“It’s hockey — I love it,” says Kyle Dubas, general manager of the Toronto Marlies. “I mean it's cliché, but it doesn’t feel like work. You get up every day and you’re working in hockey.”

For Dubas, “working in hockey” has meant running the Leafs’ primary farm team to a massive lead in the American Hockey League standings. The Marlies won their 40th game of the season on Feb. 20. The next best team in the league had just 32.

The Marlies have undergone a significant youth movement this season. Most of the team’s players are age 23 or younger, including 19-year-old offensive standouts William Nylander and Kasperi Kapanen. This isn’t really a shock to anybody; the Leafs organization is undergoing a rebuild and that means relying on and developing young talent. That mantra isn’t limited to the players: Dubas himself is 30.

In hockey circles, however, Dubas is no rookie. He was named general manager of the Ontario Hockey League’s Sault Ste. Marie Greyhounds at the ripe age of 25. The Leafs decided to claim Dubas early, bringing him on board as assistant GM when he was just 28.



“My main responsibility with the team is player development,” says Dubas, “and that includes the Marlies primarily, but also our player-development department as a whole.”



This strategy has paid off; the Marlies are way ahead of where they were last year and their fan base has grown.

“The fans have been a great support for us,” says Dubas. “I think fans, when they buy a ticket here, they know they’re going to be able to grow with these players as fans of the organization and see these guys as Leafs one day.”

Dubas says he’s frequently on the road, scouting and “doing whatever Lou needs me to do.” Lou Lamoriello, of course, is the Leafs’ general manager. He became president of the New Jersey Devils in April 1987 when Dubas was just 17 months old. His decades of NHL front-office experience, highlighted by three Stanley Cup wins with the Devils and an induction into the Hockey Hall of Fame in 2009, would seem to provide the perfect sensei to Dubas’s grasshopper.

Marlies head coach Sheldon Keefe, who was also head coach of the OHL’s Greyhounds when Dubas was in charge, is another new face in Toronto this season. Keefe’s rookie season as an American Hockey League coach has obviously gone well and, like his players, he too is looking to develop his skills. That involves learning from Maple Leafs head coach Mike Babcock.



“We communicate regularly,” Keefe explains. “I’m invited to be a part of their practices, their meetings, and their games whenever the schedule allows.” The experience through the regular season and through summer planning and training camp has been “tremendous,” he says. “To be around and pluck some experience from the NHL team ultimately allows me to do my job better as I’m preparing players to be Maple Leafs.”