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number17 said:
But I don't think you can say he has no chance of becoming the player Nonis signed for.
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IMO you can safely say that. He was never a $5 million player.

At his best he was a 40 point guy. With huge PP minutes that he could never possibly get here. So I think its even safe to say he has no chance of becoming the player he was with the Devils here. Which wouldn't have been worth the contract either.
 
And you completely ignored everything else I just said ...

Again, puck possession, board play, puck battle, dirty goals in the crease - those skillsets are mostly missing in the leafs system and roster. Clarkson, despite all his challenges this season, has shown flashes of all of those. It is up to him to put it together and assert himself as a top 6 player who is strong in all those areas.

The odd games he played with Holland and Kulemin the 3 of them were a dominating unit cycling the puck. He has to figure out how to use his strengths on other lines that play a different style.

And if he does that, even if he's a 40-45 point 15-20 G player, he can very well justify his $5M UFA contract. And these skillsets are gonna be especially important in teh playoff too.

You gotta understand you ALAWYS overpay for UFA's, and Nonis made a conscious choice to overpay in the UFA market because he sees he's missing this type of player in his system. $5M isn't really THAT much in the UFA market ... it's his term that's hard to swallow instead of the $5M if anything.
 
No I didn't ignore it at all. I just fail to see how good board play is worth $5 million. It isn't. We pay Kulemin $3 and he is bigger, stronger and better along the boards, and brings the same kind of offense. Would you pay him $5 million for 7 years?

You can't separate salary and offensive production. Clarkson is the 2nd highest paid forward on the team and he is a 30 point guy, maybe 40 if he gets top line PP minutes that he will never get here. To be a top 6 player you can't just be good a long the boards. The offense has to be there.

And Clarkson will never play on the top PP unit here. Thus the offense will never be there. And you can very safely say that.

I mean think about it. You are justifying his $5.25 million salary by saying "maybe if things go right he can be a 40-45 point guy...for $5.25 million. Other UFA contract forwards who signed for that money: Lupul, Carter, Krejci, Hossa, Horton, Doan, Kesler, Plekanec. Clarkson doesn't belong. And that is if he were a 40-45 point guy, which he hasn't been and likely won't be.
 
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Clarkson has a bad contract. There I said it. But it will not prevent Nonis from making additional moves next season.
 
Of course it won't prevent him from making moves but it will effect the moves he can make. $5.25 mill is a lot of money.
 
I stick by my prediction; in a couple of season Clarkson's contract will seem reasonable. In the meantime, I want to see him in the playoffs before I decide how bad his contract is right now.

There are flashes though, as number17 mentioned, when I see Clarkson coming out of contact and he still has the puck, that I become a little optimistic.
 
The problem with Clarkson, and it's the same problem he's always had, is that once the puck is on his stick, there's only one place it's going. On net. Regardless of where he is, who else is open, whether or not he's in a good shooting position. That puck is being put on net.

He's a black hole where puck movement goes to die. It's why he'll never work on a top 6 scoring line with the Leafs because he demands too much of the puck, taking it away from being on the sticks of much more talents scorers/playmakers like Kadri, Kessel, Lupul.

On a 3rd line where there's lesser amounts of skill and he's not diminishing the amount of time our skill players have with the puck on their stick, then him trying to be that puck dominant and blindly putting the puck on net from everywhere can be effective as you're really just looking for good puck possession with some secondary offence from a 3rd line. Maintaining puck possession, and offensive zone starts for the top 2 lines is pretty much all I expect him to be good for.
 
I'm just hoping that him and Bolland will somehow form an effective tandem, because he sure as hell hasn't worked anywhere else.
 
Clarkson's contract is a moot point because Nonis' already signed him, and he isn't going anywhere else anytime soon.

And, that IS the price you pay in the UFA market. You can choose to not sign anyone (which might have been a good move ... July 1st is the day most GM makes their biggest mistakes) but the fact remains his strengths are missing in our system.

And for all the talk about Kulemin being a better player - has he proved he can fill a top 6 role after the 10/11 season? Different coaches have tried to plug him into a top 6 role and every time he's disappointed. He hasn't even scored 10G in a season since the 30G breakout season. You can argue for various reasons, Clarkson hasn't filled a top 6 role in TOR yet, and you would be right. But he was a top 6 in NJ coming off 2 x 30ish goal pace seasons. Nonis had reason to believe he could fill that role in Toronto. He probably still believes he can.

If Kulemin could fill that void, Nonis didn't have to go out and sign someone. Whether Clarkson can do the job is another issue, but Kulemin definitely hasn't been the asnwer despite all kinds of chances he's got.
 
I don't know, that Lupul-Kadri-Kuly line was pretty awesome before Clarkson came back. Kadri was producing over a point a game (compared to 1 assist in 3 games since Clarkson came back). Then of course they moed Kuly to center the 3rd line and he was awesome and kept scoring. That is certainly a dynamic that Clarkson doesn't bring.

Kulemin can fill that void at worst just as well and cheaper than Clarkson can. Neither is an ideal 2nd liner.

And if you are spending $5.25 million on a guy for 7 years you better be damn sure that he can at least play on the 2nd line. Not "well maybe we'll take a chance on this guy." The contract isn't a moot point. its going to haunt this team for almost a decade.
 
Wayward DP said:
Kulemin >>>>>>>> Clarkson.

In pretty much every aspect.
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Yeah, and it's not even close. He's comfortable playing either wing, and apparently center too. He's better along the boards. He's a smarter player. He's better at using his linemates. Even in his down offensive seasons, he's a better offensive producer than Clarkson. It'll suck to lose him and only be left with Clarkson to inadequately fill his role, but if the KHL comes calling with big money, he may have been leaving either way anyways.
 
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