Questions swirl as Maple Leafs, Kyle Dubas ‘part ways’ ahead of critical off-season

TORONTO – Kyle Dubas is suddenly one of the most intriguing free agents in hockey.

And now his future and that of the team he used to manage will run neck-and-neck as the most-discussed topics around the sport’s hot stove.

The Toronto Maple Leafs backed their young general manager into a corner this season, then backed away one week after Dubas’s club failed to generate more than five wins in a fifth consecutive postseason under the 37-year-old GM’s helm.

Brendan Shanahan, Toronto’s president and alternate governor, announced Friday that the club has decided to “part ways” with Dubas.

Dubas’s contract is set to expire on June 30. He will not return as Toronto’s GM next season.

“I would like to thank Kyle for his unwavering dedication over these last nine seasons with the organization, including his last five as general manager,” Shanahan, who chose Dubas over Lou Lamoriello back in 2018, said in a statement.

“Kyle fostered a great culture within our dressing room and staff, and consistently pushed to make our team better season over season. We wish Kyle and his family the best moving forward and thank him for his valuable contributions.”

After guiding Toronto’s AHL Marlies to a 2018 Calder Cup, Dubas’s first big swing at the NHL level was outbidding a handful of competitors for the services of that summer’s most coveted free agent, John Tavares.

Adhering to an offence-first and skill-based vision, Dubas promised to keep the Maple Leafs’ best four forwards — Tavares plus Auston Matthews, Mitch Marner and William Nylander — in the fold long-term, believing they would eventually win a Stanley Cup if surrounded by the proper role players.

Dubas oversaw the Leafs’ first playoff series victory in 19 years, when this year’s Maple Leafs ousted the Tampa Bay Lightning in six games. But when they crumbled in five games to the Florida Panthers in Round 2, the futures of the front office, coaching staff and core stars all became in doubt.

“I think the world of Kyle,” Leafs defenceman Morgan Rielly said on Monday. “He’s a world-class GM.

“Everything he did was in the team’s best interest. He put us in a position where we had a chance to play and to win and to succeed. Ultimately, the players were the ones on the ice at the end of the season.”

At Monday’s locker cleanout day, Dubas himself said the high-profile job had taken an emotional toll on his family. He was questioning his own desire to return to an organization that let him linger through 2022-23 without any contract security.

Dubas’s relentless pursuit of seeing his vision through, and the waves of public criticism he faced for it, were a stress inside his home, on wife Shannon and their young children.

“It's been a very taxing year on them. And that's obviously very important to me,” an emotional Dubas revealed Monday.

“My family is a hugely important part of what I do. So, for me to commit to anything without having a fuller understanding of what this year took on them, it’s probably unfair for me to answer where I’m at. I wish I could give you more. But we haven’t been able to have those full discussions yet. But it was a very hard year on them.”

Dubas had established positive relationships with Matthews and Nylander, both of whom are entering the final seasons of their contracts and can be re-signed as early as July 1.

His successor’s top priority will be to understand if a reasonable contract extension can be worked out with Matthews by the end of June.

“He’s a great GM. He’s built a really good culture here,” Matthews said on Monday. “I have a really good relationship with him, and everybody’s same goal in mind is to obviously win, and when those expectations don’t get met, you can point the finger and whatnot.”

Dubas would surely be a person of interest for Pittsburgh, Calgary and Ottawa. Perhaps others.

“I definitely don’t have it in me to go anywhere else. So, it'll either be here, or it'll be taking time to recalibrate, reflect on the seasons here,” Dubas said Monday.

“But you won't see me next week pop up elsewhere. I can’t put them through that after this year.”

The first domino has toppled.

But the questions — about coach Sheldon Keefe, about the Core Four, about the GM hunt — will only grow louder and more complicated now that Dubas is gone.

“I’m responsible. So, the decisions made on trades, on roster, everything, they’re on me. So, I feel like I should sit and take responsibility for them,” Dubas said. “It’s on me.”