Just because Nazem Kadri is in the AHL, doesn't mean he's out of the spotlight.
It must have been awfully tempting, his weak pre-season performance and salary cap issues aside, for the Toronto Maple Leafs to keep young Nazem Kadri to start the season.
If Kadri had found his game and popped a few goals in during the first few games of the regular season, it would have been awesome news for Leafs Nation. As it is, he’ll continue his apprenticeship in the minors playing in obscurity with the Marlies.
Oops, forgot this is Toronto. Chances are he’ll have reporters from all the papers, radio and TV stations assigned to report on his every move in the American Hockey League.
Regardless, this might be the first time the current Maple Leafs regime has done the right thing for the future.
Burke has passed the first big test.
The easy thing for the Leafs to have done would have been to keep Kadri, even after his poor pre-season. Burke could have justified it by telling the fans he was the team’s top pick in 2009 and he deserves the opportunity to start with the big team. But Burke warned all along he has a history of starting his kids in the American League and that was the likely destination for Kadri.
He kept his word.
It was no different when he was the general manager of the Anaheim Ducks. Ryan Getzlaf and Corey Perry both were first round picks in 2003, (19th and 28th overall respectively), and they started in the minors.
How did that work out?
Jason Spezza spent part of the 2003-04 season in the AHL and played the entire 2004-05 season there during the lockout and three years later he finished eighth in NHL scoring. Duncan Keith spent his first two years of pro hockey playing in the AHL with Norfolk and last season he was named best defenceman in the NHL.
One of my favourite examples of a player who learned his craft in the AHL and applied it in the NHL is Steve Larmer. A gifted offensive player in junior with Niagara Falls, Larmer started his pro career in New Brunswick where he was the AHL rookie of the year.
"I learned to be a pro in the AHL," Larmer once told me.
The following year he was the NHL’s Calder Trophy winner as top rookie with the Chicago Blackhawks when he scored 43 goals and 90 points in 80 games. He went on to have what I think should be acknowledged as a Hall of Fame career.
Being sent to the AHL is not a punishment for Kadri; it’s a reality of where he fits. He’s not ready for the NHL. Everything fell into place for him last season during the exhibition games and all that did was wet people’s appetites.
That’s the way it is when you are in an organization that has one bona fide Top 6 forward. That, obviously, is Phil Kessel, who may never make people forget the fact the Maple Leafs traded away two first-round draft choices and a second rounder to get him, but could score 40-50 goals this season. With all due respect to Kris Versteeg, who will be a big help for Toronto this season, he was a third-liner on the Stanley Cup champion Chicago Blackhawks last year.
The only problem with Toronto’s farm team being in the same city as the NHL franchise is that Kadri will remain in the spotlight. If he played for most other NHL teams, he’d be far, far away from the local media who will now, most likely, follow and report on his every move. That in itself, could delay the kid’s development especially if he gets off to a slow start in the minors.
In any case, Kadri needs to prove himself. He needs to prove that the glorious numbers he put up in junior the past two years, 171 points in 112 games, were legitimate. What’s interesting will be what the Leafs do the first time Kadri gets on a hot streak with the Marlies. What will Burke do; call him up or keep him in the minors to continue learning his craft while the Leafs struggle?
That is when Burke will face his second big test.
A full year in the minors might be a bitter pill for the kid to swallow, but it just might be exactly what he needs to have a long and fruitful NHL career.
The ball is in his – and Burke’s – court.
