[Leafs Report Card](https://i.imgur.com/d6Kh8yR.png)
[Source ($)](https://theathletic.com/4799749/2023/08/30/nhl-front-office-confidence-rankings-2023/)
**27th. Toronto Maple Leafs**
*Last Year: 18th*
*“My confidence in the front office decreased significantly with the way it handled the Dubas situation and its subsequent handling of this summer’s free-agency period. It will need to do a lot to regain the high level of confidence I had in years prior.”*
*“It feels like confidence in the team’s decision-making process is at an all-time low. Going from a front office that had a consistent and understandable process to one that seems more disjointed and unpredictable so far is scary and unfamiliar.”*
This is familiar but forgotten territory for Leafs fans. Things were supposed to be different under the Shanaplan, but one chaotic week in May changed everything.
The Leafs moved on from Kyle Dubas after a very public contract negotiation turned sour and it’s that one move that many Leafs fans surveyed view as the team’s worst. In a summer where the new regime signed Ryan Reaves to a three-year deal at $1.3 million per year, that’s saying something.
Dubas was not without his faults, but it’s safe to say he wouldn’t have done that. There was always a clearcut process that’s already immediately apparent in Pittsburgh and it’s no shock to see the two teams move in opposite directions on this list as a result. He wasn’t perfect in Toronto, but he was able to limit and learn from mistakes better than most with a clear vision of how to build a contending hockey club.
The current vision is not something Leafs fans trust with 77 percent of fans being less confident in the team than they were a year ago. That likely falls more on Brendan Shanahan who made the one change this summer that many considered the least of the team’s worries.
The Leafs will still be a contender next season and there’s time for Brad Treliving to win the fan base over. Getting Auston Matthews extended for another four years should help with that, but his early work has been a bit more erratic than what fans have been used to.
by malliabu
22 Comments
And because I know some people will want to know how their ex is doing.
[Penguins Report Card](https://i.imgur.com/rBXMWta.png)
**10th. Pittsburgh Penguins**
*Last Year: 20th*
*“There hasn’t been a game played under Kyle Dubas yet, but it’s like he parachuted onto a crashing plane, grabbed the yoke and has it climbing to cruising altitude. Now the plane he’s flying is old and falling apart, but he’s given the veterans an injection of optimism and vigor that should give those fatigued legs some hop. And hope.”*
*“Kyle Dubas came in and somehow undid the lasting errors of the Hextall regime, added the Norris winner, and created a roster capable of adding a couple years to the contending window. I don’t know what kind of wizard he is, but Toronto’s loss is Pittsburgh’s substantial gain.”*
Kyle Dubas did not take long to put his stamp on the Penguins, a stamp that has 99 percent of Penguins fans surveyed more confident than they were last season. It’s hard to get 99 percent of anyone to agree on anything so that should tell you a lot about how excited the fan base is about Dubas’ first summer.
Of course part of the reason for more confidence is just how low the bar was for the previous regime — it was difficult to be worse. But Dubas has been so obviously better that it’s ignited a new sense of raw optimism within the fan base that was all but extinguished at the end of last season.
What has always been clear with Dubas, going back to his days with the Leafs, is that he has always had a crystal clear vision of what a contending team looks like for him. In just a few short months he has already implemented a lot of that in Pittsburgh and has completely transformed the team in his image, clearing out a lot of the previous regime’s dead weight, plugging much-needed holes and then trading for a superstar as the cherry on top.
The Erik Karlsson trade was a masterclass — a first-round pick plus a bunch of junk for last year’s Norris Trophy winner — but even before that, he was putting in the work to make the Penguins a better team. He solidified the bottom six with defensively strong players and made a big improvement on Brian Dumoulin by adding Ryan Graves (who fits like a glove next to either Karlsson or Kris Letang).
Some of the prices and term weren’t perfect, but the end result is a much-improved team for the twilight years of Pittsburgh’s Big Three. In Dubas, those three are in good hands.
Shanahan doesn’t get nearly enough credit. People seem to think, that the Leafs, who were one of the worst-run organizations in the NHL, doing a complete 180, and all of a sudden turning into expert scouters, talent developers, etc, after 2014(when Shanahan took over) is a complete coincidence.
Also why is the fanbase’s rating of draft and develop so low? We haven’t had a lot of picks to work with, but with what they’ve had, they’ve generally hit a lot more often than they’ve missed. Was the Cowan pick that unpopular?
This is a pretty dumb article in my opinion from someone that clearly was a massive Dubas fan and can’t see past that. It’s super disingenuous to mention free agency and then mention the Ryan reeves deal being a reason why the free agency was awful (when it’s completely bury-able) and then not mentioning Klingberg, Bertuzzi, or Domi at all.
I can’t see a single bad move that’s been made this offseason, all of the signings are short term or bury-able, the matthews contract is reasonable and for a decently long time. I think people are underestimating what having guys like reeves, Bertuzzi, domi, Klingberg and guys with some edge compared to just bunting will do.
I look forward to hearing a completely different tone from these journalists by mid year
This has pretty much been my sentiment. Obviously Dubas wasn’t perfect. But he was solid, and you could make a pretty rational argument for most of his decisions, even if you didn’t necessarily agree with him or his direction.
Now it feels a little bit like it did *before*, and that’s what is scary. Decisions being made seemingly off the cuff, that make everyone scratch their head and look around for someone who understands what’s happening.
Ridiculous, driven by general leafs hatred and Dubas fanboys
> He wasn’t perfect in Toronto, but he was able to limit and learn from mistakes better than most with a clear vision of how to build a contending hockey club.
Why is the media always so apologetic to Dubas? I just don’t get it… the leafs have failed in the first round so many times it’s a meme, a laughing stock around the league, and yet Dubas is praised. He had a pretty clear vision, but that vision failed over and over again and was never proven to produce “winning” hockey, just “contending” hockey.
His drafting has been mediocre at best outside the first round, and a lot of Dubas’ FA signings have been terrible (particularly goalies and a few depth guys like Thornton and Ritchie, then you have the seemingly never ending Malgin experiment) or just lack imagination outside of the Soo connection. Tavares was a big win but in hindsight was a terrible gamble that never paid off.
They’ve lost some really great players to free agency due to the extremely player friendly contracts Dubas gave out to the top guys (Hyman being the worst to lose). Even when the cap didn’t move, he doubled and tripled down on the top heavy model for the team and didn’t pivot when it was clear the team couldn’t afford the depth particularly on defense, the bottom 6 and in net to actually make noise in the playoffs.
I understand that it was a messy situation when he left, but he wasn’t showing much commitment or excitement to continue on anyway. Contrast his comments after the playoff loss to Holland’s in Edmonton, it’s night and day.
I was very concerned after the Reaves signing but tbh the Bertuzzi and a Domi contracts are probably better than any (?) UFAs Dubas signed after Tavares.
Couldn’t be more wrong. My confidence in management is higher than it ever was under Dubas.
And Klingberg, Domi, and Bertuzzi are FANTASTIC acquisitions. And say what you will about Reeves, but we’ve all been bitching about a culture change for a while now.
Moreover, the Auston contract, while still richer and shorter than you’d like, is miles better than the one Dubas signed him to in context.
Obviously the Dubas fiasco is going to shine a negative light on the franchise, and I think that Dubas is a very good GM, but for a fan-base survey to drop a team 9 spots over the *summer* speaks volumes about us Leafs fans.
The Reaves signing isn’t the sexiest in terms of cap hit and term vs. production, but that’s not why Reaves was signed. It’s apparent that there are toughness and locker room (motivational?) issues, and the Leafs are paying a premium for a player that management thinks can help with these issues.
My biggest surprise is that Keefe is coming back, however he could have been a pawn in the Matthews negotiations and will most certainly be let go after a mid-season slump or early-round playoff exit. Then we have 4 more years of Matthews and one more season before Tavares’ contract is gone.
Bertuzzi was signed and Matthews was extended at a price that will be reasonable in two seasons; If Treliving somehow signs Nylander to a even *slightly* favourable deal, a large portion of the 77% of less confidet fans will shift the other way.
When the leafs out of the playoffs, Front office staff needs to be fired Right from the lowest intern all the way up to the top. Should have happened this year, but it didn’t.
Ill never understand the people who will say Dubas was being controlled by Shanahan out of one side of their mouth but then say they have less confidence in the teams plan now that Dubas is gone out the other side. Those are contradictory statements. If Shanahan is running things, then the plan you loved under Dubas is unchanged other than the face of it. If Shanahan isnt controlling things, then all the years of failure were on Dubas and his plan.
I know Dom only aggregates, but some of these rankings are whack. Arizona at 16 is disgusting. Cap management being listed as a B is basically my thesis for why I can’t stand our current cap system. The Coyotes get like 3 2nd round picks with like a 20% chance to make the NHL in exchange for making a mockery of the cap floor. Good for them, exchanging like 10 wins this year for adding maybe 3 in the future on balance.
IMO we diverged from “The Shanaplan” as soon as Matthews burst onto the scene and we became a playoff team. We inexplicably started selling futures to support playoff runs for our 20-year-old stars. We walked guys like Bozak, JVR, Hyman, Mikheyev etc to free agency rather than re-stocking the cupboard to keep our window open longer.
The complete lack of depth and ELC’s for the past few (and coming) years is a direct result of these decisions, marking a complete 180 from the Shanaplan which was to be slow and methodical.
Treliving came in with little time and imo has executed doing his job better than what Dubas was able to do in the past. This team is even better and after the initial heartbreak of Dubas leaving has allowed me to reflect and determine Dubas was entirely mid
In the last 5-6 years I kept seeing in the media and on this subreddit go on about how much confidence they have in the team and management but they haven’t achieved anything that matters.
The fact that everyone is so negative this time around makes me think that we might be onto something and this might be our year.
Handled the Dubas situation?
The POS went into business for himself and they did the only thing they could.
No one hates the Toronto Maple Leafs, more than the fans of the Toronto Maple Leafs.
” its subsequent handling of this summer’s free-agency period.- Yes let’s trade our star players for futures, draft picks, maybe one day they become as good as the players we trade (unlikely). Let’s make a big trade for the sake of one.
The Reaves contract handwringing is so overblown and hypocritical. It’s essentially the same thing Dubas did with Simmonds and the end result will be the same. End of it all Dubas signed Simmonds for a collective three years, with cap hit percentages of 1.84% the first year and then 1.10% the final two years. Reaves will take up 1.62% the first year, and if the cap jumps by $4 million like many estimate it will be 1.54%. This isn’t even accounting for the fact that Reaves can be buried if and when he really falls off.
There’s a strong Dubas-butt-hurt bias to this year’s ranking.
this fanbase is unhinged. last season under Dubas, this same fan poll had the Leafs like 19th or something. this team could go 82-0-0 and 16-0 in the playoffs and the fanbase would have our team vision ranked below Anaheim’s
That Lusszccszyzsyn guy is a moron. Stop posting his stuff. Treliving has done an admirable job considering the circumstances.