Trade for Grabner adds speed and skill, clears roster spots
Leafs send five prospects to Islanders for 27-year-old who has one year left on deal
The Maple Leafs got a whole lot better in many ways when they acquired speedster Michael Grabner from the New York Islanders as training camp opened Thursday.
They gave up five prospects — none of them particularly high-end, all holdovers from the previous regime — for a skilled 27-year-old with one year left on his contract.
“He brings exceptional speed,” Leafs GM Lou Lamoriello said of Grabner. “There’s no question he’s one of the top penalty-killers in the league. He pushes other people, and he pushes the defence back. We’ve seen enough of him to know that. And we’re looking forward to getting him.”
The move also opens the door for the team to sign any of the veteran players they’ve invited for camp by clearing four more roster spots.
“We were really pretty tight on contracts,” said Lamoriello. “We don’t know what might come available. It gives you the opportunity to do just the reverse should that come about of what we did today depending upon the availability.
“You always want to have the availability to do anything and everything.”
Teams are allowed to have 50 players in the pros. (Players under contract but in junior don’t count.)
This trade brought the Leafs to 45, with the likes of Brad Boyes, Devin Setoguchi, Curtis Glencross and Mark Fraser in the hunt for jobs through training camp.
“What I’m looking to do is just get an opportunity,” said Boyes, 33. “That’s why I came here.”
Grabner’s cap hit is $3 million (U.S.) while his actual salary is $5 million. He joins a rebuilding roster filled with players whose contracts expire next July 1 and will be one of those names bandied about as possible trade fodder later in the season.
Grabner has 95 goals and 60 assists in 317 career games. He had 13 points in 34 games last season when he struggled with a hernia.
Toronto sent four players and a goalie back to the Islanders: Goalie Christopher Gibson; forwards Taylor Beck and Carter Verhaeghe and defencemen Matt Finn and Tom Nilsson.