Dubas: 'I was scared shitless' at 1st GM meeting

The role of general manager didn't always come naturally to Kyle Dubas.

The Toronto Maple Leafs executive admitted he was frightened when team president Brendan Shanahan first asked him to represent the club at a meeting of Dubas' contemporaries in June 2015.

"I was scared shitless when I walked into Vegas," Dubas said Friday. "That was one of the most nervous times I've ever had in my life."

The Maple Leafs GM added, "I've known (then-Carolina Hurricanes GM Ron) Francis my whole life, so he was, like, the only person I felt I could talk to. I just went in, sat in my chair, and took notes at the meeting, and got up and left. But I was nervous as anything."

Shanahan tabbed Dubas and Mark Hunter as co-interim GMs following the firing of Dave Nonis and before the hiring of Lou Lamoriello, the latter of which came in July 2015.

"I really didn't feel like I belonged in (the meeting)," Dubas said. "I'd only been in the league for one year, and we were still a month away from having Lou hired. So, I just went in there, took my notes, and got on the plane."

Dubas became one of the youngest GMs in NHL history when he was promoted at age 32 in 2018. He was 28 when the Maple Leafs hired him as an assistant general manager.