Kadri proves trade was right move for Leafs
This is why the Maple Leafs traded Nazem Kadri. This is why, despite the fact the trade wasn’t a particularly good one for the Leafs, it’s one they would make again.
Not because they didn’t like Kadri as a person, or because he was disruptive inside the dressing room. Not because he wasn’t a talented centre who they had carefully sculpted into an NHL player over the course of many years. Not because his salary was so out of whack and the Leafs couldn’t have figured a way to keep him.
They traded him because, when it matters most, he can’t be trusted not to do something really stupid.
It’s a shame, really. Part of what makes Kadri such an effective NHL player is that he operates on the edge much of the time, and can take care of himself out there despite the fact he’s not the biggest guy in the world. His bite has always been more substantial than his bark, and that enabled him to be a very effective two-way pivot.
But the edge is the edge. And Kadri has gone over it time and time again, and not just on a nothing Tuesday night in January against Anaheim or New Jersey. He does it in prime time at playoff time, and he does it when everybody’s watching and when his team is counting on him to colour within the lines and not make an unnecessary mess of things.
Kadri should be a wise old soul at 30 who has been humbled by his mistakes — and he should know not to make the same mistakes with the Colorado Avalanche that he did while with the Leafs. Instead, he did what he did on Wednesday to the St. Louis Blues’ Justin Faulk, delivering a totally unnecessary head shot that might have been entertaining to the mouth breathers out there but left normal hockey fans feeling a little sick to their stomach.
A quick aside is necessary here. Kadri has always caused havoc when the games get too heated. He seems to want to prove he can be as nasty as anyone and isn’t afraid to give as good as he gets. In these NHL playoffs so far, the officiating, particularly on dangerous bodychecks and hits from behind, has been absolutely abysmal. The zebras get their marching orders from the league office, and the result for the first few nights was a level of reckless violence that went completely unchecked. Kadri, it seems to me, was more than happy to deliver more of the same.
That doesn’t excuse him. Hits like his, and the one by Florida’s Sam Bennett on Tampa Bay forward Blake Coleman the other night, and many more in the first round of the post-season, are cases of individual NHL players showing an absolute disregard for the health and safety of their fellow NHL Players’ Association members.
Remember, this was all preceded by Washington’s Tom Wilson getting away with his special brand of mayhem a few days before the end of the regular season. Wilson body slammed the much smaller Artemi Panarin to the ice and finished the Rangers forward’s season. George Parros, the worst disciplinarian in the history of the NHL, didn’t even find that was worthy of a stern word or two while fining Wilson a tiny amount for something else he did in the same game. That’s what has happened this month in the NHL, and that’s the party Kadri decided to join Wednesday night.
Leafs fans had seen this before. Kadri took at run at Boston’s Tommy Wingels in Game 1 of the 2018 playoffs and was suspended three games. There were lots of factors, but the Leafs lost the series. The next year, Kadri cross-checked Jake DeBrusk in Game 2 of another Leafs-Bruins series and was suspended for the remainder of the best-of-seven set. Again, you couldn’t say Kadri’s absence was the defining factor but it didn’t help, and Boston again advanced.
On Wednesday, it was again just Game 2 between the Avalanche and the Blues and Colorado was well on its way to earning a 2-0 series advantage. The Avalanche were ahead 3-1 when Kadri, coming in from the blind side, caught Faulk coming down the slot with a check to the head that left the St. Louis rearguard motionless on the ice.
It was pointless, gratuitous and dangerous. Kadri was offered an in-person hearing with Parros on Thursday, and if it was anyone but Parros, such a hearing would be pointless because the obvious penalty would be the rest of the series plus some of the next one, if Colorado advances. But you never know with Clueless George.
This should be Kadri’s sixth suspension, and again it will hurt his team in the playoffs, although it appears powerful Colorado has more than enough firepower to eliminate the Blues.
It was Canada Day in 2019 when the Leafs traded Kadri, defenceman Calle Rosen and a third-round pick to Colorado for defenceman Tyson Barrie, forward Alex Kerfoot and a sixth-round pick.
Kadri and Barrie were the main pieces, and Barrie fizzled in Toronto and moved on. Kadri had 19 goals in only 51 games with the Avs in his first season, which made it look like a great deal for Colorado. After all, top-flight centres are tough to come by.
Now, with Kadri called on the carpet yet again in the postseason, and with Kerfoot playing a useful, low-maintenance role with the Leafs, the deal looks fairly even. Beyond that, the Leafs traded Kadri because they couldn’t trust him when it mattered, and it appears they were right to do so.
There must have been times when Kyle Dubas regretted trading Kadri. After Wednesday, however, any lingering doubts are gone for good.