Former Leafs GM Kyle Dubas shares biggest regret, comments on Mitch Marner and Mike Babcock
Current Pittsburgh Penguins boss spoke during a podcast appearance about infamous incident involving all-star and former coach.
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Kyle Dubas has revealed his biggest regret as general manager of the Maple Leafs.
It involves a player whose initials are M.M., but it has nothing to do with Mitch Marner.
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Former Leafs GM Kyle Dubas shares biggest regret, comments on Mitch Marner and Mike Babcock Back to video
During an appearance this week on the Cam and Strick podcast, hosted by former NHLer Cam Janssen and reporter Andy Strickland, Dubas said he has “lots of regrets” when he looks back on his time as Leafs general manager from 2018-23, but one stands out.
Trading forward Mason Marchment to the Florida Panthers for forward Denis Malgin on Feb. 19, 2020, still bugs Dubas, now two years into his tenure running the Pittsburgh Penguins.
“I know you’re not supposed to look back,” Dubas said. “The biggest (regret) by far is actually Mason Marchment. By far.
“That one eats away and informs a lot of what we’ve tried to do since.”
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Marchment had played in four games with the Leafs in 2019-20, after years of developing in the organization, when Dubas figured the club needed some scoring punch and sought a player with some NHL pedigree.
Despite Malgin never being a offensive threat in Florida, Dubas made the one-for-one deal a few weeks before the NHL was shut down as COVID-19 took hold across the world.
Malgin scored two goals in 31 games for the Leafs in two seasons before being traded to Colorado for Dryden Hunt.
On the other hand, Marchment blossomed with the Panthers, became a 20-goal scorer with the Dallas Stars and will look to continue that in 2025-26 after he was traded to the Seattle Kraken.
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As for Marner and the way his years with the Leafs ended in a sign-and-trade with the Vegas Golden Knights earlier this summer, Dubas’ desire is to see both sides come out of it positively.
“Awesome person, wonderful player,” Dubas said of Marner. “I hope it works out well for everybody. I hope that it can galvanize the team and I hope that Mitch plays well in Vegas.
“I think we will look back on it in a number of years and have a better view of it, but I cheer for him and cheer for the rest of those guys to finally find their way through.”
Other Dubas thoughts from the podcast:
On the pressure to win in Toronto and the failure of the core four of Auston Matthews, Marner, John Tavares and William Nylander to lead the Leafs to a Stanley Cup:
“I don’t think that’s the case, that it’s too difficult of a market to play in. I think it’s a great market, they have deeply passionate fans that are desperate for the team to win. The team has not won in a long time, everybody knows that. I just think the team has to push through those moments.
“I don’t think it’s because of the pressure of the marketplace or the fans. That was my impression. Maybe the players would disagree, but I don’t think it was ever a factor to the group not reaching its potential.”
On the difficulty of building a team when the Matthews, Marner, Tavares and Nylander contracts were a significant portion of the Leafs’ finances:
“I think the thing that handcuffed it was the salary cap was flat. That’s life. No one could have predicted (the COVID impact) and we just had to adapt. After 2021, I thought we started to become much better at identifying what we needed to support the group and give the team a better chance.
“We took a lot of shots in 2020 and 2021 and weren’t as successful. It was on us to make the right decisions around that group of players and I think everyone wishes the team would have performed better as a group and individually and in the playoffs. I don’t point to any one situation or one thing, but we didn’t get it done and that’s as simple as I can put it.”
On the tenure of Mike Babcock, who was hired as coach in 2015 and fired in 2019, 4 1/2 years into his eight-year contract:
“The reason why the team was able to get into the playoffs in 2017 and stay there, and maybe people don’t want to give the credit to (Babcock) in retrospect, but he brought in a tremendous amount of accountability, a tremendous amount of detail, and his work ethic and what he was willing to put in to be prepared, was … I still haven’t seen anything quite like it.
“At the end, it just became clear that the group wasn’t going to take the next steps with him … it was clear we were going to have to try to find another voice to push us ahead both in the regular season and the playoffs.
On the work-ethic list incident involving Babcock and Marner, initially revealed by us in the Toronto Sun:
“Lou (Lamoriello) was the GM. Nobody else with the team really knew that. Lou handled it with Mike. The fact it was never a topic again until I think the few days after Mike was fired, I think speaks to Lou’s ability to handle everything.
“It never came up again in my time there and when I read the story, it was the Toronto Sun, I remember (assistant GM) Brandon Pridham and I saying we didn’t know that it had happened.”
On Matthews’ growth as a player:
“You’ve seen the evolution as a leader and the evolution on the defensive side as well. Everyone knows about the goal scoring. To see him named captain there, captain of Team USA, he puts a lot into his craft. His (biggest) pressure is probably internal in trying to be the absolute best.”
On working with Lamoriello, who departed in 2018, with Dubas taking over as GM:
“We could talk forever about Lou and how great a mentor he was for me and how great our relationship still is and how close he is with my family. He’s the best. That was a great experience. I leaned on him a lot. (In his first meeting with Lamoriello), I was 29 years old. I was scared s***less.”
X: @koshtorontosun
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