Kyle Dubas admitted to still regretting one move he made while operating as the GM of the Toronto Maple Leafs.
Kyle Dubas Names Biggest Regret as Maple Leafs GM Without Hesitation originally appeared on Athlon Sports.
Pittsburgh Penguins general manager and president of hockey operations Kyle Dubas made a name for himself within the NHL working for the Toronto Maple Leafs.
Dubas joined Toronto in July 2014 as the assistant general manager of then-team president Brendan Shanahan, took the interim GM role for a brief spell in 2015 and was named general manager of the organization before the 2018 NHL Draft.
After his contract expired in 2023, Dubas left Toronto and was quickly hired by the Penguins as president of hockey operations. He would take over GM duties this past April.
Appearing on "The Cam & Strick Podcast" on Tuesday, Dubas revealed his biggest regret “by far” while he was still at the helm of the Maple Leafs.
🎙️Episode #355: Kyle Dubas
— The Cam & Strick Podcast (@CamandStrick) August 12, 2025
Pittsburgh plan
Overseeing Babcock
Paying the “Core Four”
Meeting Lou Lamoriello
Crosby, Malkin, Letang
➕ Much more
🎧: https://t.co/usZ5iG0pKG
📺: https://t.co/NhCx2eqmK1pic.twitter.com/pgNDJ8cg9s
Kyle Dubas Still Regrets One Particular Trade
As Dubas himself admitted during the podcast, if there is one thing still haunting the former Toronto GM, it's trading forward Mason Marchment to the Florida Panthers in 2020.
“I have lots of regrets that I know you’re not supposed to look back at them, but the biggest one, by far, is actually Mason Marchment, by far,” Dubas said. “He'd been — he'd come in, we signed him to the AHL. I was with him. He didn't play because he needed to build up his strength and his skating.
"We had this specific program that he didn't complain about. He executed and went to Orlando in the ECHL. Then made his way up to the [Leafs' AHL affiliate] Marlies. Was a huge part of the team. He made his NHL debut in 2019-20, his fifth year with the organization, and he had some injury trouble, and we were [trying] to find a way into a lack of scoring. It was a big push internally to acquire some skill, and [there] was a younger player that had a longer NHL pedigree in Florida, Denis Malgin. After lots of thinking about it, like months of thinking about it, that was the decision that I made.
"Mason just was so competitive and talented and had gone through our program for all that time. That’s the one that really, more than any others by far.”
Why Kyle Dubas Is Right to Regret Mason Marchment Trade
As Dubas told the host of the show in detail, Toronto traded Marchment to Florida in a one-for-one deal for center Denis Malgin just before the 2020 trade deadline.
Malgin went on to play eight games for the Maple Leafs that season and 31 overall in two campaigns at Toronto, scoring four points across all games there. He's already out of the NHL.
Marchment, meanwhile, took his time to develop into his current version as a physical, versatile forward. He made his Panthers debut in 2020-21 and spent two years in Florida before joining the Dallas Stars before the 2022-23 season.
The former Leafs forward scored 57 points in 87 games for the Panthers before racking up 131 for the Stars in 211 regular-season games while also appearing in 49 postseason contests with Dallas, scoring 16 points.
Most recently, Marchment, 30, signed a four-year, $18 million contract with the Seattle Kraken, coming off a 47-point season in his last year in Dallas.
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This story was originally reported by Athlon Sports on Aug 15, 2025, where it first appeared.
Category: Hockey
