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Petter Granberg was expected to be one of the Toronto Maple Leafs defensive prospects who would get a chance at winning an NHL job, but the club reported on Friday that the blueliner suffered a torn Achilles during off-season training in Sweden and will be out a minimum of four months after having the tendon surgically repaired.
The 22-year-old was selected by Toronto in the fourth round of the 2010 NHL Draft and played 60 games between the Toronto Marlies of the AHL and NHL Maple Leafs, scoring one goal and 14 assists.
This is the second Toronto prospect to go down with an Achilles injury, as 2011 top pick Tyler Biggs suffered a partial tear late in the Marlies season.
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Buffalo Sabres GM Tim Murray hinting that his club may choose to buyout the last four years of center Cody Hodgson’s six-year, $25.5 Million contract will likely be noted in the mental rolodex of NHL general managers looking for reclamation projects or players that may be willing to sign a short-term deal for a low salary.
Hodgson likely exodus from Buffalo is due to a combination of factors. The 2008 10th overall pick had a career-worst six goals in 2014-15 due mostly to former coach Ted Nolan playing him on the wing and on the fourth line.
The Sabres are likely going to play rookies Jack Eichel and Sam Reinhart, Zemgus Girgensons and Johan Larsson up the middle, which leaves no room for Hodgson to move back to his natural center position. At 25, the Toronto native can be bought out for 1/3rd of the remaining $18.5 Million owed, spread out over the next eight seasons(around $800,000 per year). If Buffalo waited until next summer, the buyout would be 2/3rds of the remaining salary and would result in a cap hit more than double($1.611 Million)over the next six years.
The likelihood of Hodgson finding a long term deal coming off a bad season and a buyout is slim, so it is probable that he will look to sign a one-year-deal for a lower salary with a club where he can get ice time, play an offensive role and get good numbers in hopes of striking it big as an unrestricted free agent next summer.
The Maple Leafs could be the perfect scenario for Hodgson if they move either Nazem Kadri or Tyler Bozak in a trade this summer. It would be a situation similar to last summer’s free agent signings of Daniel Winnik and Mike Santorelli, which gave the forwards the exposure of playing in the spotlight in Toronto and enabled the Leafs to move them at the deadline in deals for future assets.
With the expected changeover of the Toronto roster before training camp in September and opportunities for playing time, the Leafs management team could choose to add a few short term free agents as place sitters while youngsters like William Nylander, Brendan Leipsic and Connor Brown gain another year of experience in the American Hockey League.
Winnik and Santorelli are on the market and might be willing to return, although it is probable that they will look for a deal for more than one year.
David Booth did not show much until after the trade deadline, but scored six goals in the final month of the season and indicated he would like to return to Toronto, but that would only make sense if the money was right.
Other possibilities include versatile 28-year-old forward Tyler Kennedy, who was swapped by San Jose to the New York Islanders at the deadline, Newmarket, ON native Steve Downie, who scored 14 goals and registered 238 penalty minutes, as well as other players who do not receive qualifying offers or get bought out before July 1.
Do not expect Brendan Shanahan to spend vast sums of money in a below average free agent pool, but the Leafs could be very active in shopping for bargains over the summer.
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