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According to a few Russian/KHL sources including Risto Pakarinen, it has been confirmed that Leo Komarov will be returning to the NHL and will not explore any further options with the Moscow Dynamo.
Unfortunately for Leafs fans, however, it appears that Komarov may be looking to test the free agency waters come July 1st when he becomes an UFA. While Leo has previously stated that if he were to return to the NHL he would give Toronto the first chance to resign him, I get the feeling that the hard hitting, aggravating forward is aware that interest in his services has spread league wide.
With that being said, the Toronto Maple Leafs are under a new head boss in Brendan Shanahan who is looking to change the “culture… of the team. Whether or not this will influence Leo in anyway is left to be seen, but it seems to me that this is the type of player which Shanahan would like to bring back to this club.
“I enjoyed it there, it was probably the best time of my life,… Komarov told KHL.hr. “I was really happy to play with the Leafs and I hope they are going to take me back, but you never know what's going to happen. They hold my rights until July and I would love to get an offer from the Leafs.…
Having left the organization to play a bigger and more important role in the KHL during an Olympic year, Komarov expresses that everything between he and the Leafs were left on good grounds and that he would love to return to the team. There has been a lot of time that has passed, and the thought of attracting interest from other GM's could sway the forward to hold back and test the UFA market if Toronto doesn't offer a number to his liking.
Despite finishing their 2013-14 NHL campaign ranked 3rd in the league in hits, Toronto wasn’t always the toughest team to play against given that their “goons… often had no one to fight.
With that established, it should stand to reason that the direction in which to proceed if this team wants to improve, is to have a 4th line of grinders who can contribute more than 3-4 minutes per game. The era of guys like Colton Orr keeping players safe appear to be a thing of the past, with teams rolling three scoring lines and one checking line. There simply aren’t too many teams left who employ a pure fighter and doesn’t offer much more.
And let me give credit where it’s due, Orr has improved his skating and overall play, but it’s still subpar when looking down the bench of most successful NHL teams at the moment and it just doesn’t win games anymore. Toronto will need to find a way to retain their “toughness… while also introducing some extra talent to their bottom six.
Constantly relying on your top six players to create offensive pressure can only last so long, as it should be rather evident by now that teams need three scoring lines and a fourth strong defensive/checking line to complement their top nine players.
Whether or not Komarov returns to the Leafs lineup next year will ultimately depend on how much value Toronto sees in him, the pitch which they deliver, and of course, the financials. Toronto is believed to be due for a big change or two on their defensive end, and that doesn’t come cheap. They may not, as a result, have too much extra cap space to spend for added improvements on their forwards.
If, however, they can manage to sign Leo on the cheap, I believe the team and organization will benefit from reintroducing this player to the lineup.
Thanks for reading!