Like most general managers and executives across professional sports, Kyle Dubas has shown a tendency to acquire players that he is comfortable with, likes and ultimately trusts from his previous organizations.
When he was in Toronto, there was a very obvious pipeline between the Soo Greyhounds and the Maple Leafs.
Now that he is running the Pittsburgh Penguins, that same pipeline exists from Toronto.
In less than two years running the Penguins he has already acquired several players from his time in Toronto, including minor league defenseman Filip Kral, NHL forwards Michael Bunting and Noel Acciari, and most recently defenseman Conor Timmins (forward Connor Dewar was also in that trade, but Dubas and Dewar did not overlap together in Toronto — Timmins, meanwhile has both the Soo Greyhound AND Maple Leafs connection, which is like .