Toronto re-signs Joffrey Lupul for five years
Cam Charron
January 20 2013 11:36AM
Not a bad weekend for Joffrey Lupul. A win on opening day, and a $26-million payday.
Toronto was rumoured to be in discussions with Lupul last night, and today they inked him to a five-year extension. Lupul was slated to be an unrestricted free agent this summer.
Joffrey Lupul has some offensive talent and bounced around the league with stints in Anaheim, Edmonton, and Philadelphia before clicking on Toronto's top line with Phil Kessel. Since then, he's boosted his assist totals, and has produced like a dynamic offensive player worth of extension.
But the contract is problematic, especially locking up a player with a track record like Lupul's. Here's why:
Scrivens stops 21, Leafs top Canadiens 2-1 in opener
Cam Charron
January 19 2013 08:46PM
Toronto won its season opener 2-1 on the road in Montreal, with goals coming from Tyler Bozak and Nazem Kadri. Montreal was without one of its best players on offence and defence, PK Subban, and looked flat to start the season. Randy Carlyle's defensive system wasn't a good matchup for the rusty Habs, who were forced to the perimeter for much of the game and didn't mount an attack until the third period, when it was too late to come back.
So the Leafs improve to 1-0, again, on a snowy Saturday night in Montreal. How perfect is that? Recap below.
2013 Maple Leafs "Stars and Goats"
Cam Charron
January 18 2013 04:54PM
It's been so long since we watched a hockey game together.
For too many months, we were caught up in the discussion involving collective bargaining agreements, standard player contracts, hockey-related revenue, defined benefit pension plan, federal mediation, entry-level contract, arbitration and so on and all of a sudden you needed a few credits in 100-level business courses to be qualified to call in to a radio show.
Tomorrow we get to start loving and hating hockey players again.
"Stars" and "Goats" have been a Nations Network tradition. You can edit your Nations profile (you should sign up for an account if you haven't) to modify the players you will love no matter what, and hate no matter what. Last season, The Leafs Nation had players like Mikhail Grabovski and Nik Kulemin listed as "stars", while defensively-liable Joffrey Lupul and Colton Orr were selected as goats.
Below are this year's picks by our contributor staff. Add your own in the comments, and to your profile page.
Leafs cut Morgan Rielly, Matt Frattin, set 23-man roster
Cam Charron
January 18 2013 10:36AM
The Toronto Maple Leafs have finalized their 23-man roster, cutting Morgan Rielly and Matt Frattin Friday to trim their roster and set the lineup they'll likely run with tomorrow in Montreal. (Meanwhile, Tim Connolly cleared waivers, and Dave Nonis says he'll report to the Toronto Marlies)
The moves aren't particularly surprising. Frattin is waiver-exempt, and as a player in his scoring peak he barely moved the needle at the NHL-level. He fits better with the Toronto Marlies and as the first-injury call-up for the Leafs. Morgan Rielly will be sent back to junior in Moose Jaw, impressive as he is as an 18-year-old, the reality of the situation is that he's too chaotic in his own end to benefit the hockey team, and it doesn't benefit Rielly as a player to play 15 minutes a night of panicky hockey.
Rielly will get his chance some day, but clearly that is not today.
Leafs continue dismantling, waive Tim Connolly
Cam Charron
January 17 2013 11:32AM
Some interesting developments on the waiver wire on Thursday. It's a fairly rare occurrence that happens but during this week's roster crunch, teams have a chance to open doors to the hockey equivalent of baseball's "AAAA" players this week.
The first is Keith Aucoin, who was waived by the Leafs for the purpose of letting him continue skating on their first line with the Toronto Marlies. Him and his team-leading 37 points were claimed by the New York Islanders. There's a chance he could get another NHL shot.
The bigger story though, is who was placed on waivers Thursday. Tim Connolly was placed on there by the Leafs, along with a couple of players Toronto could use.
