Ex-Leafs GM Dubas details "biggest mistake" from his Toronto tenure

A little over a year after he was fired from his post as general manager of the Toronto Maple Leafs, Kyle Dubas is looking back on the ups and downs of his decade within the organization.

In his new book The Franchise: The Business Of Building Winning Teams, ESPN reporter Craig Custance, now with The Athletic, compiles interviews with some of the NHL’s biggest names, including Dubas.

While the book is only set to be released in October, one excerpt featuring comments from the 38-year-old is already circulating online.

In it, the current Pittsburgh Penguins GM addresses his “biggest mistake” in his former role with the Leafs.

“The biggest mistake I think I’ve made in my whole time here has been not taking care of the three incumbent contracts,” Dubas told Custance, as per Lance Hornby of the Toronto Sun. “(William) Nylander was up, (Mitch) Marner and (Auston) Matthews could have been done on July 1 extensions.”

Despite wanting to get deals done over the course of the 2018 and 2019 offseasons, Dubas eventually signed big-time contracts with all three players.

He inked Nylander to a six-year deal worth $45 million in December 2018 after the forward missed a third of Toronto’s 2018-19 campaign due to prolonged negotiations.

Dubas handed Mitch Marner a six-year, $65.408-million deal ($10.893 million cap hit through 2024-25) in September 2019.

Finally, he was unable to lock up Matthews for as long of a term as he may have liked, signing him to a five-year, $58.2 million contract in February of 2019.

With Nylander and Matthews both signing new deals over the past year, the Leafs’ “core four,” which includes John Tavares, accounted for 54% of Toronto’s cap space last season.

Now in Pittsburgh, Dubas has the opportunity to redeem some of his past errors as captain and franchise player Sidney Crosby awaits a contract extension of his own.

Featuring conversations with an array of hockey executives, including current Leafs general manager Brad Treliving, The Franchise: The Business Of Building Winning Teams can be pre-ordered on Amazon. It will hit bookshelves on October 15.

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