Insider Reveals the real reason why the Toronto Maple Leafs are Reluctant to Re-sign Kyle Dubas

It's been talked about since the beginning of the 2022-23 season. Despite putting together the best Toronto Maple Leafs team in years, General Manager Kyle Dubas will end this season without a new contract and will become a free agent. That's not to say he won't re-sign with the Leafs, but there does seem to be a bit of reluctance on the team's end to get a deal done now. An Insider has revealed why that is.

On his latest 32 Thoughts Podcast, Elliotte Friedman stated some of the worry from Toronto's end goes back to Mike Babcock. The Maple Leafs fired the head coach back in 2019 while he still had $25 million remaining on his contract. Toronto was forced to pay it, and it seems the team doesn't want that to happen again.


While a coach's salary doesn't count towards the cap, $25 million is a lot of money to pay someone to not work for you. It seems Brendan Shanahan, President of Hockey Operations in Toronto, doesn't want to lose out on that much money again.


Both Dubas and Shanahan stated near the beginning of the season that they would not negotiate a new deal at this time, preferring to concentrate on the product on the ice. There are already rumours that Dubas will get hefty offers elsewhere once his contract is up, including from the Pittsburgh Penguins.