Kyle Dubas has lured his buddy Wes Clark to Pittsburgh.
On Tuesday morning, the Penguins named the 41-year-old, who’s essentially overseen Toronto’s draft for the past six seasons, as the team’s new VP of Player Personnel.
That’s where the conversation started on Leafs Morning Take. Carter Hutton filled in for Jay Rosehill as we returned following a few days off. As mentioned, Clark, who’s super tight with not only Dubas but John Tavares, has been with the Leafs since 2018. He did a tremendous job finding talent outside the first round. Clark oversaw drafts that landed the likes of Rasmus Sandin, Sean Durzi, Matthew Knies, Nick Robertson, Easton Cowan, and Fraser Minten, among a laundry list of others.
After that, we briefly spoke about Maple Leafs Development Camp. As expected, Cowan and Minten looked fantastic. Both youngsters will be pushing for a full-time roster spot in training camp in September. It will be fascinating to watch it all unfold.
Meantime, presented by Greta Bar YYZ, Hutts weighed in on everything that’s transpired over the past two weeks. All in all, he likes what the Leafs have done —especially on the back end. Additionally, he’s feeling good about the crease; Toronto will run with a Joseph Woll/Anthony Stolarz tandem. Thunder Bay’s Matt Murray will act as insurance behind them —presumably starting the season in the American Hockey League.
Additionally, we talked about Ryan O’Reilly and Nick Kypreos’ report that the former Leaf tried to convince Predators GM Barry Trotz to trade for Mitch Marner. Ultimately, he didn’t, and Nashville ended up signing Steven Stamkos, Jonathan Marchessault, and Brady Skjei. Not too shabby.
Lastly, we quickly discussed Connor Dewar and what we expect will happen to him. He’s one of 14 players who are scheduled to go to arbitration this summer. At this point, there’s no telling if Dewar will even crack Toronto’s opening night roster.
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