Johnston: As Kyle Dubas faces Maple Leafs for first time, much is left unsaid

June 19, 2024

When John Tavares reflects now on what truly compelled him back home to join the Maple Leafs, it was more than the $77-million contract or the opportunity to play closer to friends and family.

It was Kyle Dubas.

“I had a tremendous relationship with him,” Tavares said this week. “Probably the biggest reason why I came to Toronto.”

And yet, with the Maple Leafs set to face the Pittsburgh Penguins for the first time since a whirlwind 10 days last spring in which Dubas was booted out of one front office and wound up taking over the other, that bond has been put on ice.

Tavares has heard from his former general manager about as often as you or any other casual onlooker since his dramatic exit. Dubas was part of the end-of-season meetings in Toronto immediately after a five-game second-round series loss to Florida in May and found himself fired by Brendan Shanahan within days of telling reporters he was unsure he was still up to the demands of the job because of the toll it was taking on his family.

He was officially hired as Penguins president of hockey operations on June 1 while the Leafs were formally unveiling his successor, Brad Treliving, at a Scotiabank Arena news conference. In that instant, the old ties were left behind.

It happened fast.

“Honestly, I know it was a crazy time for him,” Tavares said. “We exchanged a few texts. I tried calling him a couple times and we weren’t able to connect via phone. I think things just kind of progressed and I think, whether it’s myself here or the other guys or him in Pittsburgh, there’s a lot there.

“I think sometimes it’s just good to kind of push forward and as time goes on there’ll be more time to reflect and obviously connect and catch up.”

They may get that chance Saturday when the Leafs and Penguins meet at PPG Paints Arena, although nothing points to a completely settled life-will-go-on reunion from the men who spent the last five or six years together trying to end the Leafs’ Stanley Cup drought.

Some of the wounds from Dubas’s dramatic exit from Toronto are still fresh.

The 37-year-old still hasn’t spoken publicly about how everything went down last spring — he politely declined an interview request this week by noting it could have negative effects on both sides of the equation — and has really only lightly delved into the issue during a convocation address to the graduates of his alma mater at Brock University in June.

“In those 10 days the people that I relied upon most to help make the decision and to help me get back up on my feet — when you get knocked on your butt, when you get fired, it’s not the greatest moment of your life — but the people that helped me and pushed me just so happen to be the same people that were sitting here with me (at my graduation) in 2007,” Dubas said then.

“They were the ones that pushed me to go and take the conversation with the Penguins staff and entertain other people who had come along.”

No one had defended this Leafs core more fervently through repeated playoff disappointments than Dubas. He was hired as an assistant GM in July 2014 and forged close relationships with core players while succeeding Lou Lamoriello in the main role in 2018.

Kyle Dubas was instrumental in bringing John Tavares to Toronto. (Carlos Osorio / Toronto Star via Getty Images)

That includes Tavares, who was quickly snared in a free-agency sweepstakes that saw Tampa, Boston and San Jose also show strong interest. Dubas delivered a compelling enough pitch to the player and his wife, Aryne, during the interview window that Tavares elected to come home.

“I think it was all of it,” Tavares said. “I mean obviously the players that are in this room and the young core that was being developed, and how I fit into that and how he envisioned my game and my impact. The window of opportunity here to win and why winning here was really special and how he laid all of that out was pretty remarkable.

“You can see why he’s been so successful so young and why he moved up the ranks and got the opportunity here as a very young general manager. His influence on me coming here was massive.”

Today, Dubas is working atop a Penguins organization that is trying to squeeze whatever it can out of the remaining Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin duopoly — a team that could conceivably end up jostling the Leafs for a wild-card playoff position by the end of this season.

Dubas signed a seven-year contract in Pittsburgh, so there’s nowhere near the same kind of urgency there was at the job he left behind. And there don’t seem to be any sentimental feelings ahead of the first Leafs-Penguins matchup since everything went down.

“Yeah, I don’t know if there’s anything overly special about it,” said Morgan Rielly, the longest-serving Leaf. “I definitely admire him and I like the way he works. I thought he did a great job when he was in Toronto, I think he’s a great GM and a great guy and I really enjoyed my time working for him.”

The Leafs amassed the fifth-most regular-season wins among any team during the Dubas Era and players generally seemed to appreciate his open communication style.

But time moves on.

Treliving now carries the burden of trying to push the Leafs over the top and Dubas occupies the role of outsider. He sits high above the ice in a private box focused on what’s happening with the Penguins, but doesn’t interact with Rielly or the Core Four like he once did.

“No, you don’t. It’s a business thing,” Rielly said. “You move on, and who knows? Maybe there’ll be a time where you cross paths, but mostly he’s worried about what he’s got going on and our group’s worried about what we’re doing.

“So we try to stay focused on that.”

As for Saturday night?

There’s nothing close to bad feelings, but it still feels like there’s a lot left unsaid from everyone involved.

(Top photo of Kyle Dubas in May at his final Leafs news conference: Steve Russell / Toronto Star via Getty Images)

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