Grabovski Bought Out

[Jolly good show chaps]

Just read that the Flyers and Giroux are close to an agreement on a long term contract worth more than ?8million/season. I know they bought Bryzgalov out, but do they have any higher priced players/centres that they'd trade to us? I also read that we were discussing a trade with them recently.

 

[cw]

Look, what do I know.  But as I see it Nonis only makes this move if there's something definitive and better in place.  I still think Grabovski had value on the trade market - diminished, sure, but not zero.  This looks like a timing issue and the only reason you lose Grabovski for 'nothing' is that something better is coming in.

That's certainly my hope, but, until we know what that is . . .

Allan Walsh ‏@walsha 21m
All NHL GM's received a memo from the League TODAY informing them no negotiations or verbal offers allowed on pending UFA's until tomorrow.

Walsh is an agent for NHL players.

Maybe Nonis got a little ahead of himself ... 

 

[Champ Kind]

That's certainly my hope, but, until we know what that is . . .

I'm with you.  Call me the eternal optimist but I'm hopeful.

Over the past few weeks, Nonis has repeatedly referenced the fact that there are some big names available and that he was hopeful the Leafs could take advantage of their financial clout.  Well, this is certainly one way to take advantage of that.

 

[AvroArrow]

Just read that the Flyers and Giroux are close to an agreement on a long term contract worth more than ?8million/season. I know they bought Bryzgalov out, but do they have any higher priced players/centres that they'd trade to us? I also read that we were discussing a trade with them recently.

A lot of their money is held up on their backend, with 6 guys making 3.5M+.  I've heard rumours of availability of Timonen, Coburn, Mezsaros, and Grossman.

I am hoping there is be a B. Schenn or Couts + Coburn type deal available to us.

 

[Omallley]

Is there any reason to suspect that it won't be?

No, but that doesn't mean it will be. The Leafs could conceivably strike out with every prominent UFA and find themselves with ~$6M in cap space going into the season. Until they actually use it, having it is pretty immaterial. I mean, the Islanders have a tone of cap space right now, but, everyone knows they're not going to use it, so, it's pretty worthless.

They could...On the flip side, this was the last possible day to initiate the compliance buyout to get the cap space in the first place. So I don't think it is immaterial - without doing this buyout today they wouldn't be in a position to pursue any of the prominent UFAs in the first place. (Let alone the likely situation in that this is because they have an agreement or a good idea that they can land what would be an upgrade on Grabovski on the roster at 5.5M/year).

I don't necessarily like the deal, mind you, but the cap space certainly isn't worthless.

 

[AvroArrow]

Allan Walsh ‏@walsha 21m
All NHL GM's received a memo from the League TODAY informing them no negotiations or verbal offers allowed on pending UFA's until tomorrow.

Walsh is an agent for NHL players.

Maybe Nonis got a little ahead of himself ... 

So, this means teams are allowed to pitch their team/city, but not negotiate or talk about money/term?

I'd laugh if the league refused to allow the Vinny to Philly deal because of this.  8)


EDIT: I just saw a Busta post from another thread saying money/term can be negotiated with compliance bought out players, not standard UFA's

 

[drummond]

I am shocked. Terrible mistake. Doubled if "saved" money go to insanely long Bozak deal, or we end up overpaying UFA such as Clarkson. Vicious circle. 3 years from now Nonis will be buying out those who he is about to sign tomorrow.

 

[Zee]

I am shocked. Terrible mistake. Doubled if "saved" money go to insanely long Bozak deal, or we end up overpaying UFA such as Clarkson. Vicious circle. 3 years from now Nonis will be buying out those who he is about to sign tomorrow.

It's difficult to say that for certain right now.  We don't know who Nonis will sign and for what money, or what they'll be doing 3 years from now.  For all we know Grabovski could be out of the league 3 years from now as well.

 

[Zee]

So any guesses as to where Grabovski ends up signing?

 

[BlueWhiteBlood]

So any guesses as to where Grabovski ends up signing?

Calgary...

 

[cw]

Allan Walsh ‏@walsha 21m
All NHL GM's received a memo from the League TODAY informing them no negotiations or verbal offers allowed on pending UFA's until tomorrow.

Walsh is an agent for NHL players.

Maybe Nonis got a little ahead of himself ... 

So, this means teams are allowed to pitch their team/city, but not negotiate or talk about money/term?

I'd laugh if the league refused to allow the Vinny to Philly deal because of this.  8)


EDIT: I just saw a Busta post from another thread saying money/term can be negotiated with compliance bought out players, not standard UFA's

Exactly. Technically, maybe a bunch of the "regular" UFAs are arguably still under contractual obligation under the new CBA until the UFA period begins Friday.

But I think it's absurd to expect that they can have discussions and not talk term and dollars. That is a hunk of what is at stake for a bunch of these guys and the security of their families (those that are not silly wealthy already).

 

[drummond]

I am shocked. Terrible mistake. Doubled if "saved" money go to insanely long Bozak deal, or we end up overpaying UFA such as Clarkson. Vicious circle. 3 years from now Nonis will be buying out those who he is about to sign tomorrow.

It's difficult to say that for certain right now.  We don't know who Nonis will sign and for what money, or what they'll be doing 3 years from now.  For all we know Grabovski could be out of the league 3 years from now as well.

Grabbo is not a checking centre. Carlyle used him there as he did not have a better option, right now he does - Bolland. He was basically punished for sucrificing for the Leafs, for playing something which was unnatural for him, for helping out. Surprise, surprise his offensive stats went down. The team which slots him into his traditional 2nd offensive unit role, will get 50-60 pts man.
Glad we will have our more expensive and on longer deals 40pts Bozie or 40 pts. Clarkson. Just brilliant.

 

[mr grieves]

I'm surprised there wasn't a trade available, to be honest.  Something doesn't add up: there were no takers across the league for Grabovski at $5.5M, yet some are convinced the amounts to sign Clarkson, Bozak, Weiss, et all will be highly inflated.

I'm of the opinion that the Leafs are going to upgrade at centre in the next little while.  In the end, this will come across as Grabovski for (upgraded player) XY with MLSE ponying up a boatlaod of money to make it happen.

But what upgrade do you think is out there? I could two FAs. And I don't know of any upgrades being available by trade.

Respectfully, that is an unreasonable thing to base an opinion on.  I'm not concerned that you don't know what is available, but I can assure you Nonis - and his management team - does.

I won't have an opinion until I see how everything turns out. What I was asking is what centers are out there that you think are upgrades on Grabbo? We know the UFAs, and we can all read depth charts and infer which centers might be moved.

I'm doing what people do on message boards: speculating as to who that XY might be. I'm sure we can come up with some names, and then discuss whether they're worth the cost relative to Grabovski.

 

[mr grieves]

So any guesses as to where Grabovski ends up signing?

Calgary...

Detroit, Boston.

 

[mr grieves]

I am shocked. Terrible mistake. Doubled if "saved" money go to insanely long Bozak deal, or we end up overpaying UFA such as Clarkson. Vicious circle. 3 years from now Nonis will be buying out those who he is about to sign tomorrow.

It's difficult to say that for certain right now.  We don't know who Nonis will sign and for what money, or what they'll be doing 3 years from now.  For all we know Grabovski could be out of the league 3 years from now as well.

Grabbo is not a checking centre. Carlyle used him there as he did not have a better option, right now he does - Bolland. He was basically punished for sucrificing for the Leafs, for playing something which was unnatural for him, for helping out. Surprise, surprise his offensive stats went down. The team which slots him into his traditional 2nd offensive unit role, will get 50-60 pts man.
Glad we will have our more expensive and on longer deals 40pts Bozie or 40 pts. Clarkson. Just brilliant.

Silver lining, if that happens, Nonis won't be GMing next summer.

 

[Strangelove]

I am shocked. Terrible mistake. Doubled if "saved" money go to insanely long Bozak deal, or we end up overpaying UFA such as Clarkson. Vicious circle. 3 years from now Nonis will be buying out those who he is about to sign tomorrow.

It's difficult to say that for certain right now.  We don't know who Nonis will sign and for what money, or what they'll be doing 3 years from now.  For all we know Grabovski could be out of the league 3 years from now as well.

Grabbo is not a checking centre. Carlyle used him there as he did not have a better option, right now he does - Bolland. He was basically punished for sucrificing for the Leafs, for playing something which was unnatural for him, for helping out. Surprise, surprise his offensive stats went down. The team which slots him into his traditional 2nd offensive unit role, will get 50-60 pts man.
Glad we will have our more expensive and on longer deals 40pts Bozie or 40 pts. Clarkson. Just brilliant.

Where do you want to slot him?  Second line?  Where does that leave Kadri?

Grabovski is an expensive, one-dimensional player whose only dimension was mediocre to poor to past few seasons.  Unlike, for example, Kadri who has a way of maintaining puck control despite his size, Grabo gets repeatedly victimized for being small and weak on the puck, leading to turnovers and scrambly play in the Leafs' end, which is a problem insofar as he's more or less a black hole defensively.  He's not the type of player the Leafs should be looking to build around long-term given the current make-up of the team and Nonis is right to move in a different direction.

 

[Bullfrog]

If I'm correct in assuming the one dimension you're referring to is his scoring, I fail to see how he's been mediocre, other than last year.

 

[bustaheims]

So any guesses as to where Grabovski ends up signing?

Nashville.

 

[cw]

Igor Eronko ‏@IgorEronko 14m
Mikhail Grabovski to Pressball.by: ?It?s very sad to leave #TML fans, probably the best fans in the world. I wish them to win SC without me?

Loved the guy's heart.

 

[drummond]

Friedman on FAN 590 "you heard it behind the scenes and you know it was bad" RE: the relationship between Carlyle and Grabovski.