Nazem Kadri, the Maple Leafs and the bouncing ball

In your more cynical Leaf-following moments (admit it, most of us have them), do you ever think that, sometimes, the Maple Leafs drafted Nazem Kadri just to toy with us?

I mean, set aside what they have done to the young man himself over the past three plus years and how confused he must be.  Some of us, as fans, have no any idea what’s going on, either.

To be clear:  I neither think Kadri is a savior-in-waiting or a bust.  Like many young players, he is facing—and perhaps will ultimately successfully climb beyond—many challenging hurdles.  But it is almost comical how things have unfolded for the young winger (though I swear I thought he would be a center coming out of junior and goodness, it’s not like we need any of those…) since the day he was drafted by the Leafs.

Let’s briefly run through just a few of the highlights (low-lights?), capped off by his breakout game on Saturday night down in Texas:

• June of 2009 he is drafted 7^th overall.  Being drafted by Toronto, this immediately means we expect more of him than we reasonably should, considering he was not a first or second overall pick.  But, well, it is what it is, because we are what we are in Leafland.

• Training camp fall of 2009—he has a very nice camp; turns some heads.  He is, not surprisingly (though he sounded disappointed, naturally- kids always dream big) sent back to junior hockey for further seasoning and development under the tutelage of Dale Hunter in London. (Hunter knows something about what it takes to play in the NHL, having performed in that league seemingly forever...)

• Kadri has a generally good season with the Knights.  Plays a lot.  Puts up some nice but not astonishing “numbers”.  He is an emergency call-up to Toronto for one game at some point in the 2009-’10 NHL season.  Looks a bit lost but fine in his NHL debut.  He earns 27 points in 12 playoff games with the Knights in the spring of 2010.  All is well and on schedule, it seems.

• Come training camp in September of 2010, he figures he can make the Leafs, based on the way he sounds in various media interviews.  The Leafs (Burke and Wilson) also seemed very hopeful about him in the summer of 2010.  Training camp goes kind of OK, not great.  But at the end of the exhibition schedule, he has a huge offensive game against the Senators.  Does this earn him a gig with the big team?  No.  We’re told, again not shockingly, that he needs to get bigger, stronger and faster. (Doesn't just about everyone?)

• So, to start the 2010-’11 season, he is with the Marlies (getting, I’m sure, bigger, stronger and faster).  He is playing fine, though nothing particularly special as I recall.  But the Leafs hit a horrendous scoring slump in the fall of 2010, and whom do they call up?  Yes, our young Mr. Kadri.  He starts off very nicely indeed, playing big minutes on top lines, even getting some power-play time.  However, over time the excitement wears off. His numbers flatten out, his ice time under Wilson decreases significantly.  He goes from first-line winger to third and sometimes fourth-line guy.  I seem to recall there is discussion as to whether he should/could be a center.  Regardless, it’s back to the Marlies.

• He is called up yet again by the Leafs in the later part of the 2010-’11 season, but again is deemed not quite ready.  We hear he needs to get stronger, and, importantly, needs to turn the puck over far less often.

• “Numbers”-wise, he finishes his Marlies season (2010-’11) with 41 points in 44 games.  (With the Leafs, he finished with 12 points in 29 games, averaging 15+ minutes of ice time per game.)  The Marlies don’t make the playoffs, so he doesn’t get that opportunity for playoff hockey at the pro level.

• Come the 2011-’12 season, expectations are he will make the Leafs, surely, this time.  In fact, we almost all have the sense he is not only on the hopeful bubble again but will actually be on the roster when camp breaks.  However, a late nagging training camp injury sets him back.  Others, like Matt Frattin, jump ahead of him on the depth chart.  When Kadri is ready to play, he starts his season with the Marlies—again.

• He does OK with the Marlies, though nothing particularly to write home about, unless there is something I'm not remembering here off the top of my head.  He eventually gets another shot with the Leafs.  By now my guess is Kadri is not sure what they want him to be.  But he knows they hate turnovers around the blueline.  So he plays a more conservative game at times, but still shows offensive flashes, as evidenced by some shootout winners, etc..

• Bottom line, he finishes the season with the Marlies, where he ends up with 40 points in 48 games.  (With the Leafs, his numbers were a modest 7 points in 21 games, but he was a plus 2 in that time, averaging between 14 and 15 minutes a night.)

• In the summer of 2012, he works out hard with Gary Roberts.  Most of us assume, at least I did, that he will show up to Leaf camp (which turned out to be Marlies camp, because of the lockout) chiseled and ready to roll.  On "Day One" of camp, before they even hit the ice, Marlie coach Dallas Eakins decides it would be a good idea to tell the hockey world Nazem is not in good enough shape.  The subsequent reaction from media and fans could not possibly have surprised the Leaf brass.  Why Eakins felt compelled (some kind of motivational strategy?) to utter those infamous comments, I have no idea.  But he’s a coach and I’m sure not, so we should probably assume he knows what he’s doing.

• A few games into the current Marlie season, Kadri, though being applauded by Eakins for his work ethic, struggles to find the back of the net.  Then Eakins opines that he’s like to see Kadri play with more creativity.  This of course must make the young man think…”hmmm…they scolded me for trying to make plays and causing turnovers.  Now they want me to play I wanted to play in the first place, three years ago…Ah….I’m....confused”.

• Fast forward to this past Friday night. The Marlies, after their nice comeback win on the road Thursday night, are in Texas to play the Stars.  Loaded as they are with too many roster players because the Leafs can’t play, they designate Kadri  (without a goal in the team’s first 9 games) and another promising prospect, Joe Colborne (didn’t Rick Dudley, before jumping ship for the Habs,  say Colborne could be the Leafs number- two center this season….?) as healthy “scratches”.

• Back in the line-up Saturday night, Kadri is the first star of the game (the Marlies' third win in a row), with three points.  For the record, Colborne also has a big night with two points.  Eakins is a genius.  All is good in Marlie-world (and Leafland) once again.

Now we’re all updated.  (If any of the above timeline "facts"—as opposed to my own personal observations—are incorrect, feel free to let me know…)

Kadri is 22, in his third year as a professional.  I don’t know if he is a winger or a center.  I’m not sure if the Leafs see him as, ultimately, a third-line checker (really?) or a “top-six” forward. I do know Burke said over and over that Kadri would have to fit here as a top-six forward.

For one night, he was not even top-six on the Marlies.

Hey, we all have been following this sport (and this franchise) long enough to know that Rome wasn’t built in a day.  (The Leafs, though, must be the world's longest-ever re-build.  I’m not a historian…Did it take 45 years to build Rome? ) But Kadri remains a young player with talent and potential, clearly.  He could break out at any time, as he did Saturday night against San Antonio.  He may now go on a roll.

Still, confidence can be a fragile thing.  He’s not the first guy—and won’t be the last—who will go through difficult times.  And he won't be the first or last Leaf prospect to be a healthy scratch.  Many players respond well to being benched.  Some don’t.  For one night at least, he certainly did.

But despite his impressive "rebound" game, I do have questions - in light of not just the “healthy scratch” decision, but the way the Leafs have handled this Kadri situation now for almost three and a half years:

• Do they, deep down, see Kadri as somehow entitled?  That is, thinking he should already have a spot with the Leafs but not playing hard enough, consistently enough, to earn it?

• Is he simply the poster boy for this anti-entitlement Burke thing, this  supposed anti-“blue and white “ disease mantra (which I don’t believe is/ever was a real issue with the organization to begin with, pre-Burke and Wilson…)? 

• Is Kadri the whipping boy for the  “every game is a try-out” organizational ethic?  Is he the test case for the much-discussed "meritocracy' we are supposed to believe exists now in Toronto?

• Do they like this kid?

• Have they tried (as I’ve said here many times, I’m absolutely convinced that Kadri’s name has been not only on the table, but has been included in deals that other teams have not signed off on, and thus he’s still here…) to trade Kadri over the past two years or so?

• Why is the first first-round choice of Burke - a  kid who should be his one his “his” guys in Toronto -  in this situation?

• Is this all just a case of tough-love, an approach that will make Kadri a top-notch NHL’er? Based on a short sample size of one game after being a healthy scratch, maybe the "wake-up call" worked, eh?

Those who follow VLM somewhat regularly know my view has been this:  the Leafs have, inadvertantly, messed with this kid and shaken if not shattered his confidence.  The whole “yo-yo” up and down thing has to have driven Kadri batty.  One minute it’s “get bigger and stronger”.  Then it’s non-stop talk about his turnovers.  (He can’t be the only guy on this team who turns the puck over—last I checked, we have given up an awful lot of goals over the past few seasons…he wasn’t on the ice for most of them, not even close…) Next we're told he’s not in shape, despite working with the toughest guy in the training business in Gary Roberts.

Look, I don’t much care about any particular player being a healthy scratch here and there.  That’s a coach’s job.  Eakins is a smart guy.  If the coaching staff think a player will benefit from watching the game from up high in the press box, go for it, whether with the Marlies or the Leafs.  I'm good with that.

I just continue to believe there is something going on here that we don’t know about, and damned if I know what it is.

I’ve long questioned this organization’s (and this particularly regime’s) ability to develop players.  Development is not just drafting them and them working under Eakins and his staff.  It means nurturing and developing them in a constructive way, building their confidence.  And whether we keep them with the Leafs or trade them, they should be very valuable assets, each and every “prospect”.  Is Bozak what he should be?  Is Kulemin?

For me, Exhibit A and B of this regime's failure are Luke Schenn and Jonas Gustavsson.  Players drafted or signed amid so much fanfare, yet both are now gone, and heavily criticized by the fan base on their way out the door.  I don’t for a moment put that all on those players.  Schenn, at least, drew what may turn out to be a solid return in van Riemsdyk.  We'll see how Gustavsson fares under a different set-up in Detroit.

Now, it’s all eyes on Kadri.  At some point, as I did with Monster, I’m going to say, just set him free. Please.  If the Leafs won't let him play "his" game here, then let him go somewhere (where he can improve, sure, and get better defensively, etc.) where he will be allowed to, basically, play his game and not be a square peg in a round hole. A team where he will not be so over-coached and so tightly wound that he doesn’t know what he is anymore.

I wondering, before long, if Kadri will ask to be set free, too…..

But after a big game on the weekend, we're all one big happy Leaf family again - right?

At least for now.