Home » Leafs lose draft pick for Frogren deal

Leafs lose draft pick for Frogren deal

by on April 1, 2009 in Uncategorized - 25 Comments

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The Maple Leafs have forfeited a fourth round draft pick and $500 000 for paying Swedish defenseman Jonas Frogren a $750 000 signing bonus this past summer, part of which he used to buy out his former contract at Swedish club Farjestad.

The draft pick in question is suspiciously the one Brian Burke creatively acquired from the Tampa Bay Lightning on March 4th. Could have this been the league’s way of allaying some upset personnel? There’s the chance that Burke knew of this impending punishment and acquired the pick at the deadline for that reason, but one wonders why the deal was passed initially in November if it violated the CBA.

From TSN:

“Frogren signed a two-year contract with the Leafs last July and this decision by the NHL will not impact his contractual status with the team…

Sources say the Leafs have been fined $500,000 for paying Frogren a $755,000 signing bonus which violated the CBA. The Maple Leafs will also have to pay an additional penalty in the form of a draft pick.

It’s believed Frogren used a portion of the signing bonus – $400,000 – to get out of the final year of his contract with Farjestad of the Swedish Elite League.

The issue surrounds the amount Frogren received in the signing bonus as the NHL deemed Frogren to be an entry level player at the time.

According to sources, Toronto didn’t agree with the leagues stand and paid the large signing bonus anyway.

‘We can confirm that the Toronto Maple Leafs have been sanctioned by the league for violations of league rules in connection with the club’s 2008 signing of Jonas Frogren, and that one aspect of the league-imposed discipline requires the forfeiture of the club’s fourth round draft pick in the 2009 Entry Draft (previously acquired from Tampa Bay). We have no further comment on the matter.’ “

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  • Jes

    WTF!?

    So much for getting that pick for nothing. :|

    Unfucken believable our luck…

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  • Burn

    Taking the pick is a bit of overkill!! That is total bullshit.

    In the league’s release regarding the decision, they didn’t even say what rule was violated.

    http://www.tsn.ca/nhl/story/?id=273427

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  • Jonah

    So wait we pay him 1.065 mill a year according to nhlscap.com and hockeybuzz.com. + the 755 k signing bonus? + Now the 500k fine, which is the pick we effectively payed around 700k for (not sure on the last #, but we are paying the salaries of Olaf Kolzig and the rest of the players in that trade)

    Getting a bit expensive for Frogren, but oh well.

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  • Burn

    Jonah, We the League also stole a 4th rounder from us (the one from TB). Bullshit!!

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  • Jonah

    Yeah I worded that wrong. I meant that we are paying him 1.065 m + 755k + now we are fined 500k AND the 4th round pick which we bought and cost us something like 700k.

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  • Blue Max

    What do you guys expect? Petty Betty was never much of a Leaf/Toronto fan, more so after Tanenbaum and Domi tried to bypass them during the lockout, and put in place their own deal with the NHLPA. Didn’t they recently make Las Vegas the host of the NHL awards, taking it away from Toronto? Imagine what the huge “ice hockey” fan base in Sin Town can turn the awards in to! Riiiight!?

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  • bansebe

    Unbelievable. Fletcher, though he did some good things for this team, is an idiot.

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  • SASH

    I really think fletcher did more negatives then positives in the last year. Mayers, Holweg, Stempniak. Just to name a few of his additions. Also now this? I’m also wondering if anyone else thinks that Filitov in columbus who was picked after Schenn isnt more of a franchise player?

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  • http://www.hockey5.com Hockey5.com
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  • CarltontheBear

    are you kidding me? It took the league over 7 months to decide that the Leafs violated a rule? If we violated a rule in his signing then the contract shouldn’t have gone through, not be sanctioned for it almost a season later. Unbelievable.

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  • Blue Max

    The league was determined to get back at the Leafs on this one, even if it took them 7 months, and another way (bonus). Petty Betty, go touch someones hand to get your rocks off, and leave us long suffering Leaf fans alone. Goof!

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  • http://admin Alex Tran

    Bullshit. Argh.

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  • betterforsome

    The timing of this makes it look a whole lot like payback for our deal with Tampa.

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  • http://admin Alex Tran

    3rd for Mayers, 4th for Frogren, 5th for Hollweg.

    Good lord.

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  • http://admin Alex Tran

    Not sure if this has been mentioned, but apparently Bozak is down to 4 teams, Ottawa and Toronto being two of them.

    Interesting.

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  • http://admin Alec Brownscombe

    “The issue surrounds the amount Frogren received in the signing bonus as the NHL deemed Frogren to be an entry level player at the time.”

    This seems like some ridiculous semantics on the part of the league in order to achieve payback for that deal with Tampa…. it was ruled Frogren was not an entry level player in the November decision that ruled his current contract valid. So why should the fact that the $750 000 bonus exceeds the limits of the entry level bonus matter? Ridiculous.

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  • dan

    It’s a vindictive move by Bettman to get back at Burke for buying a draft pick from the Lightning at the trade deadline. It was a legal trade… nothing the league could to to prevent it, but they hated it from the beginning (of course, the league hates anything the Leafs do, despite the fact that we keep 50% of the shitty southern teams afloat). So they basically found a new way to fuck over Burke and that deal.

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  • betterforsome

    You know what would sell well? Gary Bettman action figures.

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  • Blair

    What BS. So for Frogren, who has played, what, an average of 9 minutes a game for 41 NHL games, the Leafs paid his contract+signing bonus, a fine, and the contracts that were acquired for that fourth rounder (which may be problematic in signing college players in the near future). That’s a lot to give up for someone whose contributions have been minimal. That’s not fair to Frogren – and I am a fan of his – but it’s a reality that in hindsight having a fourth rounder would probably be better than having someone who may not even make the team next year.

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  • http://www.hockey5.com Hockey5.com

    btw. Found out what the problem was. Frogren was drafted by the Flames in 1998 and is considered a “defected” player per the 1995 cba that somehow still applies to the current cba.
    http://puckstopshere.blogspot.com/2008/07/leafs-cba-mess.html

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  • SuicycoMania

    Also with regards to the “A European Player who signs his first SPC at age 28 or older is not subject to the Entry Level System under any circumstance.”… According to the TSN site, Frogren was signed on 2008-JUL-04, his 28th birthday was 2008-AUG-28. So really, he was only 27 when the Leafs signed him.

    Plus, with him being drafted by the Flames back in ’98 as noted above by Hockey5.com, Frogren is considered a defected player under the old CBA.

    The whole things stinks to high heaven if you ask me. Why did the league let the deal go through in the first place and now decide to finally try and rectify it?

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  • lawrence84
  • Tyler

    I don’t know why everyone is so upset…. Burke knew it was coming…enter trade with Tampa to gain that pick. He understands what he has to do. Stop worrying leaf nation!

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