As we move closer to the weekend and the rookie tournament at Ricoh Coliseum, one of the more promising prospects to suit up for the Toronto Maple Leafs will be 2016 second-round pick Carl Grundstrom.
The feisty winger excelled at the 2017 World Junior for Sweden, played well for Frolunda in the SHL, scored three goals in six Calder Cup Playoff games for the Toronto Marlies and could be ready to challenge for an NHL job as soon as next season, but the Leafs would not have the player that Assistant GM Mark Hunter dubbed the “Swedish Leo Komarov” if it were not for the trade that brought Brooks Laich to Toronto.
While the trade of Dion Phaneuf to Ottawa or getting two second-round picks from San Jose for Roman Polak and Nick Spaling were coups pulled off by GM Lou Lamoriello, the deal that sent Daniel Winnik to Washington and taking back Laich’s $4.5 Million salary may have yielded the best return for Toronto.
The Ottawa deal was made primarily to clear out the final four seasons of Phaneuf’s seven-year, $49 Million contract, and to do that, Lamoriello had to take back more than $9 Million in contracts in Milan Michalek, Jared Cowen and Colin Greening for the 2016-17 season.
The Leafs also got minor league forward Tobias Lindberg and the Sens 2017 second round pick in the swap. Lindberg has been lost in the shuffle with the Marlies, scoring only six times in 44 games last season. The second round pick was used to select Kingston defenseman Eemeli Rasanen.
The Polak deal gave Lamoriello a third second-rounder in 2017 (which he used as part of the trade with Anaheim for Frederik Andersen), and an additional second pick in 2018, which will make up for the missing third rounder they had to surrender to hire the Leafs GM away from New Jersey.
Laich (a 12-year NHL veteran who received a training camp invite from the Los Angeles Kings on Wednesday) played only 21 games for Toronto at the end of the 2015-16 season and finished off the final year of his contract as a part-time player with the AHL Marlies, but the deal also brought them defenseman Connor Carrick and the Caps 2016 second round pick, which the Leafs used to select Grundstrom.
The 19-year-old signed a three-year entry level deal in April and will take part in games against the Montreal Canadiens and Ottawa Senators this weekend, but is expected to return back to Frolunda before heading to North America next September.
Patrick Marleau practicing with his new teammates at the MasterCard Centre in Etobicoke, ON on Wednesday.
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Leafs forward James van Riemsdyk is trying to ignore the constant trade talk that comes with being a player entering the final year of his contract.
“That’s stuff you can’t worry about as a player,” van Riemsdyk said to the Toronto Star’s Kevin McGran on Wednesday. “It’s out of your control. I just want to go out there, play, and be a productive member of the team, and hopefully the rest of it figures itself out.”
The 28-year-old winger score 29 goals last season and is expected to be looking for a long-term contract with a significant pay increase next summer.
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An interesting little tidbit from former Leaf Colton Orr, who is promoting the movie “Goon – Last of the Enforcers,” in which he makes an appearance.
Nearly half of Orr’s 477 games were played over five seasons with Toronto, where he scored eight of his 12 NHL goals.
Orr scored a career-high four times in his debut season with the Leafs, and remembers one with particular fondness.
“My most memorable goal happened in my 300th NHL game. It was in New Jersey and we were playing against the Devils. I happened to be sprung on a breakaway on Martin Brodeur. I shot low blocker. It went in and I remember Mark Fraser going over to Brodeur and selling it like I’d done it 100 times before,” Orr said to Sportsology’s Russ Cohen. “Scoring on a Hall-of-Famer. You can’t beat it. My wife and family were there for my 300th NHL game, so it’s a very big memory.”
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