According to a tweet from Jon Abbott, the play-by-play voice of the Toronto Marlies, forward Leo Komarov has been loaned to Dynamo Moscow of the KHL, confirming the reports made late last week. The 25 year old Estonian-born winger played all three games over the weekend and scored his sixth goal of the season in Toronto's victory over Hamilton on Saturday.
The Maple Leafs stated in their press release that the terms of the agreement would not be released, but it is clear by Komarov's play so far that he is a strong candidate to make the big club once a new collective bargaining agreement is reached and they wanted to make sure that if the forward returned to his former KHL club, that he would be free to come back once the players and owners sign on the dotted line.
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The American Hockey League announced that Toronto Marlies center Nazem Kadri was selected as the their Player of the Week this morning.
Kadri registered eight points (one goal, seven assists) and a plus-3 rating in the last two games of the Marlies eight game road swing and two contests at Ricoh Coliseum this past weekend, with Toronto winning three of those four games.
The 22 year old London, ON native picked up an assist in a 6-5 overtime win at Oklahoma City on Tuesday, had two assists in a losing effort in Hamilton Friday night, but doubled his output the next day in a 6-1 Marlies win, registering four assists and being named the first star of the game. In a 5-0 victory over Abbotsford, he scored his second goal of the season.
Kadri started the season with difficulties, as he was expected to be in top shape after following the program of former Leaf and fitness guru Gary Roberts, but instead drew criticism from the coach Dallas Eakins for having more body fat than he would prefer.
The former seventh overall pick in 2009 was expected to take a step forward in his third pro season, after scoring 40 points in 48 games with the Marlies last season and another 10 points in 11 playoff games, but through nine games he had registered only three assists, prompting Eakins to bench the talented forward for a game during Toronto’s swing through Texas two weeks ago.
In the last five games, Kadri has surged with 11 points(two goals, nine assists) and has supplanted Keith Aucoin for the team lead with 12 assists.
The fact to recognize in this situation is that the young forward was falling short of expectations early in the year as Eakins publicly remained positive and protective, but only became a significant contributor after being benched to send him a signal.
Does this mean that Kadri will be a player constantly in need of prodding and poking to get the best out of him?? Does that close attention and scrutiny fit with the coaching style of Randy Carlyle??
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