Geez, that pensionplanpuppets negative comment all was written by one person (aka Bower Power who has an American email address btw) with one person's opinion, and he trashed a lot of teams. The second was by Chemmy, the guy with an Alfred E Neuman avatar and all he hated was losing Grabovski. Come on, you take these two "ordinary fan" messed up goofballs opinions over TV analysts. OK you can, I don't.
The comment by Cam Charron from Leafs nation is OK with Clarkson for the now and is just concerned about his age and the length of the contract, but even Nonis just about came out and stated the same for the contract length. For the next four years it is Clarkson instead of Grabovski in the lineup and we'll see how it turns out. Thing is you can't get anywhere if all you do is sit still and do nothing.
Anyway, the original point I was stating is that Toronto is making moves to get into the playoffs while Montreal is just marking time with fillers that do not improve, and doing what, aiming for fifth place in the division? Just using only drafting to improve to win the cup is a strategy that might have worked fourty years ago, but will never win anything now except being a first round playoff exit. Even Edmonton with their three firsts overall won't progress far if all they do is nothing but sit on their picks. FA players have to be added and fit in.
Well, like I said, if you want to take TSN/The Toronto Star/Don Cherry seriously just because of their status while disregarding internet writers like Chemmy because they are mere bloggers, go ahead. I get the logic, but I've also read enough on both Pension Plan Puppets and in the mainstream media to know whose opinions I value more. Yes, they can be goofballs, they troll and I've even gotten into a twitter argument with one of the PPP guys before when they claimed Eller won't be as good as Grabovski, but they are very reasonable when it comes to analyzing the Leafs.
Clarkson fits a narrative which sells, he's a tough Toronto boy willing to do whatever it takes for his team. Grabovski is a temperamental European who is better at biting than punching. Much of Grabovski's value in the past comes from how he was used - which brings up potential advanced stats, another tough sell.
And yeah, Nonis is proactively being aggressive to make the Leafs better. But change isn't always good, even if the intentions are, and I'm not convinced the Leafs are actually taking a step forward and not crippling themselves by trying to revive former glories.
Et le But was talking about payment ... in dollars. Period.
Well no, being overpaid is relative. For instance I think Briere is overpaid and Plekanec is not. The Oilers overpaid for Ferrance while I wouldn't complain if the Habs give Subban 6.5M a year.
If both Grabovski and now Clarkson are/were overpaid, the former still had a reasonable contract, even if he should have probably been earning at most 5M, while the latter is getting paid more than a garbage goal specialist, even a very good one, should reasonably get, and for an unreasonable amount of time.