After the signing of free agent winger David Clarkson and re-signing of center Tyler Bozak, the Maple Leafs maneuvers for the remainder of the summer may be mundane by comparison, but could be no less important.
With the completion of the four day rookie camp at the Mastercard Center in Etobicoke, ON this past week, the club will settle into their summer routine. The Leafs regular season schedule will be released on July 17 and barring an unforeseen trade, the only significant news that will take place between now and the 2013 Rookie Tournament in London, ON in early September will be the negotiations between Toronto GM Dave Nonis, his management team and a number of restricted free agents still yet to be signed to new deals.
The club continues to negotiate with defensemen Mark Fraser and Carl Gunnarsson, both who have filed for salary arbitration, as well as Cody Franson, who led the Leafs in defensive scoring with 29 points and center Nazem Kadri, who was second in team scoring with 44 points.
Kadri paid a visit to the club’s practice facility on Friday and updated the assembled media on contract talks.
"We're in conversation and there's still some work to be done” Kadri said, “but we're talking and that's the most important thing."
The negotiations could get dicey with the 22 year old restricted free agent depending on how amenable his agent is to signing a short-term bridge contract. Using players from the 2009 draft class(in which Kadri was selected seventh overall) as a comparative, top pick John Tavares, second pick Victor Hedman, fourth selection Evander Kane and sixth pick Oliver Ekman-Larsson were all signed to deals of five years or more after the completion of their entry level deals, while only Colorado’s Matt Duchene agreed to a short term extension of two years.
Kadri finished with 18 goals and 26 assists in 48 games, but had a noticeable decline in production in the final month of the season, scoring only one goal in April and one goal in the first round loss to Boston.
The Leafs will likely aim to sign the London, ON native to a two or three year deal, which would give a much deserved pay increase in the range of $3 Million to $3.5 Million per season, while allowing Toronto more time to evaluate whether Kadri is capable of becoming the first line center the team has been missing since the departure of Mats Sundin. A bridge contract of two or three years would still give the Leafs some options at the end of the deal as Kadri would be an arbitration eligible restricted free agent and not free to leave as an unrestricted free agent.
If however Kadri’s representatives are looking for a long term deal of five years or more(buying up UFA years), his salary demands would likely increase to more than $5 Million per season, which is a cap hit that the Leafs would have trouble fitting under the decreased $64.3 Million salary cap.
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