Roughly two weeks after announcing that Lou Lamoriello wouldn’t return as general manager, the Toronto Maple Leafs have found his replacement—Kyle Dubas.
Friday morning, the Toronto Maple Leafs named Kyle Dubas the 17th General Manager in team history. The 32-year-old was originally hired by the Maple Leafs as Assistant GM ahead of the 2014-15 season.
.@MapleLeafs name @kyledubas as 17th General Manager in the Club’s history.
?: https://t.co/gZ3A2xyIDs#TMLtalk pic.twitter.com/ftNYPJMuhf
— Toronto Maple Leafs (@MapleLeafs) May 11, 2018
Dubas will take over for Lou Lamoriello who served as GM for the last three seasons in Toronto. Lamoriello has the option to stick around the organization as an advisor, but there have been reports that he’s looking to join the New York Islanders.
According to the official press release, Dubas had several responsibilities as the Leafs’ Assistant GM, including serving as GM of the Leafs’ AHL affiliate, the Toronto Marlies, managing the Maple Leafs’ Research and Development department, player personnel, and more.
Under Dubas’ watch, the Marlies won the Macgregor Kilpatrick Trophy (awarded to the AHL’s best team during the regular-season) in two of the last three seasons. In addition, eight Marlies’ players that developed while Dubas was the GM were on the Leafs’ final roster before a Game 7 loss to the Boston Bruins in round one ended their season: William Nylander, Josh Leivo, Kasperi Kapanen, Connor Carrick, Connor Brown, Zach Hyman, Travis Dermott, and Andreas Johnsson.
Dubas is now the second youngest GM in Maple Leafs’ history, two years older than Gord Stellick, who was 30 when given the position in 1988.
In a press conference earlier today, team president Brendan Shanahan said the decision came down to Dubas and Mark Hunter, the other assistant GM.
“It was a difficult decision in that we had two such qualified people,” Shanahan said during the press conference. “Mark likes Kyle, he respects (Friday’s) decision, he’s got a lot of respect for Kyle. And now it’s really up to (Kyle) and his staff to get together in the coming weeks and see how it all plays out.”
You can watch the entire press conference here:
