Bourne and Mirtle have written articles on Athletic, and basically said Toronto is NOT really going to miss Lou and Hunter dearly.
in Lou they have lost his connection with the other GMs and his pull on the league. However, the thinking is part of grooming Dubas, he would have helped Dubas make those connections already. Also, getting an experienced NHL vet / exec (like Ron Francis) as Dubas's assistant will also help bridge that gap for Dubas.
In Hunter, they have lost his scouting, especially in CHL. But let's not forget Dubas came through the ranks as a scout himself, and did some excellent scouting work for the Soo back in the days. Insiders have indicated Dubas has been more active than usual in scouting the past 3 months, probably in preparation for the upcoming draft and knowing the possibility of Hunter leaving. In time (probably short time too) Dubas will build his own scouting department again ... and knowing his roots in CHL it probably won't take that long either.
There's also common belief that Babs may not get along with Dubas as well as he did with the much older Lou and Hunter. To this, Babs himself was interview and simply said "When I was hired, they (Shanny) already hired Dubas, right? And I accepted the job knowing that, right? And they did not hire Lou until after my hiring, right? So what's your question again?" ... Babs has been around a long time, but he isn't an old school coach who doesn't want to be open to new things. To the contrary, Babs is more in touch with the new thinking and advanced stats than any coach (according to Dubas, he reads even more advanced stats reports than an average analytic or Dubas himself). I don't see a problem with the Dubas - Babs working relationship.
And at the end of the day, this is Dubas's team, but Shanny is the big boss and everyone ultimately reports to him. I don't see a problem at all.
