Should Brendan Shanahan just be the new GM of the Toronto Maple Leafs?

Kyle Dubas now gone, Brendan Shanahan is tasked with finding a new General Manager to lead the Toronto Maple Leafs into perhaps their most important offseason yet. With the draft and free agency just a few weeks away, a decision must quickly be made on who will be chosen to make draft picks, sign free agents, and most importantly of all, negotiate the extensions of Auston Matthews and William Nylander.
Having all that on the table, one has to wonder if the best person for this job is in fact Brendan Shanahan himself.
A single individual taking over the role of President and GM of a team is nothing new, quite a few organizations including Carolina, Nashville, St Louis, and both New York teams already do so. Running a team this way allows the General Manager to instill their vision with little resistance, as no separate President of Hockey Operations will be around to veto their moves. With recent news of Brendan Shanahan stepping in to block a trade that would have seen Matthew Knies traded to Chicago last season, this seems especially relevant.
Part of Kyle Dubas’ demands during contract negotiations before talks broke down was increased pay and a request for full control without any oversight. Since we know MLSE has more money than anyone could possibly spend, it seems safe to assume that it w …

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Author: Filipe Dimas / The Leafs Nation

Kyle Dubas’ 5 worst moves during his time with the Toronto Maple Leafs

Just like my previous article about Kyle Dubas’ five best moves during his time with the Toronto Maple Leafs, it wouldn’t be fair if I didn’t write a follow-up article on his five worst moves during his time with the Toronto Maple Leafs.
As I’ve said plenty of times, Kyle Dubas wasn’t a perfect general manager, nobody is, but he did a lot of good things for this team while he was here, and yes, he even did some questionable things for this team that has hurt them at times.
When I was writing my five best moves from Dubas, I felt like that list could look different for other people, but as I was writing this piece, I thought to myself that my list probably looks similar to a lot of others because of how big these moves were at the time.
Honourable mention: Allowing Frederik Andersen to walk in free agency to sign a two-year, $9M contract ($4.5M AAV) with the Carolina Hurricanes
Although there was an argument about letting Frederik Andersen leave in free agency, it also sucked to see him leave and have a bounce-back season in 2021-22 with the Carolina Hurricanes. And, as we all know now, he has been great for them during the 2023 playoffs.
After being acquired by the Maple Leafs in the summer of 2016 and signing a five-ye …

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Author: Joseph Zita / The Leafs Nation

Leafs Rumours: Goaltenders, a Garland and Schenn “who says no?” and who is in on who

Leafs Rumours: Goaltenders, a Garland and Schenn “who says no?” and who is in on who

We are at the three week to the deadline mark and Kyle Dubas is still doing Kyle Dubas things like making sure that no one knows what he is up to. We’ve recently seen how that can work to a team’s advantage as Lou Lamoriello came out of nowhere to grab Bo Horvat without having to suffer through the media weighing in on what would be a fair package for him to give up for Horvat. Did he overpay on the trade, maybe? Did he overpay on the contract, probably? Still he got his guy and everyone on Long Island seems happier for it. The Canucks probably aren’t upset either if the Islanders land in that sweet spot of narrowly missing the playoffs and getting the best possible version of a first round pick in 2023 for Bo Horvat.
Since Kyle Dubas is silent, we’ve been left with two things we can do with this post and that’s dive into the Leafs/Canucks trade proposal from The Athletic and check in on who is connected to some of the trade targets that Leafs fans like talking about.
First, we’ll start with a small tidbit from Elliotte Friedman’s 32 Thoughts…
10. I don’t think Toronto trades for a goalie unless the Leafs are convinced it’s a better option than what they have in the NHL or even the AHL. The Maple Leafs have limite …

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Author: Jon Steitzer / The Leafs Nation

Jakob Chychrun is being connected to the Leafs again

Jakob Chychrun is being connected to the Leafs again

When rumours repeatedly connect Kyle Dubas to a defenseman for the Leafs it seems like we better prepare ourselves for that rumour becoming a possible reality.
Jake Muzzin was rumoured to Toronto from pretty much the moment that Kyle Dubas took over as GM. TJ Brodie was nearly acquired for Nazem Kadri, and now here we are again with the on again off again speculation about Jakob Chychrun out of Arizona.
Nick Kypreos just did what we’ve done a couple of times on this site, and that was writing a column basically gazing at Chychrun like he’s a pie cooling on a window sill. Like most of us when looking at Chychrun, Kypreos’ argument boiled down to three things: Jakob is only 24, he eats minutes and a $4.6M cap hit looks very doable. Most of his underlying numbers can be forgiven because of his role and his team, and he’s a defenseman who puts up points. People like points.
Also to Kypreos’ credit, while he was talking about Chychrun as a replacement for Muzzin’s injury-laden career, he acknowledged that Chychrun is very much in the same boat injury-wise, just at a different stage in his career: “His body has been through a lot the last few years — surgeries on both knees, his shoulder, and most recently his wrist and ankle.”
I swear, if people ever got past those bad y …

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Author: Jon Steitzer / The Leafs Nation

Leafs add Jordie Benn and Victor Mete as defensive depth

Kyle Dubas stayed true to his word and went out and added some defensive depth today in the form of Benn and Mete. The contracts are expected to be in the one year, $750k range and we’ll update that when confirmed by the Leafs.
These are two buriable contracts, and we can fully expect that the Leafs may do that at least with Mete, but let’s discuss the players a little before we send them down to the Marlies.
Jordie Benn is 6’2 and absolutely the physical presence that Kyle Dubas was talking about acquiring for the blueline. He’s a left shot rather than a righty, but the options seem to be absolutely absent in free agency when it comes to right shot physical presence, outside of possibly PK Subban.
Benn’s numbers:
Season
Team
GP
G
PTS
PIM
ATOI
BLK
HIT
2018-19
MTL
81
5
22
39
18:12
128
124
2019-20
VAN
44
1
7
17
16:17
62
45
2020-21
VAN/WPG
39
1
10
9
14:45
51
19
2021-22
MIN
39
1
8
10
14:59
41
51

So yeah, it’s all about the hitting and the depth aspect when it comes to the Benn acquisition. The Leafs struggled as they looked down their lineup last year and Benn seems like a better option than players like Biega and Dahlstrom were, so there’s that.
As for Victor Mete, he’s got age on his side at being just 24 years of age, and it might not hurt to take a look at him. Like Benn, Mete is a left shoot, and doesn’t really address the right side needs of the Leafs, but fits from a depth perspective. Figuring out where he really fits in from a defensive archetype standpoint is probably part of the reason he’s struggled, but if the Leafs are looking at him not as a day one Leaf, but a project to tackle throughout the year, the move makes sense.
Season
Team
GP
G
PTS
PIM
ATOI
BLK
HIT
2019-20
MTL
51
4
11
20
16:00
60
20
2020-21
MTL/OTT
28
1
5
8
15:48
35
19
2021-22
OTT
37
0
7
4
14:37
38
13

There really isn’t a whole lot pointing to why Mete makes sense, beyond adding to the Marlies. With the Leafs being light on callup options, Mete will still likely get some t …

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Author: Jon Steitzer / The Leafs Nation

Maple Leafs plan in goal becomes a little clearer after shipping Mrazek to Chicago

MONTREAL — It’s easy to criticize Kyle Dubas’ decision to sign Petr Mrazek to a three-year, $11.4 million contract last summer.
With little salary cap space heading into next season and a $3.8 million hit on a tandem goaltender who had an abysmal first year with the club, the Toronto Maple Leafs GM traded the 30-year-old Czech to the Chicago Blackhawks on Day 1 of the 2022 NHL Draft at Bell Centre.
On the surface, it looks like the Leafs traded another first-round pick to dispose of a problem. In reality, all they did was move down in the draft from No. 25 to 38.
It’s not much of a downgrade and they didn’t have to retain any salary in the deal.
Really, Dubas has Blackhawks GM Kyle Davidson to thank for alleviating Toronto’s problem.
Chicago was in a particularly giving mood by making some questionable decisions on Thursday, including trading away 24-year-old forward Alex DeBrincat to the Ottawa Senators for draft picks and 21-year-old centre Kirby Dack to the Montreal Canadiens for an identical haul.
The Blackhawks obvious aim to tank is Toronto’s gain and now they’re left with roughly $10.2 in cap space which will be primarily used to help fill their goaltending needs.
Now it’s just a question of how they go about it.
With incumb …

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Author: David Alter / The Leafs Nation

The case for the Leafs to go the “safe” route with their first-round pick

To say that Kyle Dubas’ reputation preceded him when he was appointed Leafs GM would be an understatement. Climbing the ranks from the Soo Greyhounds to what ultimately equated to an apprenticeship under the highly respected and revered Lou Lamoriello, Dubas made a name for himself as someone who put a greater emphasis on the analytical side of player evaluation, valuing raw skill above all else.
It was a welcomed change for Leafs fans who hungered for a new voice with a fresh perspective – especially at the draft table following three years of mostly fruitless drafts guided by former assistant general manager Mark Hunter, whom Dubas beat out for the GM job after the departure of Lamoriello.
Not only did those drafts produce little in the way of NHL contributors for the Leafs over time, but it was obvious almost immediately that many of the players they selected beyond the first round – where they nabbed stars like Mitch Marner and Auston Matthews with high picks and pounced on a sliding Timothy Liljegren – lacked much in the way of upside or high-end potential. More often than not, they opted for big, physically mature players rather than taking swings on smaller, more skilled players w …

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Author: Nick Richard / The Leafs Nation