Since his first days in Leafs nation in 2009, forward Nazem Kadri has been the focus of an incredible amount of attention, and most of it creates very polar reactions from the media and fans.
Drafted seventh overall in the 2009 NHL Entry Draft, Kadri came to the club with his expectations after scoring 35 goals and 58 assists for 93 points in 56 games in his final OHL season. However, Kadri failed to “wow” Leafs brass at the time, including head coach Ron Wilson and General Manager Brian Burke, and failed to crack the team’s NHL roster on a permanent basis for several years. But Kadri earned a regular spot in the lineup during last year’s lockout-shortened campaign where he played in all 48 games, scoring 18 goals and adding 26 assists.
However, Kadri has seemingly taken a step back this season from the almost point-per-game pace he kept up last year. With only 27 points in 45 games, the 23-year-old Kadri has emerged as the subject of plenty of trade speculation recently – which was further fueled by comments made by Nonis in an interview with TSN radio.
“There’s a lot of interest in Nazem Kadri,” said Nonis. “Would we be willing to trade him? Yes, we’d be willing to trade him. But there’s a big difference between willing to and trying to.”
While Nonis’ comments may have sparked a lot of fans into thinking the team will trade Kadri before the trade deadline in several weeks, what his comments likely refer to is the changing “nobody is safe” mentality in the NHL these days as teams try to build winning rosters amidst a salary cap era. Very few players are safe from a trade now, especially if the price is right. A no-trade clause doesn’t necessarily guarantee safety either, as several players have waived their clauses in recent years after being asked by their teams to do so.
Despite his current slump, and his up-and-down history with the Leafs and Leafs fans, Kadri is trying to stay positive and not let the trade rumors get to him.
“I learned that the first year I came here, not to pay attention to many people outside the dressing room,” he stated. “All those blogs, newspapers and people saying what they want to say, they have their own opinion, but at the end of the day I’m not hearing it.”
Still, the notion of a trade is something he can’t escape, nor is it something he is particularly interested in dealing with.
“It’d be terrible,” Kadri said of a possible trade. “I don’t see it happening and I don’t want it to happen. This is my home, this is where I want to be and ’til otherwise I’m going to give them everything I have.”
“It’s not like I’m going home, turning on the radio to listen to what everyone has to say because at the end of the day it doesn’t really matter,” he said. “I’ve got to worry about myself and what I can contribute to the team.”
Good job