Leafs Take Blow(s) To Middle
January 4th, 2010 by Steve
It looks like the Leafs recent rocky road could be about to get rockier. The losses of Mikhail Grabovski and Wayne Primeau to long term injury means the spell of recent offensive decline suffered by the team could be about to get far worse.
Grabovski and Primeau are likely to be replaced in the day to day line up by the likes of John Mitchell and Rickard Wallin. Grabovski and Primeau had goal creation numbers of 0.20 and 0.05 respectively per game, while Mitchell and Wallin have goal creation numbers of 0.13 and 0.03 respectively. That’s equivalent to replacing the equivalent of Thomas Vanek or Ryan Clowe in the Leafs line up with Matt Cooke or Marcel Goc. In other words, it’s a bit of a drop off in the skill department.
In an effort to see the silver lining, it also means the Leafs will likely promote some players from the Marlies to take a look at further. The most likely candidates would be Christian Hanson and perhaps Tyler Bozak or Ryan Hamilton. Personally I would be most intrigued to see Bozak playing on a scoring line with the Leafs in order to see how far along his game has progressed (or regressed) in the AHL this season.
Bozak’s season with the Marlies has been off kilter, largely due to a suspected bout with the H1N1 virus earlier this season, and a knee injury he was recovering from this past off season. He could perhaps use a dose of positive reinforcement, and frankly the situation on the Marlies is relatively negative these days given their results recently.
Grabovski is expected to be out from 6 to 8 weeks, while Primeau is expected to miss between 2 and 4 weeks. There is thus a decent chance Grabovski won’t be able to skate in the Olympics, which likely means he will be able to rest and recuperate in order to close out the Leafs season on a decent note.
This will also prove a catalyst to further line modifications on the part of Ron Wilson, which will debut tonight against Florida. The Leafs offense has taken a severe nosedive in the past week or two, and little to no results are coming from the stick of Matt Stajan these days. Phil Kessel has also slowed of late, and if the top line doesn’t start to click again soon, we will hopefully see further changes to the top line.
Hopefully Wallin starts to put up some points, and Mitchell steps up a bit like he did last season, but I’m not holding my breath.
Posted in Player Analysis, Prospects
8 Responses to “Leafs Take Blow(s) To Middle”
By Darren
on Jan 4, 2010
I think this is a great chance for Bozak. Wilson should at least try him alongside Kessel and see what happens
By glgbill
on Jan 4, 2010
It really would be nice to get a peak at Bozak, even with his slow start. Any sense of likelihood? Perhaps some time with better talent would provide a nice shot in the arm, and it should be cap neutral, given the injuries.
By Casey
on Jan 4, 2010
If Burke doesn’t call up Bozak while Grabbo recovers, I’d call management out for being overprotective. Bozak is 23, and while he hasn’t quite progressed to the point-per-game pace in the AHL yet, he needs to be tested in the NHL at some point this year.
By Steve
on Jan 5, 2010
At this point there is no word on call ups as the Leafs appear to be going with Mitchell and Wallin as replacements.
Gunnarsson will likely reclaim his roster spot when he returns from his elbow injury, which means there’s only one spot on the roster for a call up. As of this moment there is no indication which player that might be, but the Marlies haven’t exactly been lighting up recently.
Bozak in particular is in the midst of a rough patch, having only registered 2 assists in his past 6 games, to go along with a -3 rating. He only has 3 goals all season. He is getting opportunities though, registering 15 shots over that stretch.
It also appears that Hamilton and Hanson might be out with injury as both did not play in the Marlies only game in January thus far.
By BCapp
on Jan 5, 2010
Well thats bad news about Hanson and Hamilton.
What about Andre Deveaux (or is it Devereaux?) I have heard he is having a good season.
By matt
on Jan 5, 2010
Last year they through Pogge into the NHL with less than stellar AHL numbers and watched him on several occasions get completely wrecked. But that was OK. Bozak has been putting up solid numbers and is on a hot streak but they’re not calling him up? This just doesn’t make sense. Your teams falling farther and farther out of the playoff race and you don’t have a 1st. Time to bring in the young guns.
By BCapp
on Jan 8, 2010
With DP bakc can we offer anything for Biron so that we can waive Toskala?
I feel like if we still had Tlusty we could have organized something
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