Tavares signing, ceci trade are also up there, he is a bad GM #FIREDUBAS

No, Kessel was signed to that 8m contract in October 2013....Nonis was GM. Having a non effective Kessel would have killed us.

Dubas was with the team and an interim Co-GM along with Mark Hunter at the time of the trade.

And San Jose offered Tavares $104M.

Obviously, he’s made mistakes. But nothing terrible. Tavares is having a rough year so far, and the Kadri trade looks bad because Barrie didn’t work out, but Kerfoot looks good.

He also acquired Muzzin for nothing major, so far. He acquired Campbell, who looks amazing. And the Kapanen trade looks great as well.

He offloaded Marleau and Zaitsev.

He’s not perfect, but he does know what he’s doing.

Players can't put up on a team that won't allow them to put up. The Leafs' will (continue to) do just as bad a job of developing Sandin and Liljegren as they did with Dermott (actually undoubtedly worse). The best thing that could happen for the careers of any of the 3 would be to get to another team while their development can still be salvaged (Stralman was lucky enough to get out at age 22).

The ratio of amount of total comments to amount of stupid comments in this thread is really unfortunate.

Cool, the guy that give Karlsson his deal offered more. If only Tavares would have taken it. He's made good deals and bad deals. Is anyone going to say it took a genius to win the lottery and select Matthews? Spezza willing to come in a league minimum isn't a savvy move to have depth in the lineup. It's a very good player wanting to play for his home team on a low-risk deal.

Dubas isn't as bad as his haters, and not as good as his disciples. I'm neither. He's done an overall good job.

I'm not even getting into that which I disagree with.

I'm saying retaining on a 6 year contract was an AWFUL move.

That's SIX YEARS of dead cap.

The guess the option was having Kessel for 6 more years at 8m. 1.2m or 8m what is the greatest dead cap?

I'll defend Dubas on the Kadri trade cause get Kerfoot at 1m cheaper than Kadri, and supposedly the much needed RHD Barrie for one year. Who knew Barrie would be the Leafs worse Dman last season.

I'd take the guy who was a consistent positive possession player and top 10 offensively by goals and points while he was with us.

But regardless we'd have been better off without the first and not retaining. That retention was awful.

If you want to discuss Kessel the hate he received was hilarious and ridiculous. Instead of being loved for what he was he was hated for what he wasn't.

Kessel was soft. No one is denying it. But he was shockingly actually a decent two way player (probably mostly his speed) and one of the top 10 offensive players of his generation. It wasnt his fault the team was too stupid to recognize that you can't build a team around an offensive winger. You build around centres.

He should have been loved for what he was. He never tried nor showed any interest in being a leader. He never should have had to be a leader. It wasn't in him.

But he was an incredible offensive talent.

While he was inarguably a tier below Kane, the example holds that he is still effectively a Kane without Toews.

So you would protect 4 and 4??

Its a valid question but most likely.

Realistically you obviously protect
The big four up front (Matthews Marner Tavares and Nylander)
Our top 3 d (muzzin, Rielly, and Brodie).

The next three most wanting to be protected are kerfoot, Dermott, Holl.

I think Holl with his contract is the most valuable to the leafs. It seems silly to go 8 FD instead of 7 f and 3 d, but it is the best for the leafs likely.

In the end they're only going to take one player and I have to think it's one of those 3 unless the season goes weird, or the leafs acquire/resign someone to change things or the leafs pay them to take someone specific.

That's fine...I was thinking that TML was doing the 7+3, so that was my original question...why Holl would be over the other 3 Dmen

Makes sense