Race for Tyler Bozak in the Final Stretch

by on April 2, 2009 in Uncategorized - 64 Comments

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The Tyler Bozak “Sweepstakes” are nearly coming to an end and according to Bob Mckenzie, the talented young forward from the University of Denver may make his decision as early as today after much speculation that he was supposed to sign yesterday. Apparently, the 23 year old Regina, Saskatchewan native has narrowed down his list to 3 or 4 teams, with Toronto and Ottawa believed to be among the finalists.

The third team that seems to make sense would be the Colorado Avalanche, whom are said to also be in hot pursuit. The thinking here is that Bozak may have grown comfortable playing in the Denver area, where he has blossomed over the past two years. However, with Stastny, Sakic, Arnason, and Hensick already lining up down the middle, it stands to reason that there wouldn’t be as much guaranteed playing time to go around as in Toronto where young players have been getting increasingly larger roles, or in Ottawa, whom have lacked quality depth down the middle.

From Mckenzie’s blog:

“The Toronto Maple Leafs and Ottawa Senators are two of those teams that are squarely in the mix for Bozak’s services.

He’s been in Toronto since Monday and was actually on the phone today, calling individual teams to say thank you for the offer but I’m no longer interested.

The Philadelphia Flyers were one of those teams to be on the receiving end of those calls.”

Whatever the case, Bob figures this issue to be resolved fairly soon and his guess is that the young Canadian comes back home across the border.

Always a pleasure,

Alex Tran

[email protected]

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  • canucksnaphook

    I enjoyed Cola when he was healthy…..still quite a bit of upside but I was finished watching Steen float around several nights in a row before finally coming up with a SINGLE ASSIST. Good riddance. Some players that we trade will come back to haunt us, but you cannot hang onto every marginal player in the organization just due to fear. in order to move forward risks have to me taken in hopes that you obtain a future star. Unfortunately, over the last few years we have been trading from a position of weakness and will therefore have to take even greater risks.

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  • Patrick

    There’s someone on a certain message board that I frequent that says he’s in a hockey pool with Bozaks brother. Anyway, the word from him is that Bozak will sign with the Leafs sometime today.

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  • SASH

    Not sure how reliable this is lol. But great news, for the moment

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  • Chance

    That’s basically an e-4 right there.

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  • Dan

    What has Stempniak proven? 14 goals? How many were with Toronto?

    The only thing Stempniak has proven to me is that he can miss the net by 20 feet in a shootout.

    Stajan is excellent on the draw, however he contributes little offensively or physically and can be easily replaced.

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  • CarltontheBear

    52 points is in 71 games is little? Wow, this team is in a lot more trouble then we thought.

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  • Ryan

    I can bet you Carlton that Stajan won’t produce 50 points again. He is too inconsistent, but he is good in a lot of other areas. He isn’t a top line center, that much is clear, and he got most of his points playing top line minutes and with antro and poni.

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  • Spitfire

    Haha, I love people who don’t watch hockey and try to comment about it.

    How ruined would the franchise be if management were giving up our “crappy” 50 point players for nothing.

    You people are incredible. Matt Stajan scores 50 points and he sucks? He’s in his mid twenties, has some leadership, is a home-town boy, doesn’t have a bad contract (50 pts @ < 1.5 mil is amazing) and can play the PK.

    Sure, he’s our 2nd line center (Wait, isn’t it Grabo? Or Mitchell? Yikes), but when we get better players and Stajan is moved down to the third line in a defensive-cycle type game you’ll see how valuable he is.

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  • CarltontheBear
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  • bansebe

    well said carlton

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  • Spitfire

    Actually, Poni is only doing good because of Grabo.

    And Grabo is only doing good because of Poni.

    Trade then both!

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  • Jay

    Any update on Bozak?

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  • Dumont

    This deal will be incredible if it happens but i have a gut feeling saying this is all just speculation surrounding the leafs organization.

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  • Dumont

    This is a joke

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  • SASH

    What is the latest guys?

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  • dan

    @ Spitfire
    You don’t know anything about me so don’t assume that I don’t watch hockey. I watch tons of it. Bottom line, Stajan is replaceable. He isn’t skilled enough for a #1 or #2 centre and he’s not tough or gritty enough for #3. And he’s too good for #4. He’s a third liner at best and basically, he doesn’t belong on this team anymore.

    He got off to a good start but look how he has slowed down since. I never said trade him away for nothing, if anything now is the best time to trade him because he likely isn’t going to be repeating this performance too often. Get the most you can for him now.

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  • dan

    @ Spitfire
    You don’t know anything about me so don’t assume that I don’t watch hockey. I watch tons of it. Bottom line, Stajan is replaceable. He isn’t skilled enough for a #1 or #2 centre and he’s not tough or gritty enough for #3. And he’s too good for #4. He’s a third liner at best and basically, he doesn’t belong on this team anymore.
    .
    He got off to a good start but look how he has slowed down since. I never said trade him away for nothing, if anything now is the best time to trade him because he likely isn’t going to be repeating this performance too often. Get the most you can for him now.

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  • Spitfire

    Huh

    He’s putting up second liner numbers. What the hell more do you want?

    Seriously for you people to awknowledge any of our players they have to play at an 100pt pace and even then they are only a 2nd liner.

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  • dan

    That is ridiculous. We haven’t had a 100 point player in YEARS. Even Sundin never got to 100 points while he was here. Stajan has cooled down considerably after his hot streak at the beginning of the season. If he can put those points up consistently, than I might consider him a second liner. As of now, no. He has never gotten to 20 goals and usually doesn’t pot more than 30-40 points a year.
    .
    He’s not a first liner, and there’s no way he would have gotten the points he did without playing first line minutes with Antropov and Poni.

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  • CarltontheBear

    Kovalev 72GP 23G 33A 56P
    O.Jokinen 70GP 29G 26A 55P
    Michalek 71GP 22G 33A 55P
    Hejduk 77GP 26G 29A 55P
    Brown 74GP 24G 29A 53P
    Stajan 71GP 15G 37A 52P***
    Drury 77GP 20G 32A 52P
    Erat 71GP 17G 33A 50P
    Little 77GP 31G 19A 50P
    Kunitz 77GP 23G 27A 50P
    Horcoff 75GP 16G 33A 49P
    Guerin 73GP 20G 20A 47P
    Brind’Amour 75GP 14G 33A 47P
    Burrows 76GP 26G 21A 47P
    Samsonov 76GP 16G 31A 47P
    P.M Bouchard 71GP 16G 30A 46P
    Sykora 71GP 24G 21A 45P
    Modano 75GP 15G 30A 45P
    Umberger 77GP 26G 19A 45P
    Prospal 77GP 19G 26A 45P
    Malone 67GP 25G 19A 44P
    Horton 62GP 21G 22A 43P
    Legwand 73GP 20G 22A 42P
    Tkachuk 74GP 22G 20A 42P
    Wheeler 75GP 20G 22A 42P
    Wolski 73GP 14G 27A 41P
    A.Kostitsyn 70GP 23G 17A 40P
    Plekanec 74GP 20G 19A 39P
    Filppula 74GP 11G 27A 38P
    Vermette 74GP 15G 23A 38P
    Cole 75GP 18G 19A 37P
    Svatos 67GP 14G 19A 33P
    Fisher 72GP 12G 18A 30P
    Cheechoo 62GP 10G 16A 26P

    Yea, there’s no way Stajan could be considered a 2nd liner.

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  • Tyler

    Leafs signed Tyler Bozak!!!
    Reported by Sportsnet
    Deal to be announced tomorrow

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  • Largus

    Tyler should get insta-banned for posting crap like this. I’ve searched every news media and watch the big 3 Canadian sports channels. Not a word on anything atm.

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  • CarltontheBear

    http://www.sportsnet.ca/hockey/2009/04/03/leafs_bozak/

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  • Chance

    @Tyler
    Source? Though I’d like to belief no one is reporting this.

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  • Chance

    Well now don’t I feel dumb. So incredibly pleased with this. Burke should pick up Gilroy when the NCAA is done to complete the hat trick.

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