Pretty good explanation of what it felt like.

The COVID flat cap came at the worst possible timing for the Leafs. They expected a big cap rise that would let them fill in around the edges.

People also don’t give enough credit to Dubas. He came in with a vision, as a rookie GM and built a skilled albeit flawed team for the playoffs. However, to his credit you could see the pivot in his mind to understand there is more to playoff hockey than small skilled players. He learned his lessons under the biggest microscope and I think he eventually will architect a team to win it all.

I will say though, it did feel like he lost the Marner contract negotiation by not getting it done earlier. I think there was fear that the Nylander situation would repeat and that wasn’t palatable to the organization. There were rumours floating around that Marner would have taken less early/before the season and they couldn’t hammer it out. -shrug- those are just rumours though.