When Toronto Maple Leafs general manager Kyle Dubas fired head coach Mike Babcock and replaced him with Sheldon Keefe in November, he went all-in on his team-building hypothesis. The hypothesis proposes, more or less, that the Leafs, armed with some of the game’s highest-skilled forwards and two of its most gifted offensive defencemen, could ride puck possession to Stanley Cup contention.
It’s a hypothesis that has been successfully employed by Dubas in the OHL and AHL — and it’s one he believes is capable of producing similar results in the best league in the world. That belief has been evident through Dubas’ history of selecting puck-dominant, primary-carrying players such as Rasmus Sandin, Semyon Der-Arguchintsev, Mikhail Abramov, Nick Abruzzese and Mac Hollowell in the NHL Draft. We’ve seen it with free-agent signings such as Joey Duszak to Jason Spezza, and via trades, including the acquisition of Tyson Barrie in the summer.
But…
