The Pittsburgh Penguins have hired former Toronto Maple Leafs general manager Kyle Dubas as their next president of hockey operations, the team said Thursday morning. The search will continue for a new GM after firing Ron Hextall at the end of the season.
Dubas succeeds the outgoing Brian Burke, the first person Pittsburgh had named to a president of hockey ops position in their front office in franchise history. According to the team, Dubas’ role will be to “oversee all aspects of the Penguins hockey operations department, including establishing the strategic vision and philosophy for the franchise.”
Pittsburgh fired both Hextall and Burke after one of the more dysfunctional seasons in recent memory for Pittsburgh, which ended a league-high 16-season playoff streak.
After nine seasons as GM and assistant GM in Toronto, Dubas will no longer be tasked with making player personnel decisions. He’ll essentially oversee whoever Pittsburgh hires for the GM role, guiding/mentoring them to construct a roster aligning with Dubas’ team vision.
To put it simply: Dubas will decide how to get the Penguins out of their aging, mediocre state. Pittsburgh’s pending GM hire’s performance will determine how effectively it happens.
Speculation continues about who that hire might be. Current reporting indicates a two-person race between Seattle Kraken assistant GM Jason Botterill and Tampa Bay Lightning assistant GM Mathieu Darche.
Pierre LeBrun of TSN and The Athletic also said Thursday morning that Pittsburgh had informed Dallas Stars front office member Stephen Greeley he was out of the running for the still-vacant GM role.
While playoff success didn’t follow Dubas much in Toronto, he did create and fine-tune a roster capable of contending for a championship. He oversaw three of the five best regular seasons in franchise history by points percentage (2019, 2022, 2023) and was at the helm when Toronto won their first playoff series in nearly two decades, defeating the defending Eastern Conference champion Tampa Bay Lightning.
Dubas gave the following statement on joining the Penguins:
On behalf of my family, we are thrilled to join the Pittsburgh Penguins organization and all of the incredible people across Fenway Sports Group. I am deeply appreciative of the opportunity that lies ahead of me. The ownership group, FSG leadership and the Penguins staff on the ground in Pittsburgh have been absolutely outstanding. Everyone has demonstrated a clear commitment to building a best-in-class hockey operation. The rich history of winning and the competitiveness of the coaching staff and players were evident in each conversation I had about this position. The opportunity to work with such passionate and committed people, as well as the established character and leadership of the long-standing core group of talented players, gives me great enthusiasm for the challenge at hand. Our family has been made to feel extremely comfortable throughout this process and we are excited to now call Pittsburgh our home.
The outgoing Toronto GM said last month he would likely stay in Toronto or not work in the league next year, taking time to be with his family. That changed when Toronto president Brendan Shanahan made Dubas’ decision for him, letting him go with his contract with Toronto expiring this offseason.
Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images
Well, for everyone who didn’t want Dubas to be the next GM… this isn’t what you meant, is it?
No brainer from the moment Toronto dropped him
Explain ‘no brainer’?
If you look at the article that detailed Toronto letting Dubas go, I wrote, “Pittsburgh Penguins on line one”
With two openings, it made sense there was a place for him here
That’s all
Nothing more than that
Huh. Who gets final say on personnel moves? Him or the next GM.
Titles don’t matter. Roles do.
If they hire a good GM and form a strong team, all the better.
It’ll depend on how much leniency Dubas will give to the incoming GM hire. Based on the organizational hierarchy, he would have the ability to push for/block signings and trades.
For me they just created the rool of Pres of HO to higher some1 away from a team to he had to get a more senior position. Depending on who’s actually in the chair a pres, which is how I see dubas will be, they have the moves he is the gm and the gm is the AGM. What I mean bu this is dubas what’s the ability to make his own moves whenever he wants to make them and run it his way. And unless it numbers 87, 71, lol or whatever letangs number is, I bet he has the autonomy to do as he sees fit
It better not be Dubas – or Pittsburgh will be a bottom feeder team fir a LONG time.
bottom feeder? the leafs have been near the top of the league standings the last 3 seasons
I can’t think of another GM that was handed the amount talent Dubas got and failed to produce playoff success with said talent.
you should, he use to be the wings GM.
Who’s that?
Finally some good news for Pittsburgh.
good hire by the Pens. Dubas wasn’t the problem in TO as we are now finding out. he was trying to make the moves and had to bow to the “experienced” Shanahan.
But you don’t know what moves Dubas wanted to make that Shanahan rejected.
A little ironic that Dubas will now have the ability to veto trades his GM wants to make.
considering what happened in TO I don’t blame in for wanting to ensure he has final say
Dubas was the TOTAL problem in TO!!!
All the signings and the money and terms was ALL his idea. It left TO with absolutely NO wiggle room to improve their middle and bottom pairings. Yes – that was ALL Dubas!
Dubas gave the core four all of the leverage with NMCs a year before they hit free agency not to mention the salaries he gave them. Dubas was such an inept negotiator that he negotiated himself out of a job.
you’re right. Shanahan and had no say. he suddenly this season had power.
You can knock Dubas but all GMs make a mistake or two. He wasn’t given the ability to fix items he felt were mistakes.
I think the contracts he gave out were too expensive for Tavares, Matthews and Marner but I also think the entire organization expected the salary cap to go up more then it did, so that truly exasperated the problem and made it really hard to fill out the roster so I don’t fully blame Dubas for those mistakes, I blame the organization as a whole for continuing to run the team terribly and potentially ruin one of the best crop of young players this team has had in the 40 year’s I have been a fan.
The whole league likely thought the cap would keep rising more than it did. Unfortunately it didn’t and at the end of the day it’s poor planning.
Totally agree it’s terrible planning. I just don’t feel it’s all on dubas is all
True. Dubas isn’t alone. Usually like 80% of the teams in the league are in cap trouble.
Just because they expected the cap to go up still doesn’t justify the contacts. Dubie caved and gave Snauzer, Willy Nilly, and Creampuff what they wanted for the term they wanted, with NMC’s/MNMC’s at their first eligibility. Traded 1Sts to make up for bad deals, traded 1Sts in bad deals (I.E Foligno), and generally acted like a spoiled little millennial. He was after Shanahans job and when he couldn’t get it used his family as leverage and a bargaining tool through the media. He doomed himself in Toronto. Glad he’s gone and so are many Leaf fans. Hopefully 3 of the “Dior Four” follows him out the door.
Hindsight is always 20/20. I see a guy who when things didn’t work out did his best with what he had. I don’t agree with a lot of moves they made and glad we have someone new and fresh coming in but I don’t agree he used his family as bargaining chips at all, I think he was just honest (I know God forbid these days) I think the contracts were a little expensive and ended up crippling us but if covid didn’t happen amd the cap went up as expected it wouldn’t have effected us as much and we wouldn’t be forced into panic mode just to fill out a 23 man roster. But dubas isn’t fully to blame for those contracts imo
So a team that hasn’t had playoff success for a half dozen or so years hires a guy who had no playoff success in his previous gig. Typical NHL move.
This guy was completely derided for his time with the Leafs and suddenly he’s a “great hire” for Pittsburgh. Leafs haters are something else.
He is NOT a great hire. Pittsburgh has come a long way because of their hires. That is ALL shot to hell now. Good Luck Pittsburgh Fans!
when Detroit makes another playoff then talk.
When the Leafs win 3 playoff rounds in one year for the first time in their history then you can talk.
We’d be happy with two at this point. Lol
Good signing for the pens. Very interested to see how he carrys Pitt into what seems like a upcoming rebuild once Crosby, Malkin and Letang retire. I think he will thrive with Pitt.
He will hopefully have NO hand in drafting, trades or contracts. He doesn’t know what he is doing!
calm down, Brendan
He’ll trade Letang and a 1st for a Sony PlayStation, Crosby for a couple of Auston Matthews posters. Malkin for a bowl of Cheerios.
To be fair they have better flavours of cheerios in the US.
I don’t have any issue with Dubas going to the pens. He has that right. But it’s all a little too much in the context of what he said after the Leafs season ended. Almost like he was using the family card as a negotiating tactic in case he was retained – by playing up his desire to only stay. We now know that’s not true. And while things change, and sometimes quickly, just seems off. Whether that’s with Dubas or the situation in Toronto.
I mean he clearly at least partially used the family card. it was clear to even leafs brass he wanted to have a private jet access to travel at will and wanted more authority.
saying he needed to talk to his family because it was a difficult year would make sense. I too would talk to my wife if I was feeling undercut by my employer
….and so, Toronto gave him a private jet straight out of town. Good Luck, Pitt!
How did Toronto undercut Dubas? Wasn’t he offered like $4 million per? Not too shabby for a GM with one playoff series win in 5 years.
Guess He does not think Ottawa will fire Dorian when new owners takeover. They have Crosby , letang and malkin for few more years,. Then are like Chicago/kngs. major rebuild.. will be interesting to see any of these three move on in their last year .
Petry, Letang, Crosby, Malkin – and not a one under age 35! If you have good leadership in Pitt, they will jettison ever one of these guys at the TDL next year, get drat picks or players in return, and get a great running start at a rebuild. If they do not – your rebuild will be 10-15 years!
No way should Ottawa fire the guy who was able to trade Murray. Especially if it means replacing him with the guy who traded for Murray.
Are you new? Do you know what a “No trade clause” is?
Not only do all four of Crosby, Malkin, Letang, and Petry have NMC’s, but they also all get paid more than 6M per year for at least 2 years. Not many teams can afford to take on those contracts and the teams that can afford to May not want take on those players at those rates for 1 reason or another.
I like the idea of hiring Jason Botterill as the GM. Having two experienced guys leading the front office, one with fresh eyes and fresh ideas and the other having a knowledge base about the organization and two others, seems like an ideal situation.