Leafs’ nation seems to be evenly divided on their opinions of Toronto Maple Leafs’ General Manager Kyle Dubas. Those opinions seem to go to extremes. Dubas is either a genius and a trailblazer in how he builds a team and treats his players; or, he’s the joke of the league and hated by other teams GMs. There seems to be no middle ground.

Dubas Is a Good General Manager, Who Makes Mistakes

We have our tent set up in that middle ground. We think Dubas is a decent general manager. He has succeeded at the lower levels of the sport of hockey and has brought in some new ideas on how to go about doing the job. The process he uses for decision-making is logical and principled. He seems to respect his players. He keeps his cool in public and represents the organization well.

Without previous NHL experience, he’s also learning on the job. Has he made mistakes? Of course, he has.

There’s not a perfect general manager in the National Hockey League. No general manager has a crystal ball that accurately predicts the future. General managers can’t possibly know if a certain deal or a signing will work out as they hoped. What seemed like a good idea yesterday might not be such a good idea tomorrow. 

We see Dubas as having made some very good decisions as the Maple Leafs’ general manager. In retrospect, we’ve also seen some not-so-good decisions made by him. Sometimes we wonder what he’s thinking and sometimes the logic reveals itself later. Or, sometimes it doesn’t.

The NHL’s Entry-Level Slide Rule

As the Sporting News reports, the NHL has what’s called an “entry-level slide.” It works like this: if a player signs his entry-level contract and is either 18 or 19 years old before September 15 of the signing year and does not play 10 games in the NHL that season, their entry-level contract is extended by one year.

There are some exceptions. If a player is 19 years old on September 15 of their signing year but turns 20 between September 16 and December 31, the contract does not slide. In addition, a player who is 18 on September 15 of their signing year may get to slide the contract for two years, unless they turn 19 between September 16 and December 31. Then it only slides for one year.