Grabovski and Kulemin Sign with NYI

[SI90]

This is what irks me and the problem with being a bubble team: not bad enough to jettison players at the deadline, not good enough to make playoffs and being a threat consistently. Just constant tinkering and always seeming to let players go for nothing or getting the wrong end of every deal (taking salary back, giving up late round picks).

could be worse, you could be a lottery bubble team every year like my isles...

 

[Holymakinaw]

Like your scenario is much better than what Mess outlined ?
Ouch.

The situation: The Leafs need to sign alot of bottom feeders for little money.

It's not hard to realize the Leafs have a load of average players signed for big money. That's what you get when you build a team with Free Agent signings.

Incorrect.

The Leafs have ONE bad contract, in Clarkson. After that, we have a bunch of exceptional/on their way to being exceptional players like Kessel, Phaneuf, JVR, Kadri, Rielly, Gardiner, Bernier all signed up, and a few "pretty good" ones in Bozak, Lupul, Robidas & Polak.

Every team needs to round out their roster with jorneymen/4th liners. That's all we need now.

 

[johnny_rudeboy]

Incorrect.

The Leafs have ONE bad contract, in Clarkson. After that, we have a bunch of exceptional/on their way to being exceptional players like Kessel, Phaneuf, JVR, Kadri, Rielly, Gardiner, Bernier all signed up, and a few "pretty good" ones in Bozak, Lupul, Robidas & Polak.

Every team needs to round out their roster with jorneymen/4th liners. That's all we need now.

Next year Kadri and Bernier will have to be resigned. They will probably double their current paychecks. They are both on $2.9m each.

And Gardiner needs to be resigned this year. But I guess we can get him on a bridge deal, 2 years $3.5m per year.

 

[KuleminFan41]

Next year Kadri and Bernier will have to be resigned. They will probably double their current paychecks. They are both on $2.9m each.

And Gardiner needs to be resigned this year. But I guess we can get him on a bridge deal, 2 years $3.5m per year.

Why are people concerned about this still? Remember how people were moaning about Nonis and that he would not sign Kadri and Franson, he'd have to trade them both? Shortly thereafter he signed both of them? Oh, but people don't bring that up because it takes actually praising someone people don't like. The Leafs currently have 16 million to spend with Franson, Gardiner , Ashton and Reimer to sign off the current team which they certainly can get done under that. Leafs will be more than fine to sign Bernier and Kadri next season because virtually they're the only ones to sign through for next season

 

[ShaneFalco]

Grabs will do what he does best and skate around in circles, passing to noone, only to get knocked on his arse
While Kulemin will look to pass every time even if he has a opening to wind up and blast one

 

[Holymakinaw]

Next year Kadri and Bernier will have to be resigned. They will probably double their current paychecks. They are both on $2.9m each.

And Gardiner needs to be resigned this year. But I guess we can get him on a bridge deal, 2 years $3.5m per year.

Sure, but that's nothing abnormal. Some player's salaries go up. And sometimes, teams move players to make room for situations like that. Hard to speculate on NEXT season's roster, as we have no idea how THIS season will go yet. I'd imagine there will be a move or two, just like every year, to make room for guys, and continue the game of tetris with the salary cap.

 

[Holymakinaw]

Grabs will do what he does best and skate around in circles, passing to noone, only to get knocked on his arse
While Kulemin will look to pass every time even if he has a opening to wind up and blast one

LOL. Yup. I'd have liked to have kept Kulemin, but not for THAT money.

Good luck to the Isles.

 

[Metal God]

Although I like both, imo both players are overrated. No big loss on either.

Most of these comments in this topic are a typical example of us Leaf fans overrating our players.

What success did we have with Kuli and Grabo?

I love what Nonis, Shanahan and the rest of management are doing so far. Not throwing big money at players. What a change!

As much as I hate to say it. Hopefully we tank. Mission McDavid!

 

[johnny_rudeboy]

Sure, but that's nothing abnormal. Some player's salaries go up. And sometimes, teams move players to make room for situations like that. Hard to speculate on NEXT season's roster, as we have no idea how THIS season will go yet. I'd imagine there will be a move or two, just like every year, to make room for guys, and continue the game of tetris with the salary cap.

Yeah I realize that, and that was kind of my point. I was replying to your post that we had the team locked up and everything was fine. We still have to fit every one under the cap, and planning a head is part of it.

 

[johnny_rudeboy]

Although I like both, imo both players are overrated. No big loss on either.

Most of these comments in this topic are a typical example of us Leaf fans overrating our players.

What success did we have with Kuli and Grabo?

I love what Nonis, Shanahan and the rest of management are doing so far. Not throwing big money at players. What a change!

As much as I hate to say it. Hopefully we tank. Mission McDavid!

Well the only "success" we have had in the past decade was when those two was on the roster.

Now I did not really want either on the team, I want us to rebuild. And sure Islanders throw a lot of money on them but seeing as they needed to get over the salary floor they had to. And if you gonna overpay for some one, why not a pair with proven chemistry between them who are good possession players and one very good defensively once you lose possession.

 

[HoweHullOrr]

Like your scenario is much better than what Mess outlined ?
Ouch.

The situation: The Leafs need to sign alot of bottom feeders for little money.

It's not hard to realize the Leafs have a load of average players signed for big money. That's what you get when you build a team with Free Agent signings.

Incorrect.

The Leafs have ONE bad contract, in Clarkson. After that, we have a bunch of exceptional/on their way to being exceptional players like Kessel, Phaneuf, JVR, Kadri, Rielly, Gardiner, Bernier all signed up, and a few "pretty good" ones in Bozak, Lupul, Robidas & Polak.

Every team needs to round out their roster with jorneymen/4th liners. That's all we need now.

Calling Phaneuf, Kadri, and Gardiner exceptional is no doubt a stretch. Kadri and Gardiner are young and talented no doubt, but have holes in their game. Over time, we hope they can improve these deficiencies to become perhaps an "exceptional" player.

Phaneuf is a solid, minute eating defender, but is not in the top twenty percentile for top pairing defenders, and may not even be in the top 30% percentile of top pairing defenders.

The direction and bigger focus on building through the draft is encouraging in most recent years e.g., Reilly & Nylander but there still as a pretty big gap in the elite talent area in our prospects versus other teams. And, some of the teams in this category are already much stronger and are more proven than us right now.

Wearing blue goggles and waving pom-poms is nice and all, but we have to hope our management has a much better and objective assessment of our team than this.

 

[BonMorrison]

I think we're the only fanbase that can simultaneously underrate and overrate ex-players in one thread.

 

[johnny_rudeboy]

I think we're the only fanbase that can simultaneously underrate and overrate ex-players in one thread.

Usually the posters who greatly underrate them and calling them thrash etc are the ones who previous season have been singing their praises and that THEY are key to our future success.

Blue tints and all that.

 

[yubbers]

Jesus

Those some ugly numbers. Party on Garth

 

[Gary Nylund]

Incorrect.

The Leafs have ONE bad contract, in Clarkson. After that, we have a bunch of exceptional/on their way to being exceptional players like Kessel, Phaneuf, JVR, Kadri, Rielly, Gardiner, Bernier all signed up, and a few "pretty good" ones in Bozak, Lupul, Robidas & Polak.

Every team needs to round out their roster with jorneymen/4th liners. That's all we need now.

These guys were one of the worst teams in the league last year.

Exceptional? That's one way of looking at it I guess.

Oh sorry, some aren't exceptional yet, but they're on their way. And of course your predictions are always spot on.

 

[hockeyfanz*]

Obviously, just didn't think that's enough to justify how bad he is defensively/how individual-orientated he is. Having his buddy Kulemin will help.

Says the guy who roots for the Leafs..probably amongst the worst teams in the league for defensive forwards if not the absolute worst.

 

[hockeyfanz*]

Incorrect.

The Leafs have ONE bad contract, in Clarkson. After that, we have a bunch of exceptional/on their way to being exceptional players like Kessel, Phaneuf, JVR, Kadri, Rielly, Gardiner, Bernier all signed up, and a few "pretty good" ones in Bozak, Lupul, Robidas & Polak.

Every team needs to round out their roster with jorneymen/4th liners. That's all we need now.

Horrible Post. Is this trolling? Do you know what exceptional means? I don't think you do.

 

[Holymakinaw]

Horrible Post. Is this trolling? Do you know what exceptional means? I don't think you do.

I'm certain that you don't.

 

[Smif]

Says the guy who roots for the Leafs..probably amongst the worst teams in the league for defensive forwards if not the absolute worst.

We breed one way forwards.

 

[Milan90]

Next year Kadri and Bernier will have to be resigned. They will probably double their current paychecks. They are both on $2.9m each.

And Gardiner needs to be resigned this year. But I guess we can get him on a bridge deal, 2 years $3.5m per year.

Remember last year when everyone was up in arms about how we needed Kessel, Phaneuf, Franson, Kadri signed and that we'd have to let one of those key assets go... Yeah, this problem is a much smaller one than that one and we have more cap room.

 

[diceman934]

Horrible Post. Is this trolling? Do you know what exceptional means? I don't think you do.

Not trolling, but clearly using exceptional and Leaf players in the same sentence is a misuse of the word. There is nothing exceptional about any of the players mentioned except Kessel, who is a very skilled offensive forward who is exceptionally weak defensively.

 

[Gary Nylund]

Yeah maybe the problem is with the word "exceptional". Had he used "breathtaking" then I'm sure we'd all be fine with that.

 

[achtungbaby]

Incorrect.

The Leafs have ONE bad contract, in Clarkson. After that, we have a bunch of exceptional/on their way to being exceptional players like Kessel, Phaneuf, JVR, Kadri, Rielly, Gardiner, Bernier all signed up, and a few "pretty good" ones in Bozak, Lupul, Robidas & Polak.

Every team needs to round out their roster with jorneymen/4th liners. That's all we need now.

So the core is fine, it's our 4th line that's holding us back? That's pretty optimistic, even for you. We have more then one bad contract even if some don't see it yet.

 

[Purity*]

Incorrect.

The Leafs have ONE bad contract, in Clarkson. After that, we have a bunch of exceptional/on their way to being exceptional players like Kessel, Phaneuf, JVR, Kadri, Rielly, Gardiner, Bernier all signed up, and a few "pretty good" ones in Bozak, Lupul, Robidas & Polak.

Every team needs to round out their roster with jorneymen/4th liners. That's all we need now.

Dude, put your bias aside and try to judge things realistically.

You cannot call any contract "pretty good" when they haven't played a single game in a Leafs uniform. Not to mention you have a pretty bleak definition of a "good" contract and a "exceptional" player.

 

[mcleex]

Any pictures of these guys in their new jerseys yet? Damn that's gonna look weird ...