Kyle Dubas’ tenure as Toronto Maple Leafs general manager will be remembered for many reasons, but one of the most significant is his handling of the contracts of the team’s key players. Dubas himself has acknowledged that the timing and nature of these deals may have been his biggest regret and the timing of his signing of his stars will go down in history as his biggest mistake as the team’s general manager.
This admission is detailed in a forthcoming book by The Athletic’s Craig Custance titled “The Franchise: The Business Of Building Winning Teams,” where Dubas reflects on his time with the Maple Leafs. Some might argue that it’s ironic that Dubas is mentioned in a book about winning teams, considering his teams haven’t won anything…
Where Dubas went wrong in Toronto
In the book, Dubas was asked what he could have done differently and gave an answer that is not surprising. What he would like to do over again was his handling of contract negotiations with the four key players. He noted:
“I think the biggest mistake I’ve made in my time here has been not taking care of the three contracts that were up. (William) Nylander was up, (Mitch) Marner and (Auston) Matthews could have been done with extensions on July 1.”
Source – ‘LEAFS NOTES: Kyle Dubas delves into his ‘biggest mistake’ in new book and, no, it wasn’t signing Tavares’ – Lance Hornby – Toronto Sun – 11/07/2024
Dubas told Custance that the deals he reached with his star players could have been extended earlier and potentially on more favorable terms.
Dubas believes that failing to get these deals done quickly set the stage for the team’s later salary challenges. Teams are always looking to make smart bets on their top stars and get them signed early. It’s a tactic that the Ottawa Senators and Buffalo Sabres have employed and while those particular bets have yet to pay off, the belief is that they will. Meanwhile, the New Jersey Devils are one club where making an early bet on a top star like Jack Hughes worked. In Edmonton, Leon Draisaitl signed an early extension and became one of the best contracts in the NHL, despite initial criticism that it was an overpay. Had Dubas had the foresight to see that these players would have developed into big stars, he could have signed them early and built a stronger team around them.
The top four began to take the reins in Toronto
Nylander’s 2018 contract saga is a prime example of how things spiraled out of control. The winger signed a six-year, $41.4 million extension at the last minute, just before the deadline to become eligible for the 2018-19 season. The way things were handled hurt Nylander’s season (he scored just seven goals in 54 regular-season games and one in the playoffs), but it also set a precedent for future contract negotiations.
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Once Nylander’s situation was resolved, the other stars followed suit. Marner’s 2019 contract negotiations saw him go on a brief strike before ultimately signing a lucrative deal in September. Matthews, meanwhile, was locked into a team-high $13.25 million AAV through 2027-28. Fears that he might play out his final year led to him becoming the highest-paid player in the league while also giving him the leverage to sign a four-year deal so he could hit another home run before age 31. These contracts, while securing the team’s core players, came at a significant cost that strained the Maple Leafs’ salary-cap flexibility.
Interestingly, Dubas said he didn’t regret his decision to sign John Tavares to a seven-year, $77 million contract in 2018. He acknowledges the deal had significant ramifications, but it was more due to the timing of the deal than the deal itself. “What I learned was once we signed John to the (AAV) that we did, the lid was lifted off the whole roof,” Dubas said. Tavares’ deal set a high benchmark for subsequent contracts, making it more difficult to negotiate team-friendly deals with Nylander, Marner and Matthews.
The moment you do things matters as much as what you do.
If there’s one thing Dubas seems to have learned that other GMs should keep in mind, it’s not always what you do, but when you do it. Some of the NHL’s most inflated contracts came about because of the timing of when those deals were signed. Winning the Tavares sweepstakes felt like a coup for Toronto, but the timing of the signing ultimately worked against the team. The large AAV given to Tavares created a domino effect that the organization is still dealing with today.
These high-value contracts have made it difficult for the Maple Leafs to build a well-balanced roster. Additionally, giving so much leverage to the best players has created a huge problem and the team has struggled to find the right balance between paying their stars and maintaining depth. This has been a point of contention among fans and analysts, with many pointing to the lack of cap space as a major obstacle in the Leafs’ quest for playoff success.
Brad Treliving, Dubas’ successor as general manager, now faces the challenge of navigating these financial constraints and reviews of the job he has been doing to date have been mixed.
(tags to translate)Auston Matthews
