I think it's because he might be making contract demands that are more than he is worth, and that might make Nonis either trade him for whatever assets he can get or let him walk at free agency.
Maybe he isn't one those people that has fetish for 2nd round picks, maybe he's just afraid that Nonis might come March 5th.
Out of curiosity, do you know something the rest of us dont?
He has a young family here, longest serving leaf, has expressed his interest in staying with toronto and low interest of leaving this city even saying that Grabo leaving has no bearing on his personal preference (all well documented in the press).
Does this sound like a guy getting ready to demand top $?
If Nonis makes a hockey decision not to keep him, thats one thing, but we need to admit that and i want to know who we are replacing him with. Whatever he is worth doesn't mean you will find a replacement to eat those minutes elsewhere. If fact, i doubt you find them at all.
Also, based on Komarov's interest to come back and play for Leafs it wouldn't be such a bad idea to factor that in while thinking about Kulemin (always nice to have one guy on the team that speaks the same language!
To me, Kulemin & Komarov for $5mil/3 years together is worth more to leafs than Bolland @ $5mil/8 years.
Don't get me wrong i love Bolland but 7-8 year deals for a guy coming off a VERY serious injury is pretty risky!