At 37, Kyle Dubas has already lived a full hockey life.
Since becoming the youngest NHLPA-certified agent, then the second-youngest NHL general manager, he transformed the Toronto Maple Leafs into a perennial Stanley Cup contender after almost two decades of disappointment — if not disillusionment.
Concussion issues halted his playing days at the age of 14, but Dubas was never going to quit the game. His grandfather coached the Sault Ste. Marie Greyhounds through most of the 1960s. His father interned for the franchise.
Though his intellect would’ve allowed him to do a number of different jobs, Dubas stayed in hockey while attending Brock University in Ontario, working as a Greyhounds scout while he pursued a degree in sports management.
He’s Ontario through and through. He’s also under contract with the Maple Leafs. So, why are so many people openly speculating Dubas will leave home for Pittsburgh, where the Penguins appear, at worst, to be a mess and, at best, a work in progress?
One reason: The Penguins are looking for, as the team’s alternate governor, Dave Beeston, said Friday, “new hockey leadership.” Another reason: Dubas’ contract expires at the end of June.
Of course, he doesn’t have a new contract, in part, because the Maple Leafs haven’t won anything of substance during his tenure. In fact, they haven’t made it past the first round of the playoffs in each of his first four seasons as GM. But he’s put strong teams on the ice and largely avoided bad contracts while keeping most of the Leafs’ first-round draft picks and prospect pool intact.
In all, his hiring would be almost too good to be true for wish-upon-a-star Penguins fans, who have endured two seasons of decline under recently dismissed leadership. The NHL’s wunderkind could conceivably come to Pittsburgh and salvage the last years of the Penguins’ Big Three core of stars Sidney Crosby, Evgeni Malkin and Kris Letang.