Will Sheldon Keefe And Kyle Dubas Have Jobs Next Season?
After 19 long years the Toronto Maple Leafs are finally heading to the second round of the Stanley Cup Playoffs.
With everyone's jobs on the line and backs up against the wall in the front office, the Leafs found a way. If Toronto fell short again this season, it would have been a completely different story. Luckily for Head Coach Sheldon Keefe and General Manager Kyle Dubas, it looks like they will be sticking around or so they hope.
It was rumored heavily that Sheldon Keefe and Kyle Dubas would be fired if the Leafs failed to win in the playoffs this year. So now that that task is complete, are they guaranteed to keep their jobs? If you win the first round that's great. But if you get bounced in the second round makes it feel like it wasn't even worth it.
Good playoffs teams can push through the diversity and steal big games in a series. I think if Sheldon Keefe proves that he can coach and make a winning team then he deserves his role for next year, but if the Leafs get knocked around in the second round then he is gone.
The Maple Leafs core found their stride as they put up 42 points in first series win.
Mitch Marner: 2 goals, 9 assists
Auston Matthews: 5 goals, 4 assists
Morgan Rielly: 3 goals, 5 assists
John Tavares: 4 goals, 3 assists
William Nylander: 2 goals, 5 assists
Whether this is credit to Sheldon Keefe and his style of coaching or if the Leafs core just found a groove. It is a huge step for the team and it was do or die in terms of who stays and who goes. If the Leafs went home with nothing to show for it again, some players may have wanted out of Toronto. There would have and still could be many changes to the Leafs in the upcoming off-season, especially in the front office.
As for Kyle Dubas, he is a big question mark. In terms of his true role for the Leafs in recent years. When your team is winning and making the postseason, that usually gives off the idea that you have built a solid team. But what about your farm team in the AHL and the depth throughout the organization? When you make the playoffs it is very rare that you will get a good draft pick, unless you are the New York Rangers in 2020.
So when you don't have good high draft picks it is hard to build depth, of course unless you trade for picks and star players. That is exactly what Dubas does, this season he made the great move of acquiring Ryan O'Reilly from St Louis. The Leafs traded for a 2025 4th-round pick, which is not a big deal as it is a late pick but again you lose out on improving the Marlies.
According to CapFriendly.com, O'Reilly's $7.5-million cap hit for the the season was divided as follows.
St. Louis retains 50% ($3.75M)
Minnesota retains 50% of the $3.75M ($1.875M)
O'Reilly joins Maple Leafs with a cap hit of $1.875M.
So this was an amazing move from Dubas as the Leafs basically got O'Reilly for pennies, but they could possibly lose O'Reilly in the off-season. As he will be an unrestricted free agent this summer. But I also think Dubas knew that but wanted O'Rielly for the Playoffs to help the Leafs get over that hump, that is exactly what he did showing up big in Game three.
There are always different thought processes and agendas in teams plans so it will be interesting to see how the Maple Leafs off-season goes. No matter the outcome of the Playoffs.
| POLL | ||
MAI 1 | 325 ANSWERS Will Sheldon Keefe And Kyle Dubas Have Jobs Next Season? Do the Leafs win Round 2? | ||
| Yes | 137 | 42.2 % |
| No | 188 | 57.8 % |
| List of polls | ||
