Babcock actually pushed for Leafs to promote Dubas to GM: report
Though both men are ultimately gone from the Toronto Maple Leafs organization, it’s hard not to still feel the influence of Mike Babcock and Kyle Dubas on the team.
Overlapping during their time with the Leafs from 2015 through Babcock’s eventual firing in 2019, the former coach and general manager seemed to be a classic clashing of styles between an old-school and new-school mentality.
A little over a year after being promoted to Leafs general manager from his assistant general manager role, Dubas cut Babcock loose in favour of current head coach Sheldon Keefe, who he’d previously worked with at both the AHL and OHL level in Toronto and Sault Ste. Marie.
One of the prevailing media narratives at the time was that Dubas, like many new general managers, wanted a chance to put “his guy” in the head coach spot, and Babcock’s job was on the line the second Dubas got promoted.
In the weeks following Babcock’s firing, stories began to percolate of odd behaviour between him and the team’s players, including one where he told a then-rookie Mitch Marner to rank his teammates based on their work ethic, which was later shown to the team.
But according to Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman, it was actually Babcock who pushed for Dubas to get the promotion in the first place.
In 2017, Dubas interviewed with the Colorado Avalanche for their GM position, which the team ultimately left in the hands of Joe Sakic, who was currently occupying the role.
Though Toronto had given Dubas permission to take the interview, they eventually pulled the plug and wanted to keep him for themselves.
According to Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman, that prompted Babcock to have a conversation with the Leafs’ brass about the need to eventually promote Dubas.
From 32 Thoughts podcast:
In 2017, Dubas had a chance to become the #Avalanche GM but the #Leafs ultimately pulled the plug. Babcock reportedly went to upper Leafs management/ownership saying they’d have to eventually make him GM if they wouldn’t let him leave for a promotion: pic.twitter.com/Y1yqvUjaW5
— Adam Laskaris (@adam_la2karis) November 13, 2023
“It looked like he was going to be the GM of the Avalanche. And at the last minute, the Maple Leafs pulled back and said, we’re not going to allow this,” Friedman shared on Monday’s episode of the 32 Thoughts podcast.
“It was actually Mike Babcock who went to the Maple Leafs ownership or the senior management. And he said, ‘Well, we’ve got to make him the GM now, right? If we’re gonna block Kyle Dubas from doing this in Colorado, he’s got to be the [general] manager in Toronto,’ and what happened? He did take over as the [general] manager in Toronto.”
Dubas ultimately earned a five-year deal to become Toronto GM in the spring of 2018, taking over for Lou Lamoriello. He was let go this past spring in a high-profile firing following Toronto’s second-round-playoff exit, before eventually taking over both the president of hockey operations and general manager roles with the Pittsburgh Penguins.
Babcock, meanwhile, had one of the shortest-lived returns to the NHL ever, where he resigned from the Columbus Blue Jackets earlier this year before ever coaching a game, following an investigation into his introductory meetings with his new players after he allegedly asked them to display photos from their personal phones in order to get a character judgement.
While neither Dubas nor Babcock are likely to ever find themselves working for the Leafs again, they’ll still have forever shaped an era of Toronto hockey during their tenure, for better or for worse.