Cap'n Flavour
Registered User
a division of two financial parts.
Those two parts being...?
Kadri has played 6x seasons. The 1 game in 2009-10 counts as far as RFA years are concerned.
No he hasn't:
"Accrued Season" means any League Year during which a Player was on a Club's Active Roster for 40 (30 if the Player is a goalie) or more Regular Season Games, provided that, for the purposes of calculating an Accrued Season under this Agreement, games missed due to a hockey-related injury incurred while on a Club's Active Roster shall count as games played for purposes of calculating an Accrued Season but only during the League Year in
which the injury was incurred and a maximum of one additional season.
Any Player who either has seven (7) Accrued Seasons or is 27 years of age or older as of June 30 of the end of a League Year, shall, if his most recent SPC has expired, with such expiry occurring either as of June 30 of such League Year or June 30 of any prior League Year, become an Unrestricted Free Agent.
Kadri only has 3 accrued seasons. Forget about the games played, he'll be a UFA in 2018.
I don't see what the rush is in identifying core players. The Leafs have so little talent on the roster that there shouldn't be any risk of spending up to the cap to retain the top players. By the time Marner and Nylander are ready for big extensions, garbage contracts like Robidas and Polak will be gone... hopefully Bozak too. Horton is only an issue in the offseason or if he recovers. There's no point in signing good players to short-term deals to "prove themselves" - if management sees Kadri, Rielly and Bernier as part of the core, then buying out UFA years is sensible.
If anything, I think they'll have an easier time getting Rielly on a long-term deal. For whatever reason, lots of defensemen have committed to long-term bargain deals as RFAs, much more so than forwards. Think Hedman, McDonagh and even Josi recently. More of these contracts have worked out than not.