Menzinger
Kessel4LadyByng
I guess we'll see how it goes as soon as some of those top 7 are purged, but I think Babcock on record saying that Leivo's a top 9 player, reports of other teams inquiring and getting a "prohibitively high" price on him, him giving up his leverage to go UFA to stay here all point to him getting some assurances of opportunity. If he was just a placeholder, wouldn't we have taken something in return for him and let one of our other placeholders (ones that are more versatile, like Fehr or Soshnikov maybe) fill that pressbox seat?
ultimately this argument gets settled for us by next season or sooner, but I'm definitely not reading the tea leaves the same way
How I see things exactly too.
The only forward UfA I can see the Leafs signing is a centre to replace Bozak, too many in-house wingers to turn to older and more expensive versions come July. There's going to be 2-3 winger spots up for grabs.