Kyle Dubas: Hockey’s 25-year-old GM living the dream

What comes to mind when you think of Bruce Springsteen, social media and the ripe age of 25?

Especially if you’re talking hockey, odds are you’re not making a connection between the aforementioned and the general manager of a major junior hockey club – unless you’re familiar with the Sault Ste. Marie Greyhounds.

After taking over as general manager of the Ontario Hockey League team this past spring, 25-year-old Kyle Dubas has been working tirelessly to rebuild the Greyhounds by using a theme inspired by The Boss himself.

Dubas has dubbed the rebuilding as “The Rising”, one of Springsteen’s more recent hits written about 9/11 and the people of New York City rising together to overcome the tragic event.

“I’m a huge Springsteen fan so it came right from that,” Dubas told The Good Point in an interview recently. “It’s obviously to be taken in a much different context here than in the song, but in our case the city is extremely loyal and passionate about the team and ‘The Rising’ is meant to symbolize a movement attempting to get our team back to the state it was in 17 years ago, when they were coming off three Memorial Cup appearances.”

“We want to build a culture of sustained success, where the team doesn’t try to push the chips all in one year, but rather is a very good, consistent team every year.”

In his first three months as GM, Dubas has made several key moves while also selecting plenty of pristine talent in the 2011 OHL Priority Draft.

“From the people we’ve hired in hockey operations and business operations to the players we’ve drafted and traded for, I see a big improvement,” he said. “It’s been really busy but a lot of fun and I certainly think everything here is on the right track.”

[php snippet=1]

Like many others, Dubas believes in building a hockey team from the back out, while at the same time maintaining a deep and balanced roster.

“We had a team that was very ’93-heavy, so we’ve tried to add some veteran players to the mix to lead the young guys, some of them being the elite ’95s we drafted,” Dubas explained.

“As far as trades go, our philosophy is that you have to find guys that other teams undervalue for some reason and we believe we’ve found that with additions like Mike Schwindt, Joe Rogalski, Corey Durocher and Brandon Alderson.”

Although Dubas is evidently comfortable in his new role, many may have been taken by surprise when the Greyhounds chose someone half the age of the average Ontario league GM.

“People can look at my age all they want, but to me it’s blatantly ignoring my experience,” he stated. “If people underestimate the team – or me for that matter – because of my age, I think that gives us the advantage.”

The Soo native grew up in a family devoted to hockey and the Greyhounds organization in particular. In fact, his grandfather coached the Hounds from 1960-67 and still holds the record for highest winning percentage among Soo coaches.

His sister, Megan, has worked in the business office for the past three years. She takes care of game day and community relations. Dubas began working with the organization at age 11, handling the team’s sticks and water bottles before moving into the coach’s office at age 14.

At age 17, he became a scout for the Greyhounds in the Niagara, Canada area while completing Brock University’s Sport Management program. He then took a short hiatus from the organization to become one of the youngest NHLPA-certified agents for Uptown Sports Management in his early 20s.

“I had never really thought about becoming an agent because I had always dreamed of being a general manager,” he said. “But after my third year of scouting I really began to think about it, so I had conversations with a few agencies and elected to work with Uptown Sports.”

“I was there for five years and I believe that really helped me gain more experience and credibility.”

As a relatively young sports industry professional, Dubas can relate to those trying to break into the business and hopes he can serve as a precedent to pave the way for other aspiring youngsters hoping to land their dream job.

“The more I’ve gotten into it, the more interesting it gets,” Dubas explained. “There’s a lot of other young people in sports who have been extremely supportive and part of that may be that, if we have success here [in Sault Ste. Marie] with me as the general manager, it may throw the standard hiring criteria out of whack.”

“It could open up other teams and organizations to look at younger people and kind of kick the constant recycling of employees to the curb.”

Although his strategies on the hockey operations side of things may be similar to fellow GMs, one of the biggest differences between Dubas and some of his more grizzled counterparts is his modest connection with his fans through social media.

“I think using Twitter is a huge advantage,” he said. “Some people in hockey and this league specifically think it’s a waste of time, but to be able to use any form of social media to directly correspond with fans goes a long way and I think any team that isn’t doing that is missing out, and their fans are, too.”

Although Dubas is just a few months into his career as manager of a major junior hockey franchise, he isn’t afraid to share his future dreams and aspirations.

“In a dream world, we’d win the Memorial Cup here and I’d go on to become an NHL general manager and win a Stanley Cup,” he said. “Like every young hockey player, my goal is to make it to the next level and I truly believe if you can’t envision it for yourself or your team, it surely makes it hard to achieve that goal.

“You have to give yourself permission to win and I know I’m going to do everything I can to make that happen.”

[php snippet=1]