James Neal
During his first full year at the helm in Toronto, you could make the case that Brian Burke was the league's most active general manager. There was the Kessel summer blockbuster with Boston and then the mega-deals on January 31st that brought in Phaneuf and Giguere. It's quite obvious that he's willing to expend assets to target any top notch premium young talent when it's made available. Both of those trades were opportunities: Kessel was a restricted free agent on a team with cap issues. Burke often spoke of inquiring on Phaneuf several times throughout the year until the "pressure points" of the cap and the struggles of the Flames pushed Sutter into making a bold move. This summer should be no different. Let's take a look at some of the young RFA's that might potentially attract Burke's interest.
The Torontosaurus Rex for Week 21 is ....
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The league has announced a 3 game suspension for Maple Leafs rookie Mikhail Grabovski after the “abuse of an official†during last night’s loss to the Montreal Canadiens. The game got heated, and former Canadien, Grabovski, tried to go after the encouraging Sergei Kostitsyn, but were both held by the officials – Grabovski was pinned to the ice. The “intervention†(which no one ever likes) caused both to become quite upset and, ultimately, Grabovski got up off the ice, used some choice words (which are assumed to have translated into English as “I don’t like your faceâ€) then bumped into the official who pinned him and used the same words on the linesman. Near the end of Grabovski’s speech, he kicked ice at the official (oooo) and skated off the ice giving the audience a double peace-sign – very political.
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