TORONTO – On the day Mikhail Grabovski officially takes himself off the open market, the former Toronto Maple Leafs centre is also likely to become a NHL free agent.
What a turn of events.
The Leafs placed Grabovski on unconditional waivers Thursday with the intention of using a compliance buyout on him if he clears Friday – which just happens to be the day the 29-year-old will marry his longtime girlfriend in Toronto, according to agent Gary Greenstin.
Of course, there is a chance another team plucks Grabovski off the waiver wire, although with $21.5 million and four years remaining on his contract that appeared unlikely.
Grabovski signed that big extension in March 2012 when Brian Burke was still the Leafs general manager. It was also just days after Randy Carlyle had taken over as coach and he never seemed to have as much faith in the Belarussian as predecessor Ron Wilson did.
Greenstin told sportsnet.ca that his client could have made even more money had he chosen to become an unrestricted free agent last summer and predicted that he’s going to bounce back with a new team.
“I’ve been with this kid from the beginning of his pro career and I know what he can do,” Greenstin said Friday. “He’s a fighter, OK? I believe they made a mistake.”
Only time will tell.
The move shed the Leafs of another $5.5-million in cap space and left them well-positioned to make a splash when free agency opens at noon ET on Friday.
General manager Dave Nonis has a number of balls in the air. Earlier this week, he used a compliance buyout on defenceman Mike Komisarek and now has almost $25-million in cap space to work with.
Having already acquired Dave Bolland in a trade from Chicago, the Leafs are looking to retool at centre and Nonis indicated that it was tough to figure out what to do with Grabovski.
“This was not an easy decision to make as Mikhail made numerous contributions to our hockey club,” he said in a statement. “This is a roster move that will give us salary cap flexibility moving forward.”
Among the items still on Toronto’s to-do list is signing restricted free agents Nazem Kadri, Joe Colborne, Carl Gunnarsson, Cody Franson and Jonathan Bernier – some believe Bernier could be a candidate for an offer sheet if he doesn’t have a contract by Friday – and making a decision on pending UFA centre Tyler Bozak.
There are also a number of options to consider up the middle in free agency, including Stephen Weiss, Mike Ribeiro, Derek Roy and Matt Cullen.
Grabovski had been the longest-tenured Leaf (along with good friend Nikolai Kulemin) after being acquired from Montreal at the 2008 entry draft for a second-round pick.
That was a deal the player and his agent pushed hard for after relations soured with the Habs. Grabovski fell in love with Toronto after visiting as a member of the American Hockey League’s Hamilton Bulldogs and believed it was his destiny to play here.
He thrived under Wilson – scoring a career-best 29 goals and 58 points in 2010-11 – but found minutes tougher to come by once Carlyle took over.
The new Leafs coach chose to use him in a primarily defensive role and cut back his power-play time dramatically. Grabovski put up just nine goals and 16 points in the lockout-shortened 48-game season.
There was plenty of internal debate inside the Leafs front office before deciding to go down this route with Grabovski.
As recently as last weekend at the NHL draft, Nonis said it was “unlikely” he would use both compliance buyouts available to him this summer. He also made it sound like Grabovski would be back for the 2013-14 season.
“Grabbo didn’t have the best year he’s ever had (last year),” said Nonis. “There’s no secret about that. He didn’t have a very good season and I think there’s a lot of reasons for that and his health was part of it. … He’s going to have to get ready this off-season and come back and try to challenge for the minutes he’s expecting.
“Our coaching staff isn’t one that hands minutes out; you have to earn them.”
Grabovski won’t get that chance in Toronto.
Instead, he’ll start planning for a future with a new team after tying the knot on Friday afternoon.