Maple Leafs GM addresses future after another playoff exit

“What I would say is that I don’t have (inclination) to go anywhere else,” Dubas said. “It will be either here, or taking time to recalibrate and reflect on the seasons here. But you won’t see me next week popping up somewhere else. I won’t put them (family) through that after this year.”

Dubas' contract was set to expire at the end of the season, with speculation running rampant about if ownership (Rogers Communications) will give him another chance to build a contender.

“I’m responsible,” Dubas continued. “The decisions made on trades, on rosters, everything … they’re on me, so I feel I should sit up here and take responsibility for them. I don’t need anyone else to be a shield for me. It’s on me.”

The Leafs' first-round win over the Tampa Bay Lightning was a partial breakthrough as the franchise had not won a playoff series since 2004. However, while no Canadian team has won the Stanley Cup in thirty years, Toronto's streak goes even longer as it hasn't played for or won the Stanley Cup since 1967.

In the nine years since Hall of Fame winger Brendan Shanahan took the reins as team president, the Leafs drafted and built the roster around Auston Matthews, brought in previously successful builders like Lou Lamoriello and head coach Mike Babcock, and pried hometown kid John Tavares from the New York Islanders (naming him captain.) 

Lamoriello and Babcock flamed out, with Dubas and Sheldon Keefe succeeding them to only achieve nearly similar results.

Like many others on the team, Morgan Rielly spoke well of its lead executive, telling the media "I think the world of Kyle. He’s a world-class GM. Everything he did was in the team’s best interest."

Dubas didn't have the name or pedigree of his successor but upon his ascension in 2018, some saw that as a net positive because it was believed he wouldn't have been set in his ways as Lamoriello has been in his multiple stops. 

Yet fans and media members have spent much of the past three seasons questioning if another overhaul of leadership may be what's needed to break the title drought. Observers will be reading the tea leaves of Dubas' comments for the next several weeks to see if their wish may come true.