Dubas on Twitter, analytics, and intelligent women

Toronto Maple Leafs assistant GM Kyle Dubas joined Sportsnet 590 on Tuesday morning.

On social media and whether or not it’s a distraction:

“I think people can let it become a distraction, Joey, for sure. I think you have to go and search it out on there. If you want to look for people that are going to be critical of you, if you’re in sports you can find them. That comes with the territory.

“I look at Twitter – I think it’s a tremendous tool to find information and good information and to improve the way that I think and improve the things that I learn on really. I found it to be outstanding in terms of being a central place that people can share ideas. I don’t really look at it as a place to have to go on and argue with people and fight with people or anything like that. I don’t think that’s the best use for it. But if you’re looking to go on and find information and improve your intelligence level or your skill-set, I think it’s terrific.”

On if he was like a kid in a candy store upon being hired by the Leafs, thinking of all of the possibilities with a bigger budget:

“I think in hockey particularly Joey, there’s a lot of bad places you can spend the money if you want to. Since I’ve been there, and it’s been just over a month now, we’ve had a number of people approach us and a number of firms approach us – basically selling the fact that they have the secrets that unlock the way that hockey works. And basically ‘If you do this and you subscribe to what we’re doing, you’ll go 82-0’ and life just doesn’t work that way.”

After reiterating to the host the fact that he was being both facetious and sarcastic, Dubas continued.

“But there’s a lot of that out there. I think what that serves to do is kind of make people weary. I think in hockey there’s a mad rush for people to get hockey to where baseball and soccer and basketball are and in those sports, everything took time with the way that the game was analyzed. When you start to rush it and you start to subscribe to things that are rushing the process along, I think you can knock yourself off the rails. So even though it would be easy to – I think it goes without saying the Toronto Maple Leafs have more resources than the Soo Greyhounds – it doesn’t mean that we should just rush out approach and just be different just to be different. I think we want to investigate all areas of the game and analyze them as deeply as we can, but make sure we’re not chasing down into the rabbit hole that we have no idea what we’re looking for down there.”

On how much of your job is education and ‘unfrightening’ people when it comes to change and things they don’t know:

“I think first off Joey, the analytics part I think is what everyone is clinging to and what everybody asks about and everybody writes about, but that’s just a small portion of my job with the Leafs. So, I mean, a small portion of that small portion is spent on trying to find ways to basically explain the concepts to people that have been advanced. I certainly am not an expert on it. There have been preceding me far in advance and have done far more work on it that have done an excellent job in kind of blazing the trail. But a small portion of my time is... just explaining basic concepts and explaining the elements of the game that do have an analytical slant to them. But I think the thing that I’ve realized with the Leafs in the first month is that people are very open to change and they’re excited about learning different things and I’m excited to learn things from every single person that works there. So I’ve really enjoyed the culture so far and the relationships there so far. I’m the type that anything’s that’s different and new I like to learn about as quickly as possible. That’s just the way that I am. I think I’ll always be that way. So people doing things different or different concepts are the things that I like to attach myself to and learn about and I think that’ll just be the way that I carry on.”

On how the application of the analytical process worked in the Soo:

“We dealt with it more between the management and the coaching staff. We never ever once used the terms ‘Corsi’ or ‘Fenwick’ with the players... and I don’t think it’s incumbent on the players to have a vast and deep knowledge of those types of things. I think it’s incumbent on the players to come into camp in elite shape and to come into camp prepared to maximize their potential and ability to each season. It’s up to the organization to put the players in a best position to succeed... In the Soo we never ever used those terms with the players. We focused on building systems and strategies which could best capitalize on their talents within the outcomes that we were looking for to build a better process. And so that’s what we’ll do. I mean, the players won’t be inundated with a lot of terms and deeper analysis. I think we’ve got - between Randy Carlyle, and Peter Horachek, Steve Spott and Chris Dennis – a coaching staff that’s a very, very good one. I’m excited to work with them and see them and really get the hands on the roster. I know that Brendan and Dave Nonis and all of us feel that same way and excited to see how we adapt... and continue to push each other to get better. I don’t think it would be a benefit by inundating the players with the deeper analysis. I think in sports as it gets more proven and further along, the players invest themselves in it. You see that in basketball with guys like Kevin Durant and LeBron James that got their own stats people, per say. But right now we’re not there yet in hockey.”

On how in this digital age with more people being able to have their voices heard via their own sites or blogs, there is an importance on teams bringing in ‘different’ employees:

“I think in all, one thing I’m pretty passionate about is I think that in all walks of life in business, there’s a lot of value and knowledge to be had by people who are different than the conventional employee in a certain sector. They view things differently. They evaluate things differently. And especially there’s a lot of value to be had, I think, in having people who are highly intelligent. I think in sports I think we look a lot to just the men. I think there’s a lot of women in sports... and I think that’s the next frontier, is to break down that wall and look outside of just male employees and look towards – there’s a lot of women that I read online that do a lot of great work in hockey analysis. I think if you get outside of looking to convention for bringing people in, you can open up your eyes quite a bit and improve the intelligence of your organization. And that’s basically what we tried to do in Sault Ste Marie and that we can try – that I’ll always look to learn from and do now in Toronto.

 “I see value in people that haven’t been fully immersed in the culture and that think differently and don’t have thought processes ingrained totally from the beginning.” 

Source: Sportsnet 590