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TSN Toronto Maple Leafs Reporter

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Brendan Shanahan has a plan and he’s sticking to it.

The Toronto Maple Leafs team president introduced Kyle Dubas as the 17th general manager in franchise history Friday, promoting him from assistant GM nearly two weeks after opting not to extend Lou Lamoriello’s contract.

Dubas won the job as Lamoriello’s successor over fellow assistant GM Mark Hunter, who is also the Leafs’ director of player personnel.

The decision is part of a greater strategy Shanahan put together when he joined the Leafs in 2014 with the primary goal of restoring the beleaguered franchise to its former glory. Even though Shanahan didn’t name Dubas as Lamoriello’s replacement outright, there was little doubt he had the inside track on taking over.

“I knew that after working here for four years we had two incredibly qualified people in-house, and I think as I interviewed with Mark and then interviewed with Kyle, it was reaffirmed to me,” Shanahan said.

“I’ve just watched [Dubas] from day one take on a lot of different roles. No job was too big, no job was too small. Kyle was very helpful to other departments but it never took away from whatever task he was given. As you can see from Kyle with his complete knowledge of the entire organization and everyone involved and how it works, I think there’s an advantage to hiring someone in-house as far as being up and running and continuing the progress we’ve had.”

Maintaining the Leafs’ upward trajectory will be Dubas’ most important task, one Shanahan is unequivocally sure he’s ready to handle. After all, it was Shanahan who brought Dubas to the franchise in the first place back in July 2014 ­– he set up a meeting with Dubas, a known analytics guru, to pick his brain for an hour or two. Nine hours later Shanahan was urgently trying to convince him to join the Leafs.

Dubas was 28 and general manager of the Ontario Hockey League’s Sault Ste. Marie Greyhounds at the time, an organization he first joined at the age of 11 as a stick boy. Now Dubas takes over the GM job with the Leafs at just 32, but despite the difference in his age from the 75-year-old Lamoriello, Dubas has earned his stripes since arriving in the pro ranks.

For the past two years he’s had a successful run as GM of Toronto’s American Hockey League affiliate – the Marlies have made the playoffs in consecutive seasons and are preparing to appear in the AHL’s Eastern Conference Final. It was Dubas’ ability to balance developing players for the Leafs with cultivating a winning AHL team that helped convince Shanahan he was ready to make the jump.

“What [being the Marlies’ GM] helped me to do is work very closely with our young players, and really dig in on our player development side and realize how important that is,” said Dubas. “It’s been a great honour for me to be able to work with [the Marlies’ staff] every day and build that system out and see all the work that’s getting done and coming to the surface here and help the Maple Leafs. My involvement and my focus on player development, we’re only going to continue to increase it. It’s been one of the best things I feel I’ve had the opportunity to do in my time [so far].”

To hear Dubas tell it, much of how he plans to run the Leafs will be based on what he’s gleaned from watching Lamoriello work over the last three years.

“I think I’ve certainly learned the most from Lou,” said Dubas. “What I’ve learned most is at this level [it’s] the standard you need to set for your organization and your players, and the consistency with which you need to hold that to each and every day in your treatment of players, your interactions with the coaching staff, and your reporting into the person above you in the organization. It’s been a lot of development on the player development and the R&D side that has been very gratifying work, but I think the keys are in the actual managing, which is what I’ve learned from Lou since he came on.”

As intimately familiar as Dubas is with the Leafs system, the choice to part ways with Lamoriello as general manager was a curious one in the sense that Toronto was, at long last, enjoying some sustained success under his influence.

The Leafs have made the postseason in consecutive years for the first time since 2003, and last season set franchise marks for wins (49), home wins (29) and had a record 13-game home winning streak.

While Shanahan purposefully secured the option of changing general managers after three seasons with how Lamoriello’s contract was structured, the decision didn’t come without rumblings around the league that head coach Mike Babcock wasn’t thrilled about messing with the Leafs’ front office while his team is on the rise.

Shanahan refused to go into detail about his thought process in moving on from Lamoriello as GM two weeks ago, and wasn’t in any more of a mood to reveal the inner workings of his process on Friday. 

“I can only say that everything I’ve tried to do since I’ve been here – some of it has been conventional, some of it has been unconventional – but everything I’ve tried to do is what’s best for the Toronto Maple Leafs,” he said. “Some of those things require patience and some require being proactive. I was under no pressure from anyone to do this. I was under no obligation to do this. I just really felt that, looking at Kyle, he was more than ready and it was the right time.”

Dubas was non-committal on whether he’ll keep Lamoriello’s infamous rules about personal grooming in place, saying that’s a conversation to have with his staff down the road. One would assume those talks will include input from Babcock, who in 2015 referred to Dubas as “a superstar, an absolute superstar” at an SDM coaches symposium in Saskatoon. 

“I’ve always had a good relationship with Mike,” said Dubas. “We talk not only about hockey but all aspects of life – fatherhood, family, and so on. I’m excited to get to work with Mike. The way that he’s perceived if he’s very open to ideas, he’s very open to change, he’s very open to try and make the Maple Leafs better and that’s really his only focus. The style of play on the ice is always a partnership between the GM and the coach and I think they have to be on the same page.”

What still remains to be seen is the type of partnership Hunter maintains with Dubas in his new role ­– and for how long. Shanahan said Hunter, “wanted the job for sure,” but that as soon as the Leafs’ president knew he was “zeroing in” on Dubas he let Hunter know and has been in contact in the days since.

Hunter and Dubas had forged a working relationship over the past four years between their work with the Marlies and the Leafs, and while Dubas can’t make any predictions for the future, he was remaining optimistic Hunter would be a part of the organization going forward. 

“Like with every staff member, now that my role has changed I’ll just go through with each staff member top to bottom and get their impression of where they are, whether they’re excited about moving forward,” said Dubas. “And that’s not exclusive to Mark, but I’m very hopeful that everyone here will want to remain a part of it and move ahead. That would be my only goal.”

Hunter will still be a major part of the Leafs’ preparations for next month’s entry draft.

Regardless of how his staff comes together, this is Dubas’ show now. He’ll face his first major tests in negotiating a new contract for restricted free agent William Nylander and being at the helm of the Leafs’ free agency plans come July 1.