Maybe rather than claim him, the Bruins can throw Toronto a 6th or 7th round pick and a low level prospect to take him in a trade if Toronto keeps some of the cap number.
I honestly think that Komisarek has been good this season, he was working his ass off in the offseason to get back to playing well. He did that for the 4 games he was in and people actually wanted him in the lineup for a change.
He played terrible for about 2.5 years and that bad play did him in...and the Leafs wanted to start seeing what they have in guys like Holzer/Kostka/Fraser etc.
I don't blame him for his bad play though...I don't know if any defenseman under Ron Wilson played good because he had zero idea how to teach defense let alone coach it.
Komisarek was also frustrated at practice once...broke his stick on the crossbar and the particles of the stick got him in the eye and he was out for a week or so..I guess Carlyle didn't like seeing that either.
As far as reducing salary from the Leafs POV, they won't do that, Komisarek is an amnesty buyout candidate next year if nobody claims him.