Mike Komisarek and Mikhail Grabovski are the Leafs' two picks for their compliance buyouts. Komisarek comes as no surprise due to his lack of performance and inability to stay on the team despite his $4.5-million salary. Grabovski was less certain. Grabovski struggled last year, but had been a strong player in the years leading up to 2013. If not for his $5.5-million cap-hit, he would assuredly have been kept around. It is sad to see him go, but with Nazem Kadri, Dave Bolland, and Jay McClement up the middle, Joe Colborne making strides, and the almost definite reality that the Leafs will sign a free agent Centre, Grabovski is just an expensive place-holder. And unless there is a team desperate to reach the cap floor, there are really no obvious takers for Grabovski at his his salary.
Rumours abound pertaining to Tyler Bozak's demands. The general consensus seems to be that he is looking for 8 years, although whether the value will be more or less than $5-million/season is uncertain. The buyout of Grabovski certainly sends a message to the Bozak camp. I expect Bozak will re-sign with the Leafs, but only after he realizes that he is not worth as much to other teams as a third-liner as he is to the Leafs as a first-liner.
Many fans have already fallen in love with Jonathan Bernier. I am not one of them. Nothing against Bernier, I just feel that the Leafs are not the right fit. I am biased because I have always been a Reimer fan, but let's be honest: Reimer stood on his head in the playoffs last year and the team would not have even made the playoffs without him. The acquisition of Bernier (a career backup) only makes the goalie who actually has experience as a starter start to question himself. Also, the high-potential Frattin and Scrivens were too high a price to pay for a backup netminder. The draft pick just made the overpayment greater. I think that Bernier will be the primary starter early in the season while Reimer is still doubting himself, but some time in January Reimer will find his game again and outplay Bernier so dramatically that the latter will hardly play again for the rest of the season.
Contrarily to my feelings about Bernier, I think that Dave Bolland was a great acquisition for the Leafs. I do not expect him to be much more than a third-line player, but I think he gives the team a much-better replacement for the departing Leo Komarov. He also has greater offensive upside.
With free agency opening tomorrow, it is time for all of the rumours to either come to fruition or shrivel up and die. Contrary to popular scuttlebutt, I do not think that the Leafs will successfully sign Stephen Weiss. I do, however, believe that they will push hard for David Clarkson. I just hope they do not seriously overpay him. Unlike the past few years, I expect the Leafs will actually sign someone significant tomorrow. In some ways this is unfortunate, because I fear that Dave Nonis may get caught up in the excitement of the free agency event and may make some questionable moves. Here's hoping for an uneventful day!
July 5, 12:12am ET, update:
It seems that Mikhail Grabovski had some choice parting words for now-former coach Randy Carlyle. To be honest, I think he is fully within his right to think what he does. I appreciate what Carlyle did with the team and the ways he improved their defensive game, but I do think that he did wrong by Grabovski. Perhaps Grabo was a bit extreme in his language, but his sentiments are fair. He is not the type of player that Carlyle tried to make him. In my opinion, the best coaches attempt to work within a player's style and coach them within what they are, and the worst coaches try to mould players into the types of players that the coach wants them to be (eg. François Allaire). I do not think Carlyle is one of the worst coaches, but I do think that this is pretty much what he did with Grabovski. Here's wishing Mikhail well in his future endeavours, preferably in the Western Conference.
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