Leafs GM Dubas: 'Our goal to is win the Stanley Cup'

With the Toronto Maple Leafs exiting the playoffs in the first round for the sixth straight year, the pressure appears to be mounting on general manager Kyle Dubas.

Dubas, who is entering the final year of his contract, told Steve Simmons of the Toronto Sun, however, that his focus for the team goes well beyond ending the team's first-round drought.

“You want to win every year, that’s why you do these jobs,” said Dubas. “You’re at that point where that’s our goal. To win. Not just win a round. Our goal to is win the Stanley Cup. Not to win a series, it’s to win the whole thing. That’s what we focus on.

“Whenever we make a decision, I have never once thought: ‘How is it going to affect what people think of me?’ You think ‘Is it going to help our team accomplish our goal?’ That’s all that guides every decision I make in the short and long run. Is this decision best for the Maple Leafs in helping us accomplish our goals.”

The Maple Leafs posted a franchise-best 115 points last season, their first 82-game campaign under head coach Sheldon Keefe. The team finished second in the Atlantic Division behind the Florida Panthers and lost in Game 7 of their first-round series against the Tampa Bay Lightning.   

The changes for the Maple Leafs this off-season are headlined by their new look in net, with Matt Murray, acquired in a trade from the Ottawa Senators, and free-agent signee Ilya Samsonov replacing last year's season-starting duo of Jack Campbell and Petr Mrazek.

Acquiring Murray was a controversial choice by the Maple Leafs. The Senators traded a 2023 third-round draft pick, a 2024 seventh-round pick and retained 25 per cent of Murray's salary to move him to Toronto in July.

The Maple Leafs' biggest changes this offseason