Maple Leafs hiring of Kyle Dubas indicates the start of a long-overdue culture change

New Toronto Maple Leafs’ assistant GM Kyle Dubas isn't a saviour, here to deliver the first Stanley Cup to Toronto in nearly 50 years upon immediate arrival. Given today’s date and the hierarchy around him, it’s unlikely he can overhaul Toronto's roster before next season, which, as it currently sits, is not exactly a Cup favorite.

But that doesn’t mean he won’t help them during the upcoming season, and it doesn’t mean his presence in the Leafs’ front office isn’t an excellent sign of progress and a much-needed infusion of new blood for a franchise too often caught spinning its wheels.

Dubas is, among other things, “a hockey guy.” I know that’s vague, but it’s just about the biggest compliment one hockey guy can give another. He played hockey up until 14 when concussions got the best of him, but he never left the game. He worked as a hockey operations assistant for the Sault Ste. Marie Greyhounds starting that same year. He was a scout for them by 17 years old, and he continued in that role while he was away getting his degree in sports management from Brock University. After spending a few years as a sports agent for Uptown Sports, he was named the GM of the OHL Greyhounds. He was 25.

The Greyhounds were struggling when he arrived. Their point totals since have been 56 (‘10-’11), 64 (‘11-’12), 78 (‘12-’13) and 95 (‘13-’14), good for first in the West last season. Dubas reputation as a talented young man with a great respect for numbers that was bound to skyrocket through the ranks to the NHL was all but cemented, and justifiably so. That the Leafs wised up first and snatched him up is both surprising and impressive, as well as a testament to the new, smarter direction Brendan Shanahan wants to take the team.

While he’s done it all in hockey, what you’ll hear associated most with Dubas - aside from age, of course - is his connection to “advanced stats." In fairness, he's more than just a pure numbers guy, but he did work to develop a way to track possession (a pivotal metric for determining long-term success) while in the OHL. At that level teams don’t have the budget to dive in like NHL teams, so he used his own system, and he obviously had success with it. Numbers provide information which you'd be a fool not to consider, and the man is no fool.

One of his first moves as GM in the Soo was to buy the entire staff Jonah Keri’s “Extra 2%,” which highlights how the Tampa Bay Rays used analytics and Wall Street strategies to take strides on the field. Baseball has embraced deeper numbers for longer than hockey, as highlighted by the Boston Red Sox bringing in a young numbers-savvy GM of their own years ago in Theo Epstein, who was 28 (as Dubas is now) when he was hired in 2002. The Sox winning two World Series over the next five seasons kinda justified that hire.

One of the ways you can expect the Leafs to change in the short term will be how they enter and leave their zone, which means good news for excellent skaters and puck movers like Morgan Rielly and Jake Gardiner. Recent studies on “zone entries” and “zone exits” highlight how much more success teams have when they’re able to maintain possession rather than lean on what the Leafs have relied on in the past - dump-ins and chip-outs.

This philosophy allows players to hold the puck more and try to make plays, which will result in more goals than simply forfeiting possession and then fighting to regain it. It will result in more turnovers too, but they’ll be worthwhile risks.

So while the roster may look similar, Dubas will likely recommend that the team better use their skills. How logical.

The best thing for fans of the Leafs is that this isn’t a short-term move. In reality, the goal isn’t to win the Cup this year. The goal is to be a competitive team year in, year out. With the Leafs budget (massive), Dubas will be able to use his intellect and abilities to their maximum potential, which should help them improve their drafting, free agent signings and more.

Dubas will still advocate for hard work and grit and size as most GMs do. There are plenty of quotes where he highlights how the importance of these timeless qualities. But he recognizes the game is more complex than that, and will likely seek other avenues to improve.

For a Leafs team that hasn’t been a serious Cup contender in decades, that’s a good thing. If doing the same repeatedly and expecting different results is the definition of crazy, it looks like the Leafs may finally be on the right side of the asylum doors.