In a new book by Craig Custance of The Athletic, an interview with the general manager of the Pittsburgh Penguins, Kyle Dubas, was able to reflect on his time at the helm of the Toronto Maple Leafs. Lance Hornby of the Toronto Sun pulled a quote from the interview where Dubas said, “The biggest mistake I think I’ve made in my whole time here has been not taking care of the three incumbent contracts. (William) Nylander was up, (Mitch) Marner and (Auston) Matthews could have been done on July 1 extensions“.
The quote was made in context to the seven-year, $77MM contract given to John Tavares on July 1st, 2018. Dubas exclaims that by giving Tavares an AAV of $11MM without first working on long-term extensions for William Nylander, Mitch Marner, and Auston Matthews, the price on the latter three was raised dramatically and caused both Nylander and Marner to hold out for a short time.
Aside from the externality on those three players from Tavares’ contract, Dubas informed Custance that he had no other regrets from his time in Toronto. Outside of playoff success, the Maple Leafs have achieved multiple 100-point seasons from the team Dubas built and still features some of the biggest stars in the game.
Other East notes:
- In a report from Stefen Rosner of The Hockey News and later confirmed by Emily Kaplan of ESPN, there was a trade in place between the New York Rangers and Detroit Red Wings that would have sent defenseman Jacob Trouba to his hometown team. However, with Trouba’s no-movement clause turning into a modified no-trade clause on July 1st, Trouba added Detroit to his list which entirely ended the deal. Trouba was hesitant to move his wife and family out of New York as his wife is finishing up her residency as a medical doctor as outlined in the report from Kaplan.
- The fourth-overall pick of the 2024 NHL Draft, Cayden Lindstrom, is now the highest-selected player from the recent draft who has not signed his entry-level contract. Aaron Portzline of The Athletic reports there is no cause for concern, as the general manager of the Columbus Blue Jackets, Don Waddell, is entirely focused on hiring a new head coach for the franchise. The Blue Jackets still have plenty of time to sign Lindstrom to an entry-level contract which theoretically doesn’t need to be done this offseason. The young power forward will likely return to the WHL next season to continue his development.
- Matt Wellens of Duluth News Tribune reports that Boston Bruins’ prospect, Cole Spicer, is done playing hockey for the foreseeable future. Spicer was the 117th overall selection of the 2022 NHL Draft and recently wrapped up his sophomore campaign with the University of Minnesota-Duluth where he scored five goals and nine points in 17 games. According to the report from Wellens, Spicer is planning on taking some time to deal with ’personal and mental stuff’ before fully committing himself to a career in hockey.
“Outside of playoff sucess”. Kind of a big part of things, lol.
It’s Trouba’s right to do whatever he wants for his family, but i’ll never understand wanting to play for a team that no longer wants you.
The guy is a pssy. I feel relieved he’s not been tradet to the Wings
What the hell is wrong with you? Not wanting to displace your family — especially a spouse doing something so exacting and relatively unmovable as a MEDICAL RESIDENCY — is a perfectly valid choice.
Want to know another perfectly valid choice? *Not to give people you might want to trade no movement clauses in their contracts.* Play stupid games, win stupid prizes.
I think very few people would still play. As you pointed out however family comes first and having to go live in another city while they stay behind has to be horrible. If it was me I would try to work something out with the team where they agree to not trade me until the residency and I agree to take a few teams off the list.
People who get mad at players for exercising their NMC or NTC rights are insane to me. They didn’t magically get that in their contract it’s something negotiated and mutually agreed upon with the team. Maybe them getting that made the contract cheaper money wise or shorter in length. No one who is mad at Trouba would sacrifice PTO days or give up healthcare benefits or take a little less in their next paycheck simply because their boss asked.
Why would he do that? They can’t trade him most likely. He was probably strategic. It’s not really 15 teams it’s more if you don’t use capped out teams on your list or teams who would never trade for you.
He should retire. His wife is gonna be banking the rest of her life as a doctor.
(Just as an aside, DarkBrandon2024’s sophomoric crack was what I was responding to.)
@MD76MAC: … and not making eight million a year doing it. Now Trouba’s sure not going to get that kind of contract when his current deal expires, but someone will give him $4 MM for three or four years. That’s over ten times what his wife’ll be making.
Well said. I will never understand people who get fired up when a player uses his no trade clause. The team gave it to him with the expectation that he could someday use it. So get mad at the front office, not the player.
It’s like when you give your kid a drum set and then you yell at him when he uses it because it makes too much noise. You gave it to him and you shouldn’t be surprised that he’s going to use it.
@MD76MAC why should he retire? Why not play out the contract both he and the team agreed to? I know there’s a cap and people get mad a guy taking up a bunch of it and underperforming. You never see it the opposite way though. Where are all the fans demanding Bedard get paid a whole bunch more and it’s unfair to get his production at his price?
Yea a 15 is more like a 20-22 no trade list
Blaming a player for exercising a No trade clause that the team GAVE to him is an all time dumb thing I’ve ever heard. Congrats Brandon
@ blackace57: never mind where are all the fans demanding Bedard get paid a whole bunch more and that ticket prices will go up to suit.
U stupid? I dont want him on the wings. I celebrate him using his NTC. U stupid?
???? Whom u referring to? I’m glad and ecstatic about him not moving his stupid family to detroit. Learn to read before you get into it with ppl dude
Signing Tavares was a disaster. Had no ability to fill out the roster once the young guys got paid
I’m a habs fan and I agree totally. Even today or last offseason talks of trading Nylander or Marner so that can make the team better overall is ridiculous to me. I said last year they have to find a way to move JT. He is still a productive player so I’m sure they can find some value and free up cap space. I know AZ is no longer around to take deals of teams hands but I’m sure there are some teams that are on the playoff bubble or good young teams that could use a guy to show them how it’s done. I just looked at his stats he still can score 30g, I don’t know how many face offs he takes but I’d imagine a lot and he is an elite face off man with numbers 56% plus. In free agency what AAV does a 25-30G center that’s good on draws get? They can get something of value for him especially considering that his deal is league minimum salary and the rest paid in signing bonuses, which usually are July 1st. A team like Ottawa, the blue jackets or any team that never spends to the cap this fits right in. Imagine how much could be changed for the good if JT didn’t have a no trade.
Tavares has been fine. We all knew anyone picking him up would have to accept he wouldn’t be worth the money towards the end of the deal, but in the interim, he led Toronto to the best regular seasons in team history and was a PPG player, more or less.
The issue was that they shot their wad on the big FA signing a year too early. They needed to get their core signed first. Dubas dropped the ball on managing three young superstars outperforming their contracts, simple as.
Yea I totally agree dubas made a rookie mistake or started fan boying and put the cart before the horse. My point is more that in a world where a team has Matthews, Nylander, Marner and JT, why would anyone other then JT be the one to move. His signing bonus should be paid out now, he is making under 1M for rest of the year if a team like Columbus wants to compete that’s the move. Even a JT for Liane trade. The leafs save 2.5M or so, Jackets save a ton and both teams can get better
The world was a better place when players got paid less, didn’t have “no movement clauses”, were married to puck bunnies and just generally stuck to playing hockey and kept their mouths shut.
Looking at you, Jacob Trouba.
Make the world a better place. Know your role, and shut your mouth, ya jabroni.
And the world was a better place before trolls discovered they could write to online forums too.
So self-critical. Thats a good trait to have @nhqtrang
Why, look, another dirtbag troll I can mute. Seeya, troll!