Survey shows fan confidence in Leafs front office plummeting following dismissal of Kyle Dubas
Today, The Athletic released its annual piece on how confident fans are about their team's front office staff. According to The Athletic, 11,000 responses from fans were documented and that included 300 responses that ranked all 32 NHL front offices. There was lots of movement up and down the rankings compared to last season. Some of the notable moves were the Devils leaping from 11th to first, Pittsburgh moving up from 20th to 10th on the heals of Kyle Dubas' off-season acquisition, while Buffalo moved up to 8th from 14th and the Habs to 14th from 16th. The Leafs' playoff rival Tampa dropped from 2nd to 3rd while the Bruins jumped 8 spots to 19th from 27th.
Unfortunately for the Leafs, they plummeted down the rankings from last season. The Leafs were in the middle of the pack last year, ranked 18th with Kyle Dubas as GM but have fallen all the way down to 27th this season, likely in large part to how the firing of Dubas played out and how disorganized the front office has been with Brad Treliving being thrown right into the deep end.
The Leafs received their lowest grades from the fan base in roster building, draft and development and trading which were all "D+" with their best grade of a "C" received for their cap management. The public in general was much more generous in their grades with the Leafs receiving a "B-" for free agency (fanbase was "C-") while the lowest public grade was for cap management which was a "D+". Overall, the fanbase gave the Leafs a collective grade of "D+" while the general public gave the Leafs a total grade of "C".
"My confidence in the front office decreased significantly with the way it handled the Dubas situation and its subsequent handling of this summer's free-agency period. It will need to do a lot to regain the high level of confidence I had in years prior,» said one Leafs fan, while another said the confidence in the decision-making process is at an all-time low going.
Treliving and the rest of the front office appear to have a lot of work to do to gain back the confidence that Leaf fans had in the Kyle Dubas regime and while he signed Auston Matthews to an extension, there is still lots of work for Treliving to do.
| POLL | ||
AOUT 30 | 150 ANSWERS Survey shows fan confidence in Leafs front office plummeting following dismissal of Kyle Dubas What will it take for fans to re-gain their confidence in the Leafs' front office? | ||
| A big trade that they clearly win | 19 | 12.7 % |
| Sign Nylander before the season | 21 | 14 % |
| Win more than one playoff round | 66 | 44 % |
| Win a Cup | 44 | 29.3 % |
| List of polls | ||
