“I’m very happy to go through the year and be evaluated for the year and then the decision will be made, because I believe in our team,” Dubas said on the first day of Toronto Maple Leafs camp on Wednesday. Dubas was promoted to general manager in May 2018. The Leafs have made the Stanley Cup playoffs in all four of those seasons, but have not advanced past the first round of the NHL postseason since 2004. He said team president Brendan Shanahan informed him at the end of last season, after the Leafs were swept in seven games by the Tampa Bay Lightning, that Dubas would enter this season without a contract extension. “For me, ultimately, it’s the best. I don’t obviously decide what the organization wants to do. I can only control what I can do every day,” Dubas said. “My view is that if we have the year we’re capable of and the team plays the way they can, my situation will be resolved without a problem. I’m not worried about that.” Dubas was asked if his uncertain future could be a distraction for the team, as a player awaiting a new contract can be in the locker room. “I know it’s not going to be a distraction, because I’m not going to let it be a distraction,” he said. Coach Sheldon Keefe, who Dubas hired to coach the Leafs in 2019, said he expects the general manager’s attention to be solely on this season and not his contract. “He’s totally focused on the end goal, which is to do everything he can to help this team succeed and win the Stanley Cup. That’s the only focus for him,” said Keefe, who has known Dubas since on youth hockey days. “I’ve worked with him for quite some time. I’ve been through a lot with him in different situations. He’s never allowed anything to distract him, the team or the job he needs to do.”
