Should Kyle Dubas remain the Toronto Maple Leafs' general manager this summer, the team could be in store for significant changes.
"I would consider anything with our group here that would allow us a better chance to win the Stanley Cup," Dubas said Monday during the team's end-of-season availability, according to ESPN's Kristen Shilton. "I would take nothing off the table at all."
The Maple Leafs advanced to the second round for the first time since 2004 before flaming out in five games against the Panthers.
Dubas lauded head coach Sheldon Keefe's adjustments during the postseason but said that "there still needs to be a full evaluation of everything," according to TSN.
Dubas has been the Maple Leafs' GM since May 2018. His contract is set to expire this summer. He was noncommittal about his future in Toronto but said he wouldn't serve as general manager for another team this summer, per The Hockey News' David Alter.
Defenseman Morgan Rielly spoke of his admiration for Dubas earlier in the day.
"He's a world-class GM," he added. "I'm not in charge of what happens with his contract, but everything he did was in the team's best interest, and he put us in a position where we had a chance to play and to win and to succeed. Ultimately, the players are the ones that were on the ice at the end of the season."
Leafs president Brendan Shanahan is set to speak to the media later this week.
Auston Matthews doesn't plan on leaving the Toronto Maple Leafs.
"My intention is to be (in Toronto)," Matthews said Monday during the team's end-of-season availability, according to the Toronto Sun's Terry Koshan.
"I think I've reciprocated that before, how much I enjoy playing here and what it means to me, the organization, my teammates. … The work that we're putting in to continue to strive for that end result is extremely motivating."
Matthews said signing an extension before next season is "important" and that a potential deal "will work itself out in due time."
He signed a five-year contract with a cap hit of just over $11.6 million in February 2019. That deal is set to expire after next season, which would make Matthews an unrestricted free agent.
Colorado Avalanche star Nathan MacKinnon signed an eight-year contract extension in September that will give him the league's highest cap hit in the fall at $12.6 million.
After scoring key goals in the first round against the Tampa Bay Lightning, Matthews was unable to find the back of the net in Toronto's five-game series loss versus the Florida Panthers. He finished the postseason with five goals and 11 points after tallying 40 goals and 85 points in the regular season.
The 25-year-old said he was dealing with bumps and bruises throughout the 2022-23 campaign but noted it's his "job to push through that," per The Hockey News' David Alter.
The Vegas Golden Knights advanced to the third round of the playoffs on Sunday night, erasing an early 2-1 deficit en route to an impressive road win over the Edmonton Oilers.
We'll find out who their next opponent is in what should be an exciting Game 7. Let's take a look at the best ways to attack it.
The Stars - like the Kraken - have taken their lumps in this series. They have consistently shown resiliency and responded, no matter how bad the previous effort.
The Stars dropped Game 1 on home ice and followed it up with a multi-goal victory. They lost again in Game 3, getting blown out of the rink by a 7-2 scoreline, and followed that up with yet another multi-goal victory.
Bouncing back from off nights is a key sign of a great team, and the Stars have shown that time and time again. Including their first-round series against the Wild, the Stars are 4-0 with a plus-10 goal differential following a loss.
Impressive totals, especially on the biggest stage - but that shouldn't be surprising. The Stars have done this for quite some time. They have lost back-to-back games only once since the beginning of March.
Whether the Stars are faced with a one-goal defeat or blown out of the rink, they consistently rebound with a win. I expect that will be the case against the Kraken in Game 7.
For as vulnerable as the Stars have looked at times this playoffs, they lead all 16 teams in expected goals at five-on-five. They've controlled better than 55% of the xG share and have finished at 66% or higher in three of the past five against these Kraken.
The Kraken are a deep team, but they lack star power and that has been very evident at times.
It's worth noting Dallas' big guns are remarkably more productive on home ice. Roope Hintz (12 points), Joe Pavelski (eight), Jason Robertson (eight), and Miro Heiskanen (seven) have all piled up the points at home. For perspective, Hintz (six) is tied for the team lead in points on the road.
Look for the Stars' top players to shine in Dallas and help guide them to a win inside 60 minutes.
Bet: Stars in regulation (-125)
Roope Hintz over 2.5 shots (-140)
Robertson and Heiskanen were the priority targets for shots all season long. They have taken a back seat to Hintz in the playoffs, though.
Hintz leads all Stars skaters in goals, points, shots, scoring chances, and high-danger opportunities through nearly two rounds.
If we isolate the Kraken series, Hintz takes a back seat to Pavelski in a couple of those categories - but shots remain an exception.
He has registered 21 through six games, going over the total in four of six meetings. That success rate is nothing new for Hintz against the Kraken. Throughout their existence, he has generated at least three shots in eight of 12 games.
With the Stars at home in a do-or-die affair, head coach Pete DeBoer will no doubt lean heavily on Hintz and the team's top players. There might not be a tomorrow, and their usage should reflect as much.
Look for Hintz - the team's top offensive threat through two rounds - to make the most of his ice.
Todd Cordell is a sports betting writer at theScore. Be sure to follow him on Twitter @ToddCordell.
Toronto Maple Leafs trade deadline acquisition Ryan O'Reilly was disappointed with his postseason performance as he spoke to reporters Monday during the team's end-of-season media availability.
"I don’t think I created enough out there," O'Reilly said, according to The Hockey News' David Alter. "It’s disappointing."
The 2019 Conn Smythe Trophy winner scored three goals and registered nine points in 11 playoff games with Toronto. After a strong start with seven points in the opening four games of the first round against the Tampa Bay Lightning, O'Reilly tallied just one goal and two points in the Maple Leafs' final seven games.
Toronto traded a 2023 first-round pick, three other draft picks, prospect Mikhail Abramov, and depth forward Adam Gaudette to acquire O'Reilly and Noel Acciari from the St. Louis Blues in February.
O'Reilly sustained a broken finger late in the regular season that forced him to miss 14 games. He clarified that his finger felt fine in the playoffs and that he was not dealing with a big injury, according to Sportsnet's Luke Fox.
A pending unrestricted free agent, O'Reilly also addressed whether he'd consider re-signing with the Maple Leafs.
"Yeah, absolutely," O'Reilly said. "I'm still reflecting on the loss, and coming forward here I have a lot to think about what I plan to do. This organization is incredible.
"I'm so thankful I was able to be brought into it. Obviously, sorry we couldn't get the result we wanted, but just to be part of this organization was an amazing thing. I'll have some decisions to make going forward."
The Maple Leafs are projected to have just under $7.5 million in cap space heading into the offseason, per to CapFriendly. O'Reilly's coming off of a seven-year contract that had a $7.5-million cap hit with the Buffalo Sabres.
Two springs ago, Jesse Puljujarvi scored the icebreaker in the Edmonton Oilers' first playoff game, whirling in the slot to net a rebound off of Tyson Barrie's point shot. The Winnipeg Jets blanked the Oilers for the next 102 minutes. Defenders subdued Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl while shackling their supporting cast to initiate a Jets sweep.
The Oilers have changed since that meek loss. They traded Puljujarvi, whose Carolina Hurricanes are in the Eastern Conference Final. They swapped Barrie for Mattias Ekholm, grasping that Evan Bouchard could replace his power-play productivity.
Meanwhile, McDavid and Draisaitl flipped a switch. No opponent since Winnipeg has contained them in the postseason. That includes the Vegas Golden Knights, who eliminated the Oilers in six games even though the superstars padded their stats.
Draisaitl's four-goal eruption in the opener against Vegas helped raise his playoff total to 13 in a dozen games. McDavid's 20 points top the league through Sunday's action. Draisaitl is right behind him on the leaderboard, as was the case when both players recorded two points per contest in last year's postseason.
Since the 2022 playoffs started, McDavid paces the NHL with 53 points in 28 postseason appearances. Draisaitl racked up 50 points in this span. The next-closest scorer, Mikko Rantanen of the Colorado Avalanche, collected 35 points in 27 games. Rantanen's numbers are merely great, not stupendous.
McDavid and Draisaitl have competed in nine career playoff series. Certain legends of their era - think Stanley Cup winners like Sidney Crosby, Evgeni Malkin, Alex Ovechkin, and Nikita Kucherov - are considerably more experienced and boast shinier resumes. But on a per-game basis, the Oilers duo's colossal output is unparalleled.
Wayne Gretzky scored 1.84 points per game in 208 playoff outings. Mario Lemieux averaged 1.61 points in 107 games. History supplies no other comparison for what's happening in Edmonton.
Offense has risen NHL-wide - scoring soared to a 29-year high this season - but McDavid and Draisaitl deserve more credit than anyone for driving that boom. Most star players have off-nights or go cold intermittently. These guys rarely slump, though Vegas held Draisaitl pointless in three of six games. At their playoff peak, Edmonton's top dogs toy with elite opposition, resembling ringers who descended from some imaginary better league.
Andy Devlin / NHL / Getty Images
The salary-cap era record for points in a postseason - Malkin tallied 36 in 2009 - might have fallen if the Oilers reached the Cup Final. The Golden Knights nixed that possibility. Stealing the spotlight on Sunday, Jonathan Marchessault's natural hat trick sparked Vegas to a gutsy 5-2 win in Game 6.
Draisaitl was on track to smash the cap-era high for goals (15), set by Crosby in 2009 and matched by Ovechkin in 2018 when their squads hoisted the Cup. He could have become the first player this century to sniff the all-time record.
Moving at half-speed, Draisaitl torched the Calgary Flames for 17 points in five games on a sprained right ankle last postseason. He was the best playmaker in the sport in that window. This spring, he finished lethally throughout the offensive zone.
By blasting one-timers, foraging for garbage goals, and banking in one wrister off of Laurent Brossoit's nameplate, Draisaitl boosted his shooting percentage in these playoffs to 28.9% (his career average is 18.1%). He exits as the league leader in even-strength goals (seven), power-play goals (six), opening goals (three), and hit posts (three). That said, his giveaway behind the Oilers' net Sunday led directly to Marchessault's winner.
Icon Sportswire / Getty Images
McDavid couldn't buy a whistle when the Jets threw sticks and bodies at him in 2021. He drew eight penalties in this postseason and elevated both Oilers special-teams units. Motoring to the net, McDavid poked the puck through Brossoit's legs on a shorthanded breakaway in Game 2 and tapped his own rebound past Adin Hill on the power play in Game 5. McDavid's snipe in the opening minute of Game 6 was his first goal against Vegas at even strength.
He dazzled at times, but his team's inconsistency was vexing.
Poor defensive reads and careless or untimely penalties, like Ekholm's boarding minor Sunday, burned the Oilers in various Vegas wins. Never solid in back-to-back games, Stuart Skinner allowed five, one, four, one, four, and four goals, in that order, and was yanked from the net on three occasions. Vegas responded to four Edmonton tallies throughout the round by beating Skinner within the next couple of minutes, instantly reversing the momentum.
The Golden Knights iced the best line in the series. They outscored Edmonton 15-9 at five-on-five, including by a 7-1 margin when Marchessault skated with Jack Eichel and Ivan Barbashev, per Natural Stat Trick. Eichel and Marchessault led the matchup in points at even strength with seven apiece.
Andy Devlin / NHL / Getty Images
Edmonton's power play remained laughably good in defeat (39.1% success rate in the round, 46.2% in the playoffs). Bouchard's 15 power-play points in 12 games constitute a new high for defensemen in the cap era. He pulverized the puck and benefited from dishing it to McDavid and Draisaitl on the flanks. Bouchard would have needed nine more points with the extra man to equal Gretzky's record for one postseason (24 in 1988).
This bombardment didn't crush the Golden Knights. They won Game 5, the swing contest in the series, despite conceding three power-play goals. McDavid's scoring rate at five-on-five dipped from 2.71 points per 60 minutes in the regular season to 2.06 against Vegas. Ryan Nugent-Hopkins, Zach Hyman, Evander Kane, and Kailer Yamamoto - four of Edmonton's top six forwards - combined to score once in that phase.
The Oilers went 18-2-1 to end the regular season after Ekholm arrived at the trade deadline. The NHL's hottest team over the final quarter of the schedule was too leaky in May to fulfill its potential.
Icon Sportswire / Getty Images
The four goals Skinner let in Sunday came on 17 shots, lowering his save percentage in the round to .875. Hill - a .934 goalie in the series as Brossoit's injury replacement - whiffed on two shots to open Game 6 before he stoned 38 in a row. Hill's third career playoff start was his greatest to date.
Draisaitl, who turns 28 in October, is signed for two more years at the bargain rate of $8.5 million. McDavid is 26, and his megadeal runs through 2026. Neither player will get worse anytime soon, not after they combined to notch 281 points in the regular season. But several big-ticket teammates - Nugent-Hopkins, Hyman, Kane, Ekholm, and Jack Campbell, to name five - are in their 30s, reducing general manager Ken Holland's runway to build a winner.
This could have been Edmonton's year. The playoff run didn't last long enough to be transcendent. The Oilers have changed, but their story ended the same way.
Edmonton Oilers superstar Leon Draisaitl was choked up Sunday after his team's season ended in Round 2 of the Stanley Cup Playoffs at the hands of the Vegas Golden Knights.
"It hurts. It's tough to find words right now," Draisaitl told reporters postgame. "Obviously, when you start a season, you're in it to win it, and we're at that stage. If you don't complete that then it feels like a failure or a wasted year almost. It hurts."
"It feels like a failure or a wasted year almost. It hurts."
Draisaitl put together an excellent postseason, recording 13 goals and five helpers in 12 games. He slowed down as the playoffs wore on, though, mustering just one assist in his last four contests.
Oilers captain Connor McDavid agreed that the season was a missed opportunity, but believes it'll make the team stronger moving forward.
"I really feel that you got to go through some of this to win. I think we've seen that all the way through," McDavid said. "Let's hope it's the last time."
"I really feel like you got to go through some of this to win...let's hope it's the last time."
After the leading the NHL in goals, assists, and points during the regular season, McDavid put together a stellar playoffs, pacing the league with 20 points in the postseason. He put together four multi-point efforts during the series against Vegas, and scored one of his team's two goals in the 5-2 loss in Game 6.
The Oilers made the Western Conference Final a year ago - the furthest the team has gone in the McDavid-Draisaitl era.
Jonathan Marchessault recorded a natural hat trick in the second period and the Vegas Golden Knights beat the Edmonton Oilers 5-2 in Game 6 to punch their ticket to the Western Conference Final.
It marks the fourth time in the Golden Knights' six-year history they've advanced to the final four of the Stanley Cup Playoffs.
Vegas will take on the winner of the Dallas Stars and Seattle Kraken, who meet in a Game 7 on Monday in the other conference semifinal.
Adin Hill turned in a tremendous performance in goal for Vegas, making 39 consecutive saves after allowing the first two shots of the game to get by.
The same can't be said in the Edmonton crease. Stuart Skinner was pulled for the third time in the series after allowing four goals on 17 shots through two periods. Jack Campbell entered in relief and stopped all four shots he faced in the third period.
Edmonton's elimination ensures a Canadian team won't win the Stanley Cup for the 30th straight year.
The New Jersey Devils may have recently been eliminated by the Carolina Hurricanes, but Jack Hughes can still take solace in the fact that he silenced his critics with a huge breakout season.
"I think I had a really good year, established myself as a really good player in the league," Hughes said Saturday when asked what personal accomplishment he's most proud of. "Maybe the goal-scoring a bit, I don't know if anyone expected me to score 40 in my career, let alone three years after everyone was calling me the biggest bust ever."
Hughes shattered all of his previous career highs with 43 goals, 56 assists, and 99 points in 78 games this past season.
The 2019 first overall pick struggled out of the gate to begin his career, leading many skeptics to view him as a bust. He tallied just 21 points in 61 games during his rookie year and 31 points in 56 contests during his sophomore campaign.
But after his fourth season, Hughes is now regarded as one of the game's brightest young stars. And while he may still be a better playmaker than a shooter, he showed he's not a one-dimensional threat after firing 336 shots on net, good for fifth in the league.
Hughes is also proud of the steps his team made this season. While they didn't reach the ultimate goal of winning the Stanley Cup, the Devils made the playoffs for the first time with the current core and even beat the rival New York Rangers in Round 1, which was extra sweet for Hughes.
"Winning Game 7 against the Rangers, I think that was really special," Hughes said. "To beat those guys, we wanted to do that. That was definitely the best moment (of the season)."
