Dubas brings another Leafs staff member to Penguins front office
Kyle Dubas may no longer be in charge of the Toronto Maple Leafs, but it’s safe to say he’s still impacting the team.
Today, the Pittsburgh Penguins announced that they’d hired Wes Clark, who most recently worked with the Leafs last season as the team’s director of player personnel.
Clark is the second high-profile member of the Leafs’ brass to follow Dubas to Pittsburgh, with Jason Spezza being named an assistant general manager with the franchise before the 2023-24 season.
“Starting last fall with the addition of Trent Mann as a player development and scouting advisor and the elevation of Andy Saucier to lead our pro scouting department, we have sought to really bolster our player personnel system. Our personnel decisions in this short term will be critical as we seek to add the draft picks, prospects and young players that will serve to add an infusion of young, hungry players to our core,” said Dubas in a statement.
Clark was previously hired by Dubas and the front office back in 2018 as assistant director of player personnel, while having also worked for Toronto from 2014-16 as a player evaluation consultant. In total, the pair worked seven seasons together in two stints for Clark, before Dubas took the job as president of hockey operations with the Penguins following Toronto’s refusal to renew his contract in the spring of 2023.
“We have tried to put the Penguins in a strong position to go out and execute on our personnel strategy in the short and long run. Having worked with Wes for many years, I have a deep trust in his ability to identify talent, lead staff, advance our scouting process and methods, learn from mistakes to improve processes and to challenge my own thinking and planning on a near-daily basis,” Dubas added.