Opinion | Kyle Dubas conducted major roster surgery to put Maple Leafs over the top. The strategy has worked before

Sportsnet and TSN might need to rebrand their NHL trade deadline shows next year. Having just one day designated to the trade deadline may not be enough anymore.

Blame Toronto’s Kyle Dubas and a few of his GM cohorts for getting the fun started well before Friday’s 3 p.m. deadline. The Maple Leafs’ unwillingness to wait to start dealing led veteran Toronto Star writer Kevin McGran to tweet this message Tuesday evening: “The fourth best team in the NHL just conducted major surgery on itself.”

It brought back great memories from my New York Rangers run in 1994 with one exception: We weren’t the fourth-best team in the NHL conducting major surgery — we were No. 1.

Our record was 44-22-7 going into that trade deadline, but apparently we weren’t good enough to win the Stanley Cup. We started a five-game road trip in Calgary that day and we should have known something was up when then-associate coach Colin Campbell delayed handing out meal money. We joked all morning about who was staying and who was going.

The jokes stopped when Phil Bourque informed us after our morning skate he was the newest member of the Ottawa Senators. Then it was Tony Amonte’s turn to tell us he was Chicago-bound. Young defencemen Peter Andersson went to Florida, while centre Todd Marchant was sent to Edmonton. Mike Gartner knew well before that day he wasn’t head coach Mike Keenan’s cup of tea and sure enough he was out the door, too, shipped to the Leafs for Glenn Anderson.

In the blink of an eye, our first-place strut turned into self-doubt. Much like the Leafs, we had star players in place but GM Neil Smith and Keenan had just removed our appendix. It was perplexing. Why would management want to mess with a winning lineup?

We got our answer a few hours later when Keenan addressed us in the dressing room. He said the changes were necessary because “it wasn’t a Stanley Cup-winning lineup.” He made it clear he thought we were too soft. And it was hard to argue with that three months later when we hoisted the Cup.

Our management team recognized that and went to work. Out went some high-end skill and in came Iron Mike’s meat and potatoes. A few months later, deadline acquisition Stephane Matteau scored double-overtime winners in Games 3 and 7 against New Jersey to send us to the Stanley Cup final.

So it’s safe to say someone under the MLSE umbrella — perhaps Dubas, president Brendan Shanahan or both — felt the same way Smith and Keenan did.

There was no question when Dubas was promoted to GM by Shanahan in 2018 that it was because the president saw something he couldn’t find in Dubas’s predecessor, Lou Lamoriello. Dubas sold himself on a cutting-edge philosophy that put a premium on puck and skating skill, high hockey IQ and advanced analytics. There was a sense, in Dubas’s first four years as GM, that the way he valued those characteristics in a player far exceeded how he valued traditional size and grit.

Yet here we are in their finding-religion trade moment. The Leafs have come full circle and changed course on what they believe it will take to get them over the top. Every player brought in these last two weeks, with the exception of Erik Gustafsson, was acquired to help stop the Leafs from eating crap sandwiches in the playoffs.

Leafs Nation needed this week in the worst way. And Dubas needed it even more. He has given Leafs fans a real hope this roster is far deeper than the four guys making $40.5 million (U.S.). It’s fair for them to ask what took so long to get a couple of pit bulls like Noel Acciari and Sam Lafferty on their roster. I’ll even lump in Ryan O’Reilly in a more Doug Gilmour-mould of grit and determination. The beauty of O’Reilly is, beside his high IQ for the game and natural ability to lead by example, his tenacious nature will drag John Tavares, Auston Matthews, Mitch Marner and William Nylander into a playoff fight deeper than we’ve seen before.

Imagine what this new-found grit would have done last season versus Tampa Bay in Game 6 or 7. Or against Montreal and Columbus in years before that.

As they say, there are no guarantees in life. In 1994, the front of the sports page of the New York Post had a big roulette wheel with all the pictures of my teammates’ faces going out and the new ones coming in. The headline read “Ranger Roulette.” The insinuation was we just gambled our season away with our trades.

With the Boston Bruins on a historic run, there are skeptics who believe Dubas couldn’t have picked a worse time to go all-in on a trade deadline, but I say that’s not the case. Dubas has gotten the team much closer to playoff-ready and even managed to recoup a first-round pick. And he left himself some cap space to re-sign O’Reilly and Acciari.

And if, by chance, this is all for not and MLSE decides his work doesn’t warrant a contract extension, Dubas should be remembered, at worst, as a guy who gave the team a legitimate chance without selling the farm, in top prospects Matthew Knies and Fraser Minten, just to keep his job.

Kyper’s Korner

Don’t sleep on the Leafs, they may not be done. Word is they are trying to find some goaltending depth behind Ilya Samsonov. Jonathan Quick is out there and seems a likely candidate. Vegas also appears to have interest in Quick … With the Leafs adding Jake McCabe and Edmonton trading for Mattias Ekholm, it’s nice to see Coyotes GM Bill Armstrong finally pull the trigger and move Jakob Chychrun to the Senators. There was a growing level of frustration among other GMs dealing with Armstrong’s indecisiveness … There are two other teams you shouldn’t sleep on before Friday’s trade deadline: the Hurricanes and Penguins. Carolina has a strong contending team but hasn’t done nearly enough. Jesse Puljujärvi isn’t the answer. The owner shopping in bargain bins continues to be coach Rod Brind’Amour’s biggest challenge. As for the Penguins, you can’t re-sign Evgeni Malkin and Kris Letang and not be a player this time of year. Plenty of sniffing on the Canucks’ J.T. Miller going into this week. Sidney Crosby needs help.

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