Maple Leafs acquire F Grabner from Islanders for five players

Beck is also a former Storm star. Because of his hockey IQ, his competitiveness, the way he plays, how strong he is pound for pound, that’s why he’s capable of doing big things.

All proceeds from the mini-camp will benefit KidSport Nova Scotia, a program of Sport Nova Scotia, which has always been a charitable partner of MLSE Foundation and the Leafs.

Grabner is a pending unrestricted free agent with a $3 million cap hit.

Until recently, he was playing in SM-Liiga’s KalPa (alongside his father, Sami Kapanen, though that’s a story for another day), where he garnered a pretty solid eleven goals and ten assists out of his forty-one games played in the regular season.

“He (Grabner) brings a tremendous amount of speed to the lineup”. Naz has had a good summer, he wants ot be good, I sure liked what I’ve seen. There’s no question that he’s one of the top penalty killers in the League.

The new-look Maple Leafs will turn to a holdover, forward James van Riemsdyk, to provide some of the offense following the departure of Phil Kessel.

Chances are, these 5 guys were never going to be anything more than depth players or mediocre bottom-end roster guys. It’s being played out as if the problem the Islanders had with him was the injuries, but I don’t think that’s the case. I don’t think we did it that great, but they tried hard. And hopefully, people will come to the forefront that we’re not even aware of. He thought they were far too slow – partially due to their unfamiliarity with his drills and concepts and partially because there were a lot of young, skittish players in the mix.

Grabner, 27, registered eight goals and five assists for 13 points in just 34 games with the Islanders last season. Spaling was a relatively solid fourth line centre for the Penguins previous year , with nine goals, eighteen assists.

Mar 15, 2015; Anaheim, CA, US ; Nashville Predators left wing Taylor Beck (41) before the game against the Anaheim Ducks at Honda Center. The Los Angeles Kings selected Gibson in the second round (49th overall) of the 2011 Draft.

Nilsson, 22, played in 44 AHL games with the Marlies last season during his first year in North America.

Verhaeghe, a 20-year-old forward from Toronto, was captain of the Niagara IceDogs of in the OHL last season.

This tactic, first employed by Brendan Shanahan upon his arrival in Toronto, serves to help not only the players who get a chance to prove themselves, and not only the organization with adding time for development of prospects, but it also usually garners the team prospects and (most importantly) draft picks in return.