Mike Komisarek waives NMC – Waived by Leafs

Not much to say here, other than Mike Komisarek joins a long list of Burke-era pickups like Matt Lombardi and Tim Connolly to find themselves off this season’s roster as the Leafs shed some dead space. News via TSN.

You can no longer stash NHL salary in the AHL and have it come off the books, salary cap-wise, so what this move does is allow the Leafs to open up a roster spot and a seat on the team plane on road trips. It will be interesting to see what they do with that spot, with rumours circulating about virtually every pending UFA in the National Hockey League, as it frequently does this time of year.

Mike Komisarek goes to the minors as certainly a move that didn’t work, and observers of both traditional and statistical hockey analysis would tell you that Komisarek really has little business playing in the NHL.

But, Komisarek won’t actually be the first defenceman to cash in on a contract after playing time with Andrei Markov, and then get sent to the minors after moving teams. The same thing happened to Sheldon Souray, although his demotion from the Edmonton Oilers came after something of a rift between him and management. Souray has proven over the last two seasons that he’s a fairly competent defenceman. In the right situation, maybe there’s a depth spot available for Komisarek next season when he’s a little cheaper, but I’m with Uncle Bob on this and expect he’ll go right through waivers.

Over his tenure in Toronto, Komisarek played 158 games. He spent 78 games nursing five separate injuries, and has been a healthy scratch 39 times in the last two seasons, all while playing for $4.5-million a season. Bummer.