Kyle Dubas said he wasn’t going anywhere.

As recently as May 15, Dubas pledged as much.

During a season-ending press conference in Toronto, Dubas said his time as the highly scrutinized general manager of the Maple Leafs was so taxing on his family that he wouldn’t immediately take a job with another franchise.

“It was a very hard year on them,” Dubas said. “What I would say is that I definitely don’t have it in me to go anywhere else. It will either be here (Toronto) or it will be taking time to recalibrate, reflect on the seasons (with Toronto).

“But you won’t see me next week pop up elsewhere.”

Dubas was right in one sense. It took him all of two and a half weeks — 17 days — to pop up in his new role as president of hockey operations for the Pittsburgh Penguins.

His hiring was announced via a release Thursday morning which stated Dubas “will oversee all aspects of the Penguins hockey operations department, including establishing the strategic vision and philosophy for the franchise.”

That philosophy will include keeping the Penguins a contender in the immediate sense around a core of franchise pillars, Sidney Crosby, Evgeni Malkin and Kris Letang, while also looking beyond the tenures of those superstars.

“I see this task ahead of us as a two-pronged effort,” Dubas said at a news conference in PPG Paints Arena on Thursday afternoon. “In the short run, it’s continuing to make decisions that are going to allow the team to be competitive, while the core group of players — that have led the team here to championships in the past — continue to perform at the levels that they have for as long as they can, and make decisions that will support them in the lineup every night that will allow the team to continue to contend each season while those players are with us.

“At the same time, the work will also begin at delivering a long-term hockey organization that can be the class of the NHL. And, to reduce any gap in time that there otherwise would be, from the end of those great players’ careers to the next era of great hockey for the Pittsburgh Penguins. That’s our intention. And that’s the work that we’ll get started on.”

Seemingly, one of Dubas’ top priorities will be to find a general manager. Ron Hextall was fired from that position April 14, along with Dubas’ predecessor, Brian Burke.

Dubas indicated he will handle the duties of that office on an interim basis through the rest of June. That means he will have to coordinate the upcoming NHL Draft on June 28-29 as well as prepare for the first day of the free agent signing period on July 1.

“My intention is that I’ll handle that on an interim basis here through to July and then begin to go through candidates and make the decision that’s best for the hockey department,” Dubas said. “If we do go down that path, I think the type of person would be looking for someone progressive that can really add an element to the organization that perhaps I don’t have as a skill set in some regard.”

At 37, Dubas already has a lifetime of experience in management.

As general manager of the Maple Leafs for the past five seasons, Dubas initially joined that franchise in 2014 as assistant general manager, a title that also involved him serving as general manager of the club’s American Hockey League affiliate, the Toronto Marlies.

After the Marlies won the AHL’s Calder Cup as league champions in 2018, Dubas, then 32, was promoted to general manager.

Over that time, the Maple Leafs were successful in the regular season, going 181-109-42 during that span and reaching the postseason five consecutive seasons. This past season, the Maple Leafs won a playoff series for the first time since 2004, but were meekly dispatched in the second round by the upstart Florida Panthers, 4-1.

Following Dubas’ firm statement May 15, Maple Leafs president Brendan Shanahan announced Dubas’ contract would not be renewed four days later, though the divorce was messy.

Shanahan indicated contract negotiations with Dubas’ agent broke down well before a new agreement could be reached.

As a result, Dubas is now leading the Penguins.

So what changed for Dubas — aside from his employment status with the Maple Leafs — over the span of 17 days that allowed him and his family, which includes wife Shannon, daughter Lennon and son Leo, to move from their native Ontario to Western Pennsylvania?

“Maybe I was too honest that day with how I was feeling in that exact moment,” Dubas quipped Thursday. “But it’s in the past.”

The day after he parted ways with the Maple Leafs, Dubas received a phone call from Sam Kennedy, chief executive officer of the Boston Red Sox, one of the sister franchises of the Penguins within the ownership of Fenway Sports Group.

“He told me that they had permission from Toronto, and my initial inkling was we need to take a breath here before we entertain other option. Because that was our intention at the beginning of the week,” Dubas said. “And my wife then, later in the day, said, ‘I actually think you should go and at least meet with them.’ … Shannon’s view was, if we’re going to move, we may as well move now before the kids are too entrenched.”

After meeting with Fenway Sports Group executives at principal owner John Henry’s home May 21, Dubas toured Pittsburgh and met with coach Mike Sullivan, as well as Crosby, last week.

“It wasn’t the intention going in,” Dubas said. “But, seeing that we were going to have to move (from Toronto) anyway, you never know that, if you pass on this, is an opportunity to work … in a city like this and a group like this going to be available? And so we jumped in today with both feet.”

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