Cap-friendly spree could be all Dubas does

Maple Leafs GM Kyle Dubas watched the Tampa Bay Lightning and Dallas Stars emerge as Stanley Cup finalists this year and saw one common thread to their success: the contributions of veteran players.

In a media call Sunday about the arrival of 41-year-old Joe Thornton, Dubas admitted the young, speedy, highly skilled roster he’d built through the first four years of his tenure needed to get older.

“We were one of the youngest teams in the league last year,” Dubas said. “Something that I learned from Lou (Lamoriello, his predecessor) ... and what (Dallas GM) Jim Nill did in adding (Joe Pavelski and Corey Perry), and the impact that can have on a team, I think we — I wouldn’t say we shied away from it in the past. It j ust didn’t work out in the past couple of off-seasons.

“It was something that we really keyed on this year as needing to do to continue to boost our group, (adding) a little bit of experience and more personality ... in (Thornton and Wayne Simmonds) in particular.”

Dubas’s lineup didn’t suddenly turn grey. Even with Thornton — only 43-year-old Zdeno Chara is older among active players — the Leafs are still among the seven youngest teams in the NHL with an average age of 26.8.

Of the six Leafs signed or traded for over the past two weeks, four are 30 or over. Dubas now has two of the 10 oldest players in the league (Thornton and Jason Spezza) and had two others (Ron Hainsey and Patrick Marleau) on multi-year deals within the past three seasons.

Veterans have held NHL championship runs together the last two years — for the St. Louis Blues (Jay Bouwmeester, Pat Maroon, Tyler Bozak) followed by the Lightning (Maroon, Zach Bogosian, Kevin Shattenkirk) — in contrast to a general trend toward younger players over the past five seasons.

There were11teenage players in the NHL in the 2018-19 season, and no team has had an average age higher than 29 since 2014 — when the New Jersey Devils went old school, averaging 31 years.

Dubas says he now has a promising mix of young and old, with added toughness. With that, the Leafs roster seems set.

With just over $400,000 (U.S.) in space under the $81.5million salary cap, the GM doesn’t see the need for a trade to dump salary.

The Leafs may go with a 20man roster at times next season to manage their cap, three below the limit, but Dubas and his staff have balanced the books nicely while addressing key needs.