Report: Kyle Dubas made a push to get Brendan Shanahan out of hockey operations

“In 15-plus years of covering the NHL on a daily full-time basis, I have never seen a press conference like that where someone gets slapped on their way out. To me, it speaks to how it all went down. The tone of what was relayed to the public gives some sort of insight into what happened behind the scenes even though they didn’t spell it out.

My belief is that this wasn’t a financial leverage play that bothered the Toronto Maple Leafs. Brendan Shanahan makes, I think, $7 million per year. I don’t think that they’re offended by anyone asking for more money.

What I believe happened behind the scenes is that Kyle Dubas made a push to get Brendan Shanahan out of hockey operations and decision-making. He wanted complete and full autonomy and that this was a power struggle that took place.

How else do you explain the reaction? Have you ever seen the detail, to that magnitude, laid out in front of you at a press conference? A pure timeline, and even including such things as ‘Kyle sent me an email and said he’d like to stay.’ Who sends an email to keep their job?

Working through all of it, I’ve been saying for months if you listen to me that there’s been friction between Brendan Shanahan and Kyle Dubas. And I’ve seen other reports trying to shit on that reporting and downplay it. It’s just the truth. It’s what’s been happening behind the scenes for months now.

In fact, I think it goes back all the way to when Shanahan blocked Dubas from getting the Colorado Avalanche job back in 2017. This has been ongoing, it’s been festering, and Kyle Dubas felt like had the goods to make a play for the job, the way he wants to do it with his own autonomy.

When you come for the boss’s job, you’d better have the goods. And Dubas lost.”