Grabo is $4M player getting 5.5M. This will make it hard to resign kessel and Lupul to reasonable contracts.
The guy who compared Kriejci and Stastny to Grabo is out of his mind. Krejci has a cracked 60 points twice in his career...grabo has none. STastny is PPG in most of his years in the NHL. Grabo is a mediocre 2nd line center who makes almost as much as Kopitar, and more than Carter.
Grabo is $4M player getting 5.5M. This will make it hard to resign kessel and Lupul to reasonable contracts.
The guy who compared Kriejci and Stastny to Grabo is out of his mind. Krejci has a cracked 60 points twice in his career...grabo has none. STastny is PPG in most of his years in the NHL. Grabo is a mediocre 2nd line center who makes almost as much as Kopitar, and more than Carter.
With the cap hit going up he's more like a $5m player. Those other guys signed contracts that were huge at the time, but are smaller now due to the rising cap. Overpaying Grabovski by $500k isn't a bad deal at all. Had we not signed him, who would we have replaced him with? Sometimes you have to overpay to get what you need.
I too won the cup with a leafs team... but mine's a little different... it's my only saving grace from this franchise - creating a false one that can live on and win in my virtual world
b ryan - fisher - kessel
havlat - duchene - kulemin
kadri - grabvoski - b schenn
crabb - bozak - colborne
phaneuf - letang
franson - liles
gardiner - gunnar
Don`t you feel Grabo brings more to the game than either of those two...
Numbers, work ethic, defensive play almost everything other than giving hits in the case of Ruutu.
He`s just as tough as Ruutu, just doesn`t dish out as many hits.
I like Grabo more than those players, problem is they all got more money than they deserved, IMO. Just because they overpaid, I dont feel we should have. I would have given Grabo the money, but not a NTC. If he wanted the NTC, then give him less cash.
Sometimes you have to make tough decisions as a GM, and if that means you move a guy at the deadline due to contract demands you do it. Sure, it would be tough to replace Grabo but not impossible. 5.5 is only a mil more than he should have got, but that often has a ripple affect ont team when Kessel and Lupul come looking for new deals.
IFFFFF the Leafs were lucky enough to land the 1st pick, how drastic an impact would that have on the off-season!
Yakupov could conceivably lineup next to Grabo and Kulemin making a 1A/1B lineup that much more plausible moving forward (I always tend to lump the Russian guys together). Less urgency to upgrade on Bozak for Lupes/Kessel as a result. Which could free up resources to buy a FA C that suits third line duties very well (like Gaustad for example) or take a run at Suter.
And I suppose to a lesser extent, the same could be said of Forsberg, who'd line up nicely next to Grabo and Kulemin, by the sounds of things.
Just a thought I had.
__________________
Woodlief
using his big frame to create space and his skating ability to find open lanes to drive the net. He stands 6-3 and is a natural goal scorer with plenty of confidence.
He's a scout's dream in the way he prepares himself and plays an unselfish game, making smart decisions with the puck. With his bloodlines, he certainly understands what it will take to make it at the next level.
Was looking at hockeydb stats and he has 10 less points than last year. Not a good sign.
My concern is the massive dropoff in production as the season progressed for both him and Colbourne. If you eliminate Colbourne's October and Kadri's November their offensive production has been terrible this year.
Of course I haven't watched many games and stats only tell part of the picture.
Was looking at hockeydb stats and he has 10 less points than last year. Not a good sign.
Not true. Yes he's not producing at all but that doesn't mean he hasnt improved. He's working on his defensive game and trying to develope. And he's making rreally good plays to set others up.
Not true. Yes he's not producing at all but that doesn't mean he hasnt improved. He's working on his defensive game and trying to develope. And he's making rreally good plays to set others up.
THIS
People need to not look at stats all the time and actually watch the games. Colborne is rumored to be playing hurt since he has never recovered when he took the week off before the ASG and did not attend it
My concern is the massive dropoff in production as the season progressed for both him and Colbourne. If you eliminate Colbourne's October and Kadri's November their offensive production has been terrible this year.
Of course I haven't watched many games and stats only tell part of the picture.
You cant just look at stats alone. The AHL is a development league. With Kadri, I dont think there is much doubt this guy can create offence and produce points, but he is working on his weaknesses which are playing better defensively and managing the puck better. Another thing, Marlies are a pretty deep team, so the offence tends to be spread around.
