The Maple Leafs Handcuff themselves with the Mikhail Grabovski contract extension

The Maple Leafs who are up against the cap will have decisions to make going into next season as Mikhail Grabovski signed a 5 year/27.5 Mil contract extension for a player who has played four full seasons in the NHL and has scored in the 20's in goals three of the seasons. This really says how much the free agent market is completely soft as Grabovski is the second biggest forward in the upcoming market behind Zach Parise and he would likely have gotten between 4-5 mil a season from other teams but the question is would any of the teams given him anywhere near the Leafs 5.5 Mil.

Now the Grabovski deal will put a lot more pressure on him and it is likely that he could struggle under the pressure as this contract would be the kind of contract a player that consistently scores 30 to 35 goals a season. This means that Grabovski will need to take it to the next level with his game and that will include playing better on the back check.

This contract will probably go down with contracts that the Leafs have handed to Jeff Finger (4 years/14 mil) and Mike Komisarek (5 years/22.5 mil) and then there is the trade for Dion Phaneuf where the Leafs traded all their free agent market money for a player who has not and most likely not come close to the 60 points that he put up in the '07-'08 season when he signed a 6 year/ 39 mil contract that the Flames were glad to get rid of and did not need anything in return except cap relief which they got.

Also the Leafs do not look like they have the brains to be able to pick a blue chip prospects as any of the prospects that are good are likely a second or third line forward like Nazem Kadri or a third D-man like Luke Schenn or Jake Gardiner. Even worse now a deal to get a superstar like Rick Nash is out of the picture as they could of moved Komisarek to the Marlies as no one would take his contract and Tim Connolly could of been bought out which would of freed up the room to bring in Nash but now under the cap system they need to find room for the extra 2.6 mil Grabovski will start to make next season.

Finally the CBA is up at the end of the season and I can not see it going up by a lot but the floor may diffidently be lowered

Tom Mehegan