Kadri’s stock soars as he delivers dose of grit with his goals
The Nazem Kadri who his Maple Leafs teammate Matt Martin remembers most vividly bears little resemblance to the player who is fast becoming one of the NHL’s most wanted men.
Back in their junior hockey days, Martin of the Sarnia Sting was trying to solve and stop the crazy offensive moves of Kadri, a shifty, scoring machine with the London Knights.
The fact that Kadri is becoming one of the better shutdown players in the league, is infuriating entire teams (most recently the Vancouver Canucks) in the process and still managing to score is quite the evolution.
“He’s really grown his game from when I used to play against him in London,” Martin said following the team’s Monday practice at the MasterCard Centre.
“What I’m most impressed with is that I guess I didn’t know he had that dynamic to him.
“To see him every day, he takes a lot of pride in taking that role and he plays with an edge while doing it. It’s very effective.”
The Canucks clearly have an X-rated description of Kadri that is dramatically different than Martin’s. That view didn’t improve after the league decided against added discipline for Kadri’s borderline third-period hit on Daniel Sedin in Saturday’s 6-3 Leafs win.
Kadri, who has run afoul of the league’s player safety department in the past, was relieved to be cleared to return to the lineup for Tuesday’s home date with the Los Angeles Kings.
“I was pretty thrilled with that,” Kadri said of the decision.
“I don’t really want to be missing games and not being out on the ice because that’s something I love to do.”
He loves to irritate the opposition as well, which is gaining Kadri respect in what is becoming an increasingly tight Leafs dressing room.
Given that Martin’s job is often to put Kadri-like players in their place, the appreciation is genuine. The fourth liner likens his teammate to two of the most accomplished of the productive pest genre, Brad Marchand of the Bruins and Anze Kopitar of the Kings.
Through 12 games, Kadri has six goals and three assists, which adds another element to his makeover. He didn’t hit that goal mark until Game 33 last season, despite being the team’s modest leading scorer at game’s end.
What this tells you is all that work and attention coach Mike Babcock put into Kadri’s defensive game during the lost 2015-16 season is starting to pay off. Add the bonus of rookie Auston Matthews thriving in the NHL and the resurgence of Tyler Bozak and suddenly there is something resembling depth at centre with the Leafs.
Two recent games showcased the “new” Kadri. Against the Edmonton Oilers, he hit superstar Connor McDavid every time he moved, held him pointless, then won the game at the other end with his own two goals. On Saturday, the borderline hit on Sedin triggered a scrapfilled third period reminiscent of a bygone era.
“He’s very dangerous,” Martin said. “There’s probably only a handful of guys in this league who can do that effectively and they’re the guys every team wants. And (Kadri) wants to excel at it. Obviously, he gets under the other team’s skin and hopefully he gets better and better at it. The way he works at it, I don’t know why he wouldn’t.”
Though they’ve been teammates in Toronto since the 2013-14 season, Leafs defenceman Morgan Rielly sees the same development. While Rielly points out that Kadri was never shy to get chippy, he does it in a more meaningful way now.
“He’s more of a dancer than he is a boxer,” Rielly said.
“He’s skilled, a good skater and he has all the aspects of the game you want in a top six guy.
“For him to be able to do that — score goals, make plays and also play against the best players in the world and keep them off the scoresheet — that’s pretty impressive.”
That Kadri has essentially ceded the role of offensive superstar to the rookie trio of Matthews, Mitch Marner and William Nylander says something as well. Does he still want to score? Of course. But by embracing the other assignment, he’s more valuable to Babcock and the Leafs than could have been imagined as recently as a year ago.
“Obviously, I want to play on the edge and I want to play gritty as well,” Kadri said. “All and all, I want to be hard to play against.”