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Friend of site Nazem Kadri laid down a twitter diss yesterday, becoming, if I’m not forgetting something, the first Leaf player to directly call out a member of the Toronto media over Twitter:

If you weren’t following along yesterday, Nazem wasn’t taking exception to Alter’s tweet alone. As he alludes to Alter’s “stories,” his reprisal appears to have been inspired by Alter’s piece yesterday about the gulf in the current negotiation between Kadri and the Leafs. Alter reported that Kadri’s camp is asking for a long term deal worth $5 million per – after originally naming an asking price of $6 million/year – while the Leafs front office is offering a 2-year bridge deal worth around 3 million AAV, which is, give or take $500,000, what most of us have been expecting to eventually become of this protracted negotiation.

My guess is that the hold up centers on a $500,000-$1,000,000 difference between what the club is offering and what Kadri’s camp wants in his AAV on the bridge contract. Or, possibly Kadri’s camp wants his bridge deal to be one year long instead of two, giving himself a chance to prove himself to the club over 82 games before hashing out a more lucrative long term deal next summer (instead of having to wait the additional year). Maybe it’s about both of those things, but I doubt Kadri’s camp is asking for an exorbitant long-term deal at this stage and I’d imagine this is why Kadri was upset at Alter’s reporting.

That’s just the sense I’m getting and is mostly my own speculation, so of course I could be wrong. Maybe the feeling in Kadri’s camp is that he produced as he could’ve and would’ve done earlier if he had the opportunity to do so under the previous head coach, and that he deserves the faith of a long term contract which pays him like the player he was for 48 games last season. It’s not something I find likely, but I suppose it can’t be ruled out.

Really, this is exactly how I saw this whole thing playing out in this market when it comes to a protracted RFA negotiation with a high profile player like Kadri. It should get sorted in due time, but that of course won’t stop the articles from being written or fan anxiety from growing in the mean time.

Note: It’s worth pointing out that Alter’s response was calm and level headed, for which he deserves some credit. Recently listening to his guest appearance on Steve Dangle’s podcast, he seems like one of the good ones. If I was inclined to get mad at anyone in all of this, it’s at Steve Simmons for his steamy dump of a column entitled “Kadri’s self-belief is stalling negotiations” from earlier this week.

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Sunday morning links..

Interview: Dion Phaneuf wants to stay and win in Toronto
Sounds good to me.

What Might the Leafs’ Defense Look Like
No Liles in Tim’s projection.

David Alter reports Nazem Kadri wants a lot of money, Kadri fires back
Here’s Steve Dangle’s take on the Kadri/Alter exchange.

Top 25 under 25: #11 – Jerry D’Amigo
Will he get his first NHL action this season? You’d have to imagine so, at some point.

The Maple Leafs of My Youth
In case you missed this, Michael Langlois has published an ebook on iTunes. I bought it (only $3.99) and am really enjoying it so far.

ICYMI: Jonathan Bernier Viewing Party
If you’re looking to kill an hour and a half today and are so desperate for hockey you would be willing to watch an LA/Phoenix replay from last March, you can learn a little bit about Bernier by watching this game.

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Alec Brownscombe is the founder and editor of MapleLeafsHotStove.com, where he has written daily about the Leafs since September of 2008. He's published five magazines on the team entitled "The Maple Leafs Annual" with distribution in Chapters and newsstands across the country. He also co-hosted "The Battle of the Atlantic," a weekly show on TSN1200 that covered the Leafs and the NHL in-depth. Alec is a graduate of Trent University and Algonquin College with his diploma in Journalism. In 2014, he was awarded Canada's Best Hockey Blogger honours by Molson Canadian. You can contact him at alec.brownscombe@mapleleafshotstove.com.