Probably. But the fact that Leafs should have beaten Boston if Kadri stays in the lineup, or their PK kills more then 50% of penalties bought Babcock a longer leash.

Also, for all we know Dubas wanted Keefe and Shanny wanted to keep Babs. Leafs certainly made it a priority not to let other teams talk to Keefe last summer.

Except when you need to add to the D, you don’t get Barrie who does nothing to help that

But they couldn't afford that. When you have Matthews and Tavares, you want to play them each 19 minutes a night at least. That leaves 22 minutes for Kadri and a 4th line, and take off some of that for PP/PK situations. It wasn't worth paying 4.5 million for that. And besides if Dubas had played his cards better he could have gotten a top-4 Dman who played with an edge which would have been an upgrade on Kadri for sure. He didn't and that's on him

Leafs fans calling for Dubas’s head... must be a Wednesday

Thx for proving my point

They needed to improve the PK, let Hainsey walk and got Barrie and Ceci. Wow

Barrie's usage was the problem. Trust me, if he had been used properly at the start of the season under Babcock and he had 40-50 points by now no one would be complaining.

All of that is just nonsense. Use Edmonton as an example, they pay 2 players over 20 million dollars, are they the problem their? Crosby and Malkin got a higher percentage of the cap when they signed their last deals than Matthews and JT have, are they the problems there? Kane makes 10.5 and is he the problem in Chicago? The answer to all that is no. Stars getting paid isn't ever a problem. Look at teams in a bad cap situation that aren't good teams and its never their best players that are the problem, its too much money in the hands of secondary players that is the problem. The leafs do not have that problem. People like you said Kapanen was going to get 5+ million when his ELC was over, the Leafs didn't and wouldn't give him that kind of money because he isn't worth it.

The notion the Leafs defence sucks is also not very correct, they had poor goaltending this past year, fired their coach who wanted them to play a system that just didn't work and their new coach had to deal with losing 3 of their top 6 players at the same time. How good do you think Tampa would be if they lost Hedman and McDonaugh for an extended period? Judging from how they performed when Hedman was hurt at the end of last season and wasn't healthy in the first round, not well.

But its always fun to ignore all that, blame a guy who's been on the job for less than 2 seasons and had to clean up the mess Lou left him with, all the while having a very young team deal with a coach that berates more than he teaches. Garbage arguments, all of what you said. None of it is emotions, its logic and facts. Emotion is hating the team and enjoying pissing off their fans.

OK...

Again, he's had half a season with a coach he's on the same page with. It makes much more sense to give their approach a year or 2 before burning it down.

Additionally, the big 4 making big $$ becomes more of an issue when a Global Pandemic cripples the NHL. If the cap jumps as much as was originally projected, not as many people would whining about the big 4.

Dubas acquired TJ Brodie (a better fit for this team) and Kadri vetoed the trade. Tyson Barrie is a very good description, despite your little rant in your description, he just didn't fit in well with Muzzin. No matter what he was likely a one year experiment anyways. Then again without a global pandemic, and the cap rising until at least $84M, he likely grabs another decent RHD this summer.

That's ridiculous. Dubas is the reason they got Muzzin, he's the reason Holl was given an opportunity and has proven himself. He's the reason they have a future top-4 Dman in Sandin (who was drafted in 2018 FWIW) And I can't think of a single way in which adding JT to a team that's made the playoffs in the last 2 seasons somehow hurts the team. 2018 was his 1st offseason and we can't start condemning a guy after he's been on the job 3 months. Maybe the dmen on the FA market didn't make sense for the team. Maybe the trade demands were too high.

Barrie under Keefe has almost the same point pace as Kadri.

Absolutely moronic to move him at that point. He would have been nowhere near his highest value.

Incredibly poor asset mgmt.

I can see why you think Dubas is doing such a bad job. He actually has good ideas, as opposed to what your are proposing in here.

Yeah. But first impressions matter and Babcock set him up in the worst possible way. Now he's much better but lots of fans like this thread starter or baghead (idk if you use twitter) just want to rip into Dubas because they don't like him for some reason.

He was at his highest value then. That is part of why it was a big mistake.

Well Hainsey was on the ice for alot of the PK goals against in that series.

They traded for Brodie, before the Kadri veto.

Ceci >>>> Zaitsev when contract factored in.

Anything else champ?

The Muzzin trade was a really good one. Gotta give Dubas credit for that. And saying JT has hurt the team is ridiculous, I completely agree.

The actual reality is RHD are massively overvalued on this site. What hand a player shoots isn't nearly as important as Babs made it out to be. Having good defenceman is important. Overpaying because a guy shoots right is silly. Manson isn't even that good, he hasn't been for 2 years. Pesce is good but he's not elite, not even close. He's benefitted from playing with a true elite player in Slavin. I agree that Pesce for Kapanen isn't very even but to think Pesce is worth Nylander is hilarious. He's not even close to the same level of Nylander.

He's at his highest value (so far) today. Teams don't like acquiring RFAs that are going to break the bank, btw.

He's first or second in the league in "home plate" goals, he's way more sound in his defensive zone, and he's on a solid long term contract.

His value has never been higher than it is right now, if you can't see that I don't know what to tell you.

Hainsey was very good. But yes, When you take a look at contracts, Ceci is better. However, Brown was in that trade too, So in the end it was fair, not a steal for toronto.

How is that his highest value? He already smashed his career high for goals and was 2 points away from surpassing his career high in points... and compared to what lots of other players (Anders Lee, Kevin Hayes come to mind) got he has a decent contract.

How do you explain the trades for Muzzin and Clifford then?

Well, considering his contract desaster, I wonder if teams are still trying to stay away. So I will say His value then was equal to what it is now. But if he was traded and we avoided his desaster season, we would be better of.

The Leafs have been able to easily replicate Brown's scoring for a cheaper price (Engvall, Mikheyev, Spezza) and Brown has only 40-something points on a top-line role (which is ok but not exactly good). I'd argue that it was a steal.

I love Connor Brown. Leafs didn't win that trade, it was a necessary move to get out from under another awesome Uncle Lou contract.

Also Connor Brown holds more value with the Sens, as he was never going to get 18 min per night in Toronto.

It's not just something Babs made it out to be. A couple years ago, there was an article in the Hockey News that explained that RHD's get paid more since there are less of them. They have more worth than lefties since there are less of them. And in any case, Pesce has insane shot suppression numbers and playing on a pair with Rielly wouldn't be much of a difference from Slavin

Or keep all 3 and have JT like they have done. I suppose it would be much better if they didn't have JT and instead paid the Killorns of the world 5+ million because having 2 of those guys is equal to 1 JT. Spoiler alert not even close. Elite players are so hard to come by and when you have them, you don't let them leave or trade them because you need money to overpay depth guys. Look at the cap situation in Tampa and tell me Dubas didn't do a better job managing his cap then Yzerman, sure he had a couple of years were it'll fit but its not going to last. Next year they are so screwed, either trade all their depth to make space for Cirelli and Sergachev, or lose those guys and just be older and less talented. They can't have it either way due to poor contracts handed to depth guys. Keep in mind, Point is going to need 10+ in 2 years from now as well.