Captain Karlsson confident as he makes his return
In the pursuit of Nikita Zaitsev, free-agent defenceman, a littleknown scout named Jim Paliafito played the part of successful starting pitcher.
He worked the first several innings, did all the necessary diligence on Zaitsev, before Brendan Shanahan and Lou Lamoriello came out of the Toronto Maple Leafs’ front-office bullpen and closed the deal at a Moscow restaurant.
“Imagine you’re Nikita, and you’re out to dinner with your parents and with Jim to talk about the Leafs. And then who walks in to the restaurant: Lou and Brendan? Think of what that feels like. A Hall of Fame general manager and a Hall of Fame player. And they’ve come to see you. I think at that point it was like, deal done,” said Zaitsev’s agent, Dan Milstein.
“I represent a lot of Russian players, and here’s what I tell the GMs I deal with: If you want my player, you have to jump on a plane, you have to make your pitch in person. Because that’s what Lou Lamoriello does.”
The chase of the European free agent all starts from the Maple Leaf end with Paliafito, the Leafs’ Director of Player Evaluation, his name one that is rarely mentioned in hockey circles. His job is to watch available players, find out about them, track them, engage them, do research on them, and meet them, their families and their agents. And then do it all again.
“Jimmy played a huge role in Nikita signing in Toronto,” said Milstein, who took over from Zaitsev’s original agent, Mike Liut. “Jimmy found him, identified him, kept in touch with him regularly.”
“He did everything for me,” said Zaitsev. “He did a huge job to bring me here. He’s an unbelievable guy.”
Said Milstein: “I think people probably underestimate what Jim does for that organization. You don’t hear his name at all. He sets up everything. The Leafs, they do it right. And then for Lou to jump on a plane and close a deal, really, that’s unheard of. Nikita had conversations with maybe 15 teams. Ask me how many GMs jumped on a plane to meet him. The answer: zero. And when a legendary GM and a legendary player does that to meet with you, it tells you how you fit in.”
The emerging Zaitsev, who has since committed long-term in Toronto, is just part, maybe the best part to date, of the Paliafito file. The former NFL player agent and GM of the Ontario Hockey League’s Saginaw Spirit was the key man in the signings of Swedish defencemen Calle Rosen and Andreas Borgman, who have already played significant minutes in their first NHL seasons; one of them will play a regular spot for the time being. He was also central to the signing of centre Miro Aaltonen, who almost made the Leaf team this year out of training camp.
Twice in this young season, the Leafs have played with three of their six defencemen in the lineup from Team Paliafito — all signed while other teams were in pursuit of the same talent.
Lamoriello will tell you bluntly he did not know Paliafito before Mark Hunter hired him to work for the Leafs two years ago. But that’s one of the reasons Lamoriello has so much belief in Hunter, his assistant general manager: He’s hired diamonds like Paliafito and then cashed in on his findings.
“I knew the name,” said Lamoriello of Paliafito. “But I didn’t know the man.
“What I’ve found with Jim is that he’s a quality human being with outstanding communications skills. That’s not something I say easily. Not everybody has good communications skills. When you work in a team environment, that’s really important. He does just about everything for us (in Europe). He has this way about him a trust, and he’s one of the most honest human beings I’ve ever been around.”
There were seven teams interested in Borgman, and three teams interested enough in the end to present serious offers. But the most dogged scout in pursuit of Borgman, from beginning to end, was Paliafito.
“He was the first one that saw me, first one to contact me,” said Borgman. “I think he saw something before anyone else saw something.”
Borgman’s agent, Todd Diamond, who works with Mark Gandler, said the Maple Leafs have a way not just in recruiting free agents, but in helping the players adjust to North America once they’ve signed with the time. Once a team gets that kind of reputation, it spreads from agent to agent, from available player to available player.
“It was a long process with Andreas,” said Diamond. “After every couple of games last season, another team would get interested in him. He started to open people’s eyes as the season continued. The longer the year went, the better he got, the more teams involved.
“Toronto was there early in the process. Andreas was surprised by this. Jim was consistent the whole way in his interest, always in contact with him. When you have someone there from the beginning, that makes a difference.
“There’s another selling point Lou made clear. Whether you play for the Leafs or the Marlies, say you don’t make the Leafs, you’re living in the same city. You don’t have to worry about packing up and moving. It’s one less thing to think about when you’re new to North America, and if you’re in a city like Toronto, when you’re playing for the AHL team, the NHL general manager is watching you all the time. I think that’s a huge advantage for Toronto.”
Erik Karlsson made his regular season debut Tuesday night at the Canadian Tire Centre.
Given the choice, the Ottawa Senators captain wouldn’t have waited this long.
The 27-year-old Karlsson, who is recovering from surgery he had in June to repair tendons in his left foot, was determined to play opening night against the Washington Capitals but didn’t have clearance from the doctors. He also needed more time to get in game shape.
The wait felt long and it was a little difficult for Karlsson, however, in the end he believes it was worth the wait and that’s why he was champing at the bit to pull on the No. 65 jersey in what was dubbed on Twitter as #HappyKarlssonDay in Ottawa.
“It’s going to be fun. It’s been a long time coming and the guys have been doing a great job for the first five games here and we’re excited to keep it going,” Karlsson said before facing the Canucks to start a fivegame homestand.
Last week, while the Senators went on seven-day road swing with stops in Vancouver, Calgary and Edmonton, Karlsson stayed at home to work on his rehab with director of sports medicine Gerry Townend. He also spent hours in the gym making sure he was ready for his return.
The decision to keep Karlsson in Ottawa was made to ensure the pressure of returning to the lineup didn’t exist and so he could focus on making a full recovery.
“Staying back forced me not to play,” Karlsson said. “If I went, it would have been easier for me to make the decision to come earlier, even though, that was never intended.
“That’s why I made the judgment call to stay, just so I didn’t have that option.”
That’s because, if Karlsson had his way, he would have suited up against the Capitals on Oct. 5.
“Yeah, probably, I probably would have,” Karlsson said. “In hindsight, the team around me, our physical (therapists) and the surgeon, did a good job in keeping me back and letting me know an extra two weeks is not going to hurt you, it’s probably going to help you.
“Again, I’m thankful for that. The guys did a great job so it wasn’t too hard to sit.”
Let’s face it, Karlsson has played through a lot of pain before. He revealed after the knocking off the Boston Bruins in the first round of the playoffs this past spring that he’d been playing with two small fractures in his foot. The injury didn’t stop him from being the club’s best player in the post-season.
Doctors “took half my ankle bone out” and replaced the tendon, Karlsson told reporters last month. As a result of the surgery he had Charlotte, N.C., he had a “weird sensation” in his foot and that hasn’t gone away.
“It’s probably going to be the new normal at least for a long time,” Karlsson said. “I’m just going to have to get used to it. It still feels a lot different but, again, there’s nothing I can do about that. I just have to find a way to manage it.
“At the end of the day, there’s going to come a point here where I don’t even think about it anymore.”
Karlsson said it’s difficult “describe exactly how it feels.”
“But I can feel something in my foot that’s not mine and I’m trying to work with it,” he added. “It’s a different feeling. Over a period of time, it’s something I’m going to get used to and, at the end of the day, you stop thinking about. Right now, when I start skating around not thinking too much, it’s definitely a weird feeling.”
In this case, Karlsson was trying to keep his expectations low.
“I’m going to go out, feel how it goes, and take it from there. I don’t really have any high expectations or low expectations of myself,” Karlsson said. “If we can have a good game as a team that’s going to help me individually.
“We’re just going to have to play it by ear and see how it goes.”
There was no sense in waiting any longer.
“I’m not really nervous, I don’t think I’ve ever really been nervous for anything, it’s exciting and it feels like it does at the start of every year even though this is the (sixth) game,” Karlsson said. to