The Maple Leafs hope to bounce back from a lackluster, unenergetic effort as they face former teammate Mikhail Grabovski and the Washington Capitals at Air Canada Center on Saturday.
Toronto is currently 2-1 on their five-game home stand, with victories over Buffalo and the NY Islanders before their 4-2 loss to Nashville on Thursday. The club begins a key stretch of five games in eight nights against the Capitals, who will be playing their second of back-to-back games after losing 3-2 in Montreal on Friday.
Alexander Ovechkin scored his league-leading 18th and 19th goals against the Canadiens and has traditionally had great success against the Maple Leafs, with 25 goals and 21 assists in 30 career games, but rivaling him for the spotlight will be Grabovski, who faces his former club for the first time since the remaining four years of his contract was bought out in early July.
The decision made by Leafs GM Dave Nonis to use his second compliance buyout on Grabovski, who registered only nine goals and seven assists in 48 games after the first year of a five year, $27.5 Million contract extension continues to be debated on social media by fans and advanced stats aficionados. While the final verdict whether it was the correct move won’t be known for years, the evidence to this point indicates Nonis made the right move.
The 29-year-old center is enjoying a similar level of offensive success in Washington as he did with the Leafs after being acquired from Montreal in 2008, with seven goals and 12 assists in 23 games. Grabovski had three 20+goal seasons in Toronto under Ron Wilson, whose wide-open speed-oriented offense fit well with Grabovski’s freewheeling, improvisational style.
That was not the case under Randy Carlyle, whose lack of trust in Grabovski’s game led to decreased ice time playing with defensively responsible line mates Nikolai Kulemin, Jay McClement and Leo Komarov.
That lack of trust, to go along with Grabovski’s inconsistent play made Nonis’s decision to jettison him in favor of re-signing Tyler Bozak a no-brainer.
“We just felt with the (David)Bolland signing and some of the other things we wanted to do — re-signing Tyler Bozak and Nazem Kadri — well, we just needed the cap room. We made the decision we thought needed to be made.” Nonis said to the Toronto Sun’s
Mike Zeisberger .”It was a hard decision to make. Grabo was a very good player. I knew he would have a positive impact wherever he ended up.”
In fact, the difference on the cap this season would have been negligible if the Leafs did not buyout Grabovski, let Bozak sign with another NHL team and use their second compliance buyout on John-Michael Liles(Option A). Assuming all the other off-season signings(Paul Ranger, Mark Fraser, Cody Franson, Nazem Kadri, David Clarkson and Mason Raymond) occurred, the difference on the cap is just $25,000, but the real difference would have been the product on the ice and how it meshed with their coach’s team structure.
Option A
Grabovski $5.5 Million
Clarkson(FA signing) $5.25 Million
Bolland(Trade) $3.375 Million
Kadri(RFA signing) $2.9 Million
Buyout of Liles and Komisarek -$8.125 Million
Cap Allocation = $8.9 Million
Option B
Bozak $4.2 Million
Clarkson(FA Signing) $5.25 Million
Bolland(Trade) $3.375 Million
Kadri(RFA signing) $2.9 Million
Liles $2.95 Million($925,000 salary buried in AHL)
Buyout of Grabovski and Komisarek -$9.75 Million
Cap Allocation = $8.925 Million
With Carlyle’s distrust still a factor, the first line duties would have likely fallen upon Kadri, as Grabovski had never been a good fit with Phil Kessel because both players desire to control the puck all the time. The loss of Bolland three weeks ago would have left the club with a 23-year-old center who has shown that he is not ready or capable of handling such a more prominent role and another center who did not hold the coach’s confidence.
Based on how many other ex-Leafs perform against their former club, Grabovski could very well light it up on Hockey Night In Canada, but no matter how he plays tonight or for the rest of the season, the Leafs appear to be a better team without him.
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Bozak was expected to make his return to the lineup on Saturday after practicing most of the week, but there continues to be some residual pain in his hamstring, which has kept him out of the lineup nearly a month. Newcomer Peter Holland will again center the line with Kessel and James van Riemsdyk, while Kadri will move down to the second line with Joffrey Lupul and David Clarkson.
Defenseman Mark Fraser has recovered from the knee injury suffered last Saturday against Buffalo and will be a game time decision.
James Reimer will be in goal for Toronto, after Jonathan Bernier had played two straight during the week. Braden Holtby will be between the pipes for Washington, as backup Michal Neuvirth played against the Canadiens on Friday.
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