Kyle Dubas Much Better GM than Maple Leafs Fans Think

I’ve covered the Toronto Maple Leafs for nine seasons. And it’s amazing how Kyle Dubas keeps getting treated like a punchline in Toronto, even though he’s long gone and the Maple Leafs have a brand-new mess on their hands. Brad Treliving is the one running the operation now, but somehow Dubas is still the name people spit out when something goes sideways.

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Dubas Made Mistakes in Toronto, As He Has in Pittsburgh

Yes, Dubas made mistakes with the Maple Leafs. Nobody’s arguing that. But it’s getting harder to ignore what he’s doing in Pittsburgh, because this season he’s basically giving a seminar on fixing his own errors faster than anyone expects.

And the Tristan Jarry contract — the one that looked like a boat anchor from the moment he signed it — is the perfect example.

That deal was everything Toronto fans hated about Dubas: a long bet on a player with an uneven track record. With the Penguins, it turned out even worse than expected. Jarry struggled. Got hurt. Put on waivers and cleared. Ended up in the AHL. The contract looked unmovable.

But Dubas Doesn’t Leave Wads of Crumpled Paper on His Floor

But Dubas never sits in the regret pile. He watches for openings. And when Jarry started the year decently, and he saw that the Oilers were fed up with Stuart Skinner, Dubas jumped. He moved a goalie nobody wanted and somehow turned him into Skinner, Brett Kulak, and a second-round pick. Skinner now looks like a long-term starter. Jarry is hurt again.

Now the Oilers are trying to explain it all to their fanbase. Classic Dubas timing. He schooled Stan Bowman big time.

Today, Dubas Doubled Down to Make the Jarry Trade Even Better

And then comes a second part of the trade that few saw coming. He flipped Kulak to Colorado for Sam Girard and another second-rounder. Girard’s a legit top-four puck-mover, under contract only through next season, younger than Jarry, and fits the Penguins perfectly. Meanwhile, Pittsburgh now owns 20 picks in the first three rounds over the next four drafts.

Twenty picks for a team still in a playoff race is a huge number. And, all of this started with a mistake — a bad contract Dubas himself signed. The kind of thing most GMs would bury and hope everyone forgets.

Like Him or Not, Dubas Is Proving to Be an Intelligent GM

Instead of regretting an error, Dubas has pulled value out of every loose thread until the entire thing flipped from a problem to a solution. Skinner. Girard. Two seconds. And possibly more if he moves Skinner again.

In Toronto, people cling to the belief that Dubas was arrogant and ignorant. In Pittsburgh, the corrections are piling up faster than the complaints. It’s interesting to see the different perspectives on the same GM.

Related: Penguins’ Return for Tristan Jarry Continues to Grow After Latest Trade