After five years you start whinging about your family? Families are important, but they really should never be in the discussion when it comes to issues in key gigs, really. Honestly. It’s so freaking amateur.
If Mr. Dubas really did try to pull a last minute cash grab with an agent from the same firm repping Auston Matthews that also is pretty bush. Frankly if I’m the Leafs I’d dump Dubas too, and Matthews.
I’d take his dosh and give some to Nylander, get myself a power forward, and resign Schenn. And I’d probably have a few shekels left to fill another spot.
Yes, Matthews is great, but the reality is that this team has won jack sqaut with him. Nada. It certainly isn’t his fault, but if he doesn’t want to be a Leaf he’s too big ticket a player to have floating around.
Frankly if his response wasn’t “I want this team to win a cup. It’s my home. I want to finish my career here and I’m giving the the team a discount. ” Well this writer wouldn’t want to tie up that cap space in him considering the haul he could pull in.
And I bet Arizona would put up some major assets to make a deal happen that would soothe the balm of most Leaf fans.
Sometimes you have to bite your lip and just admit that something’s too expensive for your needs. It’s up to Matthews right now, but the team will have to clean up the Dubas cap mess sooner or later.
Why not now?
Jamie@cornwallfreenews.com