When you read these quotes, there's a stark contrast between the former GM and the President of the team. Clearly Shanahan has been and continues to be against moving any member of the Leafs' core. In fact, after firing Dubas, he called each of them to personally break the news. According to Chris Johnston, the players came away confident that they would be back wearing the blue and white next season. A source, who shall remain anonymous, inside another organization, has also let us in on the fact that Dubas has fielded offers on William Nylander in the past, gauging interest mid-season in 2021-22 in case team lost in the first round of the playoffs again, which they did to Tampa in 7 games.
It's also been reported that Shanahan and Dubas' relationship had become a little more tumultuous over the past season. I believe this difference in opinion is why. With that knowledge, and the fact that Dubas wanted more decision-making power combined with the conclusions that can be drawn from Dubas and Shanahan's own words, the picture becomes clearer. I believe that Dubas wanted the autonomy to make a franchise-altering move by trading one of Marner or Nylander. Shanahan disagreed, insisted on keeping the core together and fired Dubas for not wanting to follow his mandate.