Toronto Maple Leafs Fans Are Wrong to Blame Kyle Dubas

In the wake of yet another heartbreaking conclusion to a Toronto Maple Leafs season, a rightfully upset fanbase has been lashing out at a variety of people surrounding the organization, and general manager Kyle Dubas is no exception. Let's take a look at why this anger directed at him is completely and utterly misguided.

Dubas' Core Roster Construction

Since becoming general manager of the Leafs in May of 2018, Dubas has made a number of considerable moves and signings. Let's take a quick look at each one.

• In his first offseason at the helm, he brought in one of the league's top centermen, John Tavares, as a free agent on a seven year, $77 million contract. Since being brought in, Tavares has proven himself as a leader and warrior to the team, earning his right to wear the "C" on his sweater. He instantly made the Leafs one of the best, if not the best team in the league at the center ice position with Auston Matthews and John Tavares on the top two lines. In his three seasons as a Maple Leaf, he has scored 92 goals and totaled 198 points in 201 games. He is the anchor of the team and a responsible defensive player who finds his way to the dirty areas of the ice, adding a necessary element of grit to an otherwise flashy top six forward group.

• In the winter of 2018, Dubas ended a long contract dispute and signed William Nylander to a six-year extension that many fans felt was overpaying the young talent.

• In January 2019, as one of his most underrated moves, Dubas traded for Stanley Cup champion defenseman Jake Muzzin from the Los Angeles Kings, who has since become an integral member of the Leafs' top four defensive group. Muzzin brings a large frame and a left-handed shot to the blue line, and had been relied upon heavily ever since arriving to hold down the second slot on the left behind Morgan Rielly.

• In February 2019, Dubas signed star centerman Auston Matthews to a five-year extension that kept the NHL's most prolific goal scorer in town.

• Later in the same Summer, Dubas traded away the ever-controversial Nazem Kadri, who is still up to his usual antics two years later, and brought in Alexander Kerfoot to solidify the bottom six forward group. Kerfoot is neither big nor flashy, but he is brings a necessary grinding element to the already loaded offensive talent.

• In September 2019, Dubas was able to sign Mitch Marner to a six-year deal that would keep the Leafs small scoring winger on board for the foreseeable future.

• In a trade that was centered around now departed enforcer Kyle Clifford in 2020, Dubas also acquired the now starting goaltender for the Maple Leafs in Jack Campbell, who not only had a record-setting regular season, but also performed well enough to win in the Stanley Cup Playoffs.

Adding Veterans

After suffering from a surprising defeat to the Columbus Blue Jackets in last year's play-in round, Dubas was criticized for fielding a team without a veteran cast to support and calm the bench in the trying times of a playoff run. This prompted him to make a number of key depth additions to the Leafs lineup in preparation for this year's playoffs.

• Last offseason following the loss to Columbus, Dubas signed veteran forwards Wayne Simmonds, Joe Thornton, and Zach Bogosian to one-year contracts. He also re-signed Jason Spezza to the same one-year term.

Now, with talent on the front end and the leadership on the back end, the Leafs entered the 2021 season with high expectations to turn things around and finally achieve playoff success. With their eyes on the first seed in the North and their easiest path to the semi-finals in recent memory, Dubas added even more insurance at the trade deadline.

• Dubas added veteran and Blue Jackets captain Nick Foligno and depth centerman Riley Nash. He also acquired a third goaltender, David Rittich, in case the curious Frederik Andersen injury was not healed in time for the postseason.

In short, Dubas checked all the boxes. He and the Leafs entered the playoffs as the number one seed, they had the scorers, the checkers, the veterans, and the goaltending. What more do you need?

Playoff Expectations

Hindsight is 20 / 20 and fans can decide for themselves whether the aforementioned personnel decisions were good ones or bad ones, but one thing that cannot be ignored are the expectations that this team had heading into this postseason. In my mind, that's where Dubas' job ends. He gave them the resources and put his team in a position to succeed. On paper they were the consensus favorite - check this out: all 16 of ESPNs NHL experts picked Toronto to win the series, with ten of them picking the Leafs to win in five games or less. If Dubas put together such a poor team, how would this happen?

After all, Dubas is just an architect. To reiterate, you can dislike some of his moves, but when 100% of the polled NHL experts at ESPN pick you to win the series and you blow a 3-1 lead, that is not on the general manager. Come playoffs, he has nothing to do with the on-ice performance of his players.

Say what you want about this collapse, it's not on Dubas.

Follow Peter on Twitter @MuffinHockey and check out his articles at the Stanford Daily Newspaper and The Hockey Writers.