WWYDW: What Would You Do With Frank Corrado?

Imagine the disappointment of being put on waivers. Imagine the disappointment of realizing that being put on waivers means you are potentially moving to Utica, New York. Imagine the excitement you would have felt knowing that instead of going to Utica, you’d be staying in the NHL and playing for your hometown team.

That was a month and a half and 19 games ago and we are still yet to see Frank Corrado dress for the Toronto Maple Leafs. He’s had a brief conditioning stint on the Marlies where he’s played seven games and picked up 3 assists, a perfectly reasonable showing for a defenseman, but even that conditioning stint has been over for two weeks and still no sign of Corrado.

It’s entirely possible that Corrado is presently a victim of the Leafs success, and as long as the Leafs are winning, he’s going to be sitting. The Leafs top four is set and unless there’s an injury nothing will be disrupting those pairings. 

The bottom pairing already has a rotation going on the left side between Harrington and Marincin, and with Corrado’s right handed shot, it’s unlikely he’ll be in the mix with Harrington or Marincin for that spot, so that leaves the option of sitting Roman Polak.

Roman Polak hasn’t exactly had a great year, in fact you could say he’s having a terrible season that has just marginally improved lately. He’s sat in favour of Harrington and Marincin being in the lineup together before, but since the rise of James Reimer he’s stayed put. That brings us back to the original question…

The clearest options seem to be:

Of course, those are just the clear options, I trust the internet can do better than me, and come up with something better. Or at least make a strong case for one of the above. I’m sure many of us believe in the sitting Polak option, but that’s where I’ll ask you to get more thoughtful. 

Since it’s the simple, easy solution, why hasn’t it happened yet? 

Do we believe that Polak is playing because the Leafs believe it will create a market for him, or do we accept that even great coaches can have horrible blind spots for players they consider to be hard workers?