Listen to my interview with former Leafs Assistant GM and player agent Bill Watters as we discuss the Grabovski buyout, Tyler Bozak, David Clarkson and all things Leaf related:
The Leafs have exercised their second compliance buyout on center Mikhail Grabovski, erasing the last four years of his five year, $27.5 Million deal.
As recently as Sunday, Leafs GM Dave Nonis stated that he did not expect to use the second of his two compliance buyouts this summer and that Grabovski would get a chance to bounce back from a bad season, in which he scored nine goals and seven assists in 48 games, playing primarily a checking role.
The buyout of Grabovski comes on the heels of rumors that the Leafs have been shopping the 29 year old, to open up cap space to re-sign pending free agent Tyler Bozak or trade/sign another center.
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Both TSN’s Darren Dreger and the Fourth Period’s David Pagnotta have reported that the Dallas Stars have expressed interest in soon-to-be unrestricted free agent Tyler Bozak.
The 27 year old Bozak continues to negotiate with Toronto in hopes of securing a multi-year contract extension, but the Stars could be a viable option after losing out in the Vincent Lecavalier sweepstakes earlier this week.
ESPN's Pierre LeBrun indicates that besides the Stars, Detroit, St. Louis, Calgary and Anaheim have expressed interest in Bozak, but that Toronto is still in mix.
Bozak drawing significant interest from other clubs would appear to decrease the chances of his returning to Toronto, since a bidding war would raise his price tag, but Dreger included the effect that Phil Kessel would have, as Bozak’s close friend and with his contract up at the end of the 2013-14 season.
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Dreger also reported on Wednesday that new MLSE boss Tim Leiweke and Wayne Gretzky have spoken recently about the Hall of Famer about joining the sports media conglomerate in some executive capacity.
Similar rumors sprung up in January after the dismissal of Team President and GM Brian Burke, but they were squelched by Sportsnet FAN 590 host Bob McCown, saying that a member of the MLSE board had talked to “the Great One” and he was not interested.
The 52 year old Gretzky has been conspicuously disassociated from the NHL since stepping down as head coach of the Phoenix Coyotes in 2009 and losing his 10% stake in the Coyotes franchise when the club filed for Chapter 11 bankrutpcy, but with the resolution of the ownership situation in Arizona after the vote by the Glendale City Council on Tuesday, it is possible that Gretzky’s self-imposed distance from the NHL would end and he would be open to being involved in an ownership or management with another club.
Dreger indicated that Gretzky and MLSE have put the discussions on hold, but that the two sides plan on revisiting at some point.
Gretzky's potential role with the club was not specified, but with the presence of Leiweke and his penchant for attention grabbing maneuvers, the Leafs vacant team president position would make sense.
With the MLSE ownership split between two media conglomerates, the hiring of arguably the best hockey player of all time in any role would be a public relations coup, but it has to be a concern whether his past experience as point man for the Canadian Olympic Team and director of hockey operations in Phoenix constitutes enough of a resume.
Hiring Wayne Gretzky to be the face of a franchise is one thing. Having him involved in day-to-day hockey operations under an intense media microscope in Toronto is quite another.
Check back throughout the day, there is a good possibility of news coming down.
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