Outside-the-box thinking led Toronto Maple Leafs general manager Kyle Dubas to the Chicago Cubs front office in trying to find any kind of an edge and apply some of the lessons from baseball’s data revolution to hockey.



Professional sports executives live in a small world defined by lifelong passion, nonstop pressure and degrees of paranoia. Dubas, 33, is a huge baseball fan and a naturally curious person. The comparisons between the Maple Leafs and Cubs are obvious as two storied franchises in major media markets long defined by their championship droughts.



When the NHL playoffs begin this week, the Maple Leafs will be vying for their first Stanley Cup since 1967, or not even halfway to the 108-year wait that made the 2016 World Series a global event for generations of Cubs fans. But playing in Toronto – or Chicago – isn’t for everyone. It takes talent, money, patience, technology and some luck to build a perennial contender in that...