Commander Clueless

Except so much prettier. I think the new division setup will be interesting, even though it makes little to no sense IMO.

Naivete is a strength of mine.

Thanks for the welcomes! Seems like a great group on here thus far.

Hey, I'm a Leaf fan who enjoys semi-following the wings (and I use the term semi-following in the most liberal sense). My second favourite team thanks to my two uncles who introduced me to the game (one was a Leafs fan, the other a Wings fan). But yeah, we're a rarity for whatever reason.

Haha. Thanks. It's surprisingly applicable.

You're right about Grabovski taking the tough minutes, that's for sure. When I said statistically I was referring to his offensive numbers in comparison to what they had been in the past. I thought Grabo did a decent job in the role he was given, but it's obvious it didn't completely agree to him (based on the loud noises in his "exit" interview). If I had to guess I'd say Leafs' brass expects Bolland to fill this role. For better or for worse. I'd say by Bolland's type of game he is more suited to the style Carlyle had Grabo playing than Grabo himself was, but I'll be honest - I'm by no means an expert on Bolland with limited viewings of the Hawks.

Could be. Still I find it hard to believe someone won't take a chance on him. He may need to lower his salary expectations given his poor season statistically. Like I was saying in the Leafs forum, I fully expect whatever team grabs (pun intended) him to be very happy with that choice. I just hope it's a team Toronto doesn't have to face too often, judging by the way he would often up his game against Montreal...

Oh you know them. Nothing is worth doing without a lockout of some sort. Personally, I blame the schools. Good to see this done. NHL players in the Olympics instantly makes it twice as entertaining.

I agree with most of this. Grabovski and MacArthur were solid players for the Leafs before this past season but it's obvious Carlyle was not a big fan of either of them. With the emergence of Kadri and Bozak stapled to Kessel's line, Grabovski got saddled with Carlyle's shutdown line role. While Grabo is certainly defensively responsible, this is not the type of role he excels at. Carlyle/Nonis likely also wanted to beef up so replacing Grabovski and MacArthur with Bolland and Clarkson would seem to fit that mold. We'll see what the end result is I guess, but I hope that this doesn't come back to bite the Leafs. I for one will miss Grabovski, even if his results never really matched up to the amount of effort he put in. That was sort of his appeal. I imagine some team will pick him up and be thrilled with what they get.

I liked the Verhaeghe pick when I researched it a bit. Good to hear he's impressing...we could really use a diamond in the rough type pickup here in Leafland - particularily at the center ice position.

The only silly part about this Cup parade talk is that Tim Lieweke thinks he can just swoop in and plan something that has been in the works for decades now. I mean seriously, how arrogant is that? Also, new to the forum and since this appears to be the Leafer hangout thread, hi everyone!