I suspect that was because of their major logjam at center. If they move out Savard, it wouldn't make sense to stunt Seguin's development as a center just to play Grabovski.I believe Chia already said he wants Seguin on the wing.
Savard for Grabo only saves them $1 mil in capsapce. I can't see it.
Of course, if we take back a contract like Ryder's in this deal, then the return could change quite a bit.
That's $8 mil in caphit we'd be taking off their hands.
Problem is, if we're able to bring in Savard, Bozak is 4 years older and further ahead in his development...so basically, better than Kadri currently (I could be wrong..and hope I am, that would be ****ing awesome if Kadri was already better than Bozak) but if Burke is still sticking to his guns on his whole 6/6 thing...then we'd be looking at another year of Kadri in the OHL, a league he's simply too good to play in and is more likely to pick up bad habits dominating against 16-17 yr olds than he is to make any significant improvements in his game.
His skillset was NHL ready last season, but he wasn't there physically. If he's there physically and shows it at training camp, I don't know if I'd let positional bias push him off of the roster if we had an opening for him in the top 6 forward group that he had earned at TC.
Dude, Kaberle's value is 10x Savard's right now. I don't know why anyone would even THINK that that would be a possibility.
I didn't realize that he couldn't go to the A. That complicates things a bit.
BTW, last paragraphs in that article
I am happy to be a "dump site" for Marc Savard.
And if we can get him even cheaper by taking a contract like Ryder's that we can just waive to the minors, then I'm even happier.
They must've really soured on Mitchell to not want him back at that paltry sum. I think he'd be a pretty decent guy to fill the 4th line center slot.
We get a first line forward without even having to give up Kaberle. I would just lock him up to remain a Leaf for the rest of his career most likely.
I didn't realize that he couldn't go to the A. That complicates things a bit.
I suppose moving him to the wing wouldn't be terrible if it was only short term. I'd just hate to see him get stuck there permanently. The type of game he plays screams center to me, and I don't like to see talented young pivots converted to wingers because there's a log jam down the middle.
I'm not sure it's that they really soured on him just that Burke probably has a more ideal fit in mind - yesterday when he acquired Brown he said they'd been trying for quite a while. I think he has a very exact idea of what he wants from that fourth line.
You mean the way that the vastly inferior Finger was buried in the minors last year?
I agree that his talents suggest a career centreman in the NHL, I just don't think that a year or two playing the wing would stunt his development as a centre overall. Savard wouldn't be here forever (If Savard was the retire after year 4 of his contract...which is likely....Kadri would only be 23 at the time) or possibly we could trade Bozak if Kadri is showing himself to be significantly better.
I just have no desire to send our already somewhat moody top prospect back to the OHL if his game says that it's ready for the NHL. There's absolutely no reason to punish him like that, and can only breed contempt for the organization going forward.