Kadri has had a funny career with the Leafs. After being drafted, he went completely undeveloped by Wilson, and hardly developed under Carlyle while being forced to take 1C minutes (either him or Bozak), many people were claiming that he would never be our 1C that we wanted when he was drafted, that we needed a new 1C, that his contract was awful, and that we should have traded him. I never understood that hate (partly from being too young), as I have seen Kadri for much longer than most Leaf fans (being a Knights fan) and always defended him. I did not want him traded, and was very happy with the contract he signed. Problem was, they were right, kind of. He finally became the 1C the Leafs needed, after they no longer needed him to be the 1C.
When we finally got a coach that knew how to run a team, he made Kadri his project and finally gave him the development he needed. In the last 3 years, Kadri has gone from a 2nd line offence guy to a 1st line shut down guy that draws penalties and still puts up offence. Last year Babs ran Kadri against the other teams top lines to some success, once his wingers developed around him (Marner). As the year went on, he ran the Kadri line as the shut down line all the time, and they looked good doing it. They had holes obviously, but with his line mates being a new NHL player and an old fossil, it was pretty good. This year, after Tavares came, Babs shifted Kadri's role. It has not worked out well, to the point that Babs is on record saying he is switching it back. In the last game against the Jets, our 1st line was Lindholm-Kadri-Brown, and it was hard matched against the Scheifele line as much as is possible when you don't have the last change. It was very effective to the misfortune of the Jets (who I will go on record as saying they are the cup favourites). Once Nylander is back in the lineup, there are a few options, but long term I think we will see Marleau-Kadri-Brown be our 1st line for the rest of the season. Marner will not be leaving the JT line for a few YEARS at least, but Brown has developed into a fine shut down guy, who can produce offensively. He has also been much faster, with great results. Knowing Babs and his propensity to match lines, I think we will be seeing Kadri's time increase dramatically in the coming weeks as he is used as the 1C, while the JT and Matthews lines are used as 2 scoring (2nd) lines.
Tl;DR
Kadri is finally our 1C, even on a team with John Tavares and Auston Matthews.
Also, more importantly than this little rant - we have very little down the middle to replace him. No Nylander is not a 3C option. That'd be a waste of talent.
On a team strapped with cap, you don't trade away your best contract. I get the need for cap space, but I think the Kadri is one of the last players the Leafs should consider trading. He has two consecutive 32 goal seasons with only a $4.5M cap hit for 4 more years!!!! If that isn't a bargain contract, then I don't know what is.
Leafs just can't trade away a valuable centre who play lots of minutes. Who takes his place? Give Gauthier or Lindholm more ice team? What happens if Matthews or Tavares get injured?
It's almost like saying if a team has four good dmen and two average dmen. You don't trade away one of your top four cause now our # 7 has to play every game.
By the way, looking at your roster, it's getting to the point where I'm starting to think that I'd much rather have Clayton Keller on LW than William Nylander on RW. I wonder what extra it would take . . .
Not a Leafs fan but Tor would be crazy to trade away Kadri. Pretty good agitator, good shut down guy, and scores as well. The cherry on top is his great contract, 0 chance they move him.
McDavid, Connor
$250,000)
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