Kyle Dubas: Keep or Move?

[bustaheims]

Just to expand on what Carlton just said while I was typing all this: General Manager really needs to be a generalist, specializing in managing rather than any one departmental facet. You can see it in businesses that fall apart after they anoint a engineer or top sales associate, or in the case of hockey the top scout or analytics guy, to run the business as a whole. If they don't know how to schmooze and empower their collaborators, then the organization really just embodies the weaknesses of that one person.

Now this is not to say Tulsky would not be good: he has clearly developed a good relationship with the hockey guys and the owner and expanded his team effectively. And I don't know anything of Pridham other than he helped write the CBA, knows his cap mechanics, and got hit by a car. Some people are more effective staying in the AGM lane.

Through that lens, you can see how lucky the Leafs have been with Dubas. He's good at a lot of things, but his key power is finding experts, empowering them as they prove themselves, crediting them by name as often as possible, and blocking or straight up eating whatever feces the media throws back. He is honest, logical, emotionally available, and treats people as actual people.

Pridham has been involved in contract negotiations recently, and, I suspect handled a lot of the pre-trade negotiations, as AGMs often do. He seems to have gained a lot of the experience that is required to be a GM - which is why at least one other team that we know of is eyeing him for the role.

[herman]

Pridham has been involved in contract negotiations recently, and, I suspect handled a lot of the pre-trade negotiations, as AGMs often do. He seems to have gained a lot of the experience that is required to be a GM - which is why at least one other team that we know of is eyeing him for the role.

Yes, this too. I think he started pre-negotiations (trade and contract signings) since Dubas took over.

[Arn]

Spezza for GM if Dubas goes.

[cw]

I mean, I've also read most of this thread and who would be the obvious replacement? I don't even know.

Eric Tulsky, the brains behind the Hurricanes for the last few years, reportedly interviewed for the Penguins GM job. I imagine he'd be a strong candidate for the Leafs if it came to that.

Or a promotion for Pridham. GM options are usually harder to identify than head coach options, because AGMs and other highly qualified guys aren't in the spotlight in the same way. A lot of the top candidates fly under the radar until they start getting interviews.

Just to expand on what Carlton just said while I was typing all this: General Manager really needs to be a generalist, specializing in managing rather than any one departmental facet. You can see it in businesses that fall apart after they anoint a engineer or top sales associate, or in the case of hockey the top scout or analytics guy, to run the business as a whole. If they don't know how to schmooze and empower their collaborators, then the organization really just embodies the weaknesses of that one person.

Now this is not to say Tulsky would not be good: he has clearly developed a good relationship with the hockey guys and the owner and expanded his team effectively. And I don't know anything of Pridham other than he helped write the CBA, knows his cap mechanics, and got hit by a car. Some people are more effective staying in the AGM lane.

Through that lens, you can see how lucky the Leafs have been with Dubas. He's good at a lot of things, but his key power is finding experts, empowering them as they prove themselves, crediting them by name as often as possible, and blocking or straight up eating whatever feces the media throws back. He is honest, logical, emotionally available, and treats people as actual people.

Good comments. I agree.

He's good at a lot of things and can juggle a lot of balls in the air.
He does 'little things' like respectfully responding to the media including the name of the reporter who asked the question - which helps him in media relations in a media market that has them under a giant microscope.

Listening to him, he has a lot of knowledge about the players and people who work for this team. A new GM coming in has no chance of gathering that much information that quickly. They'll bring in some of their own people but they won't have the knowledge of the existing talent and staff Dubas has. It is a bigger job to get your head around in Toronto because it is a much bigger organization under much larger media scrutiny.

His desire to win seems genuine and deep. I think they will do what they've done previously and analyze what went wrong and implement changes in talent and approaches to address it.

As a top four NHL team, they had about a 10% chance to win a Cup this year. With a shallow prospect pool and upcoming UFA contracts, they're going to be challenged to remain as a top 4 team for very long. They have a short window for sure. It is questionable how long that window is going to be.

I think their best chance in the short term to maximize their potential is with Dubas remaining as GM.