ORLANDO, FLA – In two years as affiliates, the Orlando Solar Bears and the Toronto Maple Leafs have formed one of the best working relationships in professional hockey. As the franchises, along with Toronto’s AHL affiliate Marlies, head into the second of a two-year exclusive relationship, the Leafs are very happy with the Solar Bears and appear ready to increase their commitment to Central Florida’s ECHL team.
Maple Leafs assistant general manager Kyle Dubas talks about Anthony Noreen at the Solar Bears press conference (Photo courtesy of Fernando Medina/Orlando Solar Bears)
That was the tone set last Wednesday when Kyle Dubas, Toronto’s Assistant General Manager, was in Orlando for the introduction of new Solar Bears head coach Anthony Noreen. Following the press conference, Dubas talked with SB Nation’s Achariya Rezak and Pro Hockey News about the affiliation as well as the Maple Leafs’ player development philosophies – which fully include the Solar Bears.
“We feel very strongly about it (the affiliation) both in terms of its importance to our prospects and to our development model. The quality of the operation here along with Jason (Siegel, Orlando President), and now Anthony and Chris Heller (Orlando C.F.O.), it’s been wonderful to work with,” Dubas said. “It’s very exciting for us. The way they operate here is very important to us, to the Maple Leafs, so we’re very excited.”
During the off-season, the Maple Leafs have gone through a major overhaul of its organization, both from a personnel point as well as philosophical. Team President Brendan Shannahan cleaned house and hired Mike Babcock to coach the Leafs as well as most recently bringing in former New Jersey team president Lou Lamoriello as general manager. Along the way, the Leafs made a decision to put more emphasis on the development of prospects – essentially saying that players will be allowed to develop instead of being rushed ahead. Dubas, whose duties include overseeing the Marlies, said that “shuttling” players up and down before they are ready can be counterproductive.
“We don’t want our players going up to the Leafs before they’re ready and we don’t want them shuttling up and down. We want players to be called up to the Leafs when they’re young and on the first two years of their entry level contracts only when they prove that they can be a Leaf all the time,” he said. “We don’t want players going up and then coming down. We saw that last year with Stuart Percy and Sam Carrick – they go up and they come back down and it really rattles the players’ confidence. Even though it’s a joyful experience to play your first NHL game, to make the team and get recalled it gets your psyche out of order a little bit.
“And I think that’s on us, it’s not on the players. We have to be the ones making sure we’re doing what’s right by the players,” Dubas continued. “So for us, if players are developing along with the Marlies, players that are starting here [in Orlando] will be developing along with here. It’s a whole domino effect rolls down.”
Allowing players to mature and learn at their own pace potentially means that more Toronto prospects could see time in Orlando. When asked if that would be the case, Dubas said that the organization could use its affilition tree to expand its number of prospects.
“I think we’re going to utilize beyond our 50 contract list. I think we’ve shown we have a greater affinity to assign players to American League contracts or AHL-ECHL two-way contracts. And [it’s] not older players that we’re just trying to get off the Solar Bears [salary] cap but young players who have proven that they’ve had a chance to come play and play well with the Marlies as well,” he said. “So I would assume that going into this year, we’re working with Anthony and he knows a lot of players from his time in Youngstown and our scouting staff, Sheldon (Keefe, Marlies head coach) and everybody involved trying to make sure that we’re stocking our full system of prospects. Guys who are a little bit under our radar that we think have potential we can get on ECHL deals [or] ECHL-AHL two-way deals and let them run from there. We won’t limit ourselves to just our 50 NHL contracts.”
Showing their confidence in Orlando’s program, Dubas and the Maple Leafs played a role in bringing Noreen aboard. Dubas said that the new Orlando coach’s track record of player development fits right in with Toronto’s philosophy.
“I have a lot of trust in Anthony’s ability to develop [players] – that when a player is ready to come up to the Marlies he’s ready. And in the Marlies, when they’re ready for Mike Babcock [and the Leafs]. There are three stages of development, even though there are many micro stages within those that are vital. We’re very happy with the program we have in place now,” Dubas said. “It’s (Orlando) a good place to start your career and get your career going and it’s a good place to get your career back on track if you’ve gotten off the rails a little bit. Now especially with Anthony here that discussion (being sent down) will be far easier. We’ve said over and over that this is not a place of punishment. It’s a place of development. We’re not sending our players here solely if they’ve disappointed us. We want them to have a great season.”
Dubas and Noreen are just two of the names in the Toronto system that have strong backgrounds in junior hockey. When asked if this could be a trend, Dubas laughed and said in a results-driven world like hockey, talent only matters if success follows. He also suggested that there are talented people both on and off the ice in a lot of places and that teams should think outside the box more.
“I think there’s a lot to having the fortune to come up from major junior hockey and there’s talented people everywhere. I mean we have Norm Bazin from UMass-Lowell – their head coach. He was a guest coach at our camp,” Dubas said. “There are so many great college hockey coaches and personnel and also in junior hockey [that] rather than just recycling people or bringing on people just from the AHL. I’m a big believer in the head coach to have been a head coach previously so they can jump right in – like Anthony was head coach in Youngstown, Sheldon was head coach of the Soo (Sault St. Marie) and of course Mike (Babcock) has been the head coach and has [had] very successful stints in many places. That to me is important. We want to give equal opportunity to begin developing our own people and Anthony falls under that.”
As for the future of the Orlando-Toronto affiliation, Dubas said that once the season gets going discussions will take place.
“With everything that’s happened with the Maple Leafs this spring and obviously with the Solar Bears with their coaching search and now we’re talking about rosters, it hasn’t been something that we’ve discussed yet. It will be something that we’re going to talk about here as soon as everything dies down and we get some time to focus on it properly,” he said. “From our end it’s something that we want to have a discussion with Joe (Haleski, Orlando Chairman) and Jason and Chris about.”
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