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Leaf Rumours

He would take less to stay here, because players are people too, and his friends are here. From a hockey stand point, he's on a young team where he's got a lock, for whatever reason, to play with the best winger on the team here. He doesn't necessarily get that chance on other teams.

So to some extent, he will take less $$ to stay here ... but not at $3.5M. That's $1.5M less than what he'll possibly get in the open market, and probably get better terms.
 
Yeah players are people too. And we are talking about millions of dollars here.

If he can get a Grabo deal on the open market, does he give up $5-15 million to sign here for $4.5 million for 3-4 years. Its a lot of money to give up to play with your friend for a few years. The players that do that are the exception not the rule.
 
Bozak would be great on a third line or pitching in on a 2nd line when needed. If they can get rid of Grabo and sign Bozak to a reasonable contract it would be a good fit for the leafs..

#1 C
Kadri
Bozak
Mcclement

looks pretty sick down the middle
 
rated said:
Bozak would be great on a third line or pitching in on a 2nd line when needed. If they can get rid of Grabo and sign Bozak to a reasonable contract it would be a good fit for the leafs..

#1 C
Kadri
Bozak
Mcclement

looks pretty sick down the middle
Click to expand...

Kadri/Bozak/Grabs is still a pretty solid 1/2/3. The flaw is it's too expensive for what it brings, as it's looking like it'll come in at ~15M combined. 15M for your top 3 C isn't a huge problem if that's the best 1/2/3 in the league, but those 3 wouldn't be to that level.

Problem is I doubt anyone would give you anything for Grabs, so you either deal with an expensive unit down the middle and re-sign Bozak, or let him walk.
 
I really can't see many teams lining up to sign bozak as if he will be an awesome 2nd line c borrderline 1st line c for them, which is what $5m still mean.

with grabo's previous production along with his speed and flashiness and energy, i could see teams thinking that, but not with bozak.

i'll believe that $5m figure when i see it.
 
The UFA market is terrible this season....

David Clarkson could be the best forward available...

Bozak could be he best center to hit the market, if Ribs resigns.

Someone stupid gives him north of 4.5
 
This is for sure the worst UFA season I have ever seen in my lifetime.

Not one player worth getting even remotely excited about. Unless teams exercise their amnesties on some intriguing players.
 
PlayerToBeNamedLater said:
I like Bozak more than most on this board, but if he wants 5 mill, see ya later.

If he's willing to sign for ~3.5, I'd consider that strongly.
Click to expand...

I like Bozak too, as our third line guy who can fill in on upper lines, but the shitty UFA market puts us in a spot with him. Our issues with Grabs hurt us too.

If there's nothing better out there, we probably have a pressing need to retain him. If he were to just leave, we've got nothing to replace him unless Colborne is ready. There is no other plan b.

But even if Colborne is ready, and even if he's better than Bozak, it's still kinda a sideways move because Grabs is absolutely terrible and making way too much money.

It's an expensive proposition, but I'd amnesty Grabs, and re-sign Bozak now, before there are any other bidders for his services. $3.5M or so sounds about right to me, maybe a little higher if we have to, but with a ceiling of $4M.

Then we plug Colborne in and see if he can excel.
 
I'd let him walk. We don't have to go outside the organization to replace him. We already have arguably 3 better centers on the roster in Kadri, Grabo and McClement. And Colborne can get a shot next year on the 3rd/4th line.

There is just no need to give him a long term deal. We don't need his offence. We certainly won't miss his defence. The faceoffs are the only skill he brings that are hard to replace. But we paid Steckel $1.5 mil for that. Not $4 or worse, more.
 
That's the thing, Grabs is by no means better than him. He is significantly worse than him and a liability to the team.

He'd be gone without even a courtesy offer if he was a UFA this summer.

And it's pretty ludicrous to say McClement is better than him. You may as well compare defencemen to him then.
 
Just a point to ponder, I was considering how many divisional opponents we will regularly face who own a true, stud #1 centre:

Divisional Opponent (Centers):

"First Line Centers"

Steven Stamkos (1.23p/g, .499%FO)
Pavel Datsyuk (1.00p/g, .552%FO)
Jason Spezza (1.00p/g, .571%FO)
Nazem Kadri (0.95p/g, .442%FO)
Patrice Bergeron (0.89p/g, .615%FO)
Tomas Plekanec (0.73p/g, .503%FO)
Cody Hodgson (0.70p/g, .470%FO)
Shawn Matthias (0.45p/g, .457%FO)

"Second Line Centers"

Henrik Zetterberg (0.95p/g, .482%FO)
Vincent Lecavalier (0.82p/g, .538%FO)
David Krejci (0.78p/g, .546%FO)
Tyler Ennis (0.64p/g, .420%FO)
Tyler Bozak (0.60p/g, .531%FO)
David Desharnais (0.57p/g, .494FO%)
Kyle Turris (0.57p/g, .486%FO)
Marcel Goc (0.44p/g, .510%FO)
 
LeafOfFaith said:
That's the thing, Grabs is by no means better than him. He is significantly worse than him and a liability to the team.

He'd be gone without even a courtesy offer if he was a UFA this summer.

And it's pretty ludicrous to say McClement is better than him. You may as well compare defencemen to him then.
Click to expand...
I REALLY don't know about that.

First of all, Grabo is unmovable right now, so that's a moot point.

But beyond that, I think Grabo before his gastric problems shows a lot more poise, a lot more energy and better scoring touches than a healthy Bozak has shown. Grabo also was (and still is) better defensively. Heck, Grabo doesn't nearly turnover the puck as much as Bozak. Bozak is without a question the worst defensive center on this team right now, behind Grabo, McClement and Kadri.
 
LeafOfFaith said:
That's the thing, Grabs is by no means better than him. He is significantly worse than him and a liability to the team.
Click to expand...

That so insanely wrong it isn't even funny. Sure Grabo is having a bad year, but lets not forget what he has done every other year here. Grabo has one bad year and you want to amnisty him. Bozak has 4 bad years and you want to sign him to a big, long term deal. Craziness.

Bozak is a liability. he can't play defense for shit, and single handled makes one of the most productive lines in hockey an overall negative production wise. He has a net negative impact on the team. He is the worst center on the team.
 
Desharnias (26y/o) contract extension looks about right as a direct comparable for Bozak, $3.5/4years.
 
PlayerToBeNamedLater said:
I still think Bozak will get a 4/16 type deal.
Click to expand...

I wouldn't even give him that. The first line is absolutely brutal defensively. They give up more goals than they score. And they score a **** load of goals. Bozak is a complete liability.

He doesn't produce offensively, and he is a huge negative defensively. He's a faceoff specialist.
 
number17 said:
I REALLY don't know about that.

First of all, Grabo is unmovable right now, so that's a moot point.

But beyond that, I think Grabo before his gastric problems shows a lot more poise, a lot more energy and better scoring touches than a healthy Bozak has shown. Grabo also was (and still is) better defensively. Heck, Grabo doesn't nearly turnover the puck as much as Bozak. Bozak is without a question the worst defensive center on this team right now, behind Grabo, McClement and Kadri.
Click to expand...

Grabs at his best was of course better than Bozak, but he's been putrid this year, and despite having decent numbers last year, was also pretty bad on the ice, in my opinion. This year, he's taken it to another level of shittiness, and shows no signs of being able to snap out of it. He doesn't create a thing for his linemates. Just terrible.
 
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