Leafs trade former Storm captain in six player deal
By Mark Zwolinski
The Toronto Maple Leafs pulled a surprise on the first day of training camp, completing a trade with the New York Islanders for speedy forward Michael Grabner.
The 27-year-old former first-round pick of the Vancouver Canucks (14th overall in 2006) was acquired in a deal that saw Toronto send five players to the Islanders.
Heading to New York are goalie Christopher Gibson; forwards Taylor Beck and Carter Verhaeghe; and defencemen Matt Finn and Tom Nilsson. Finn is a former captain of the Guelph Storm and served in that role on the team that played in the 2014 Memorial Cup final. Beck is also a former Storm star. He played all four of his Ontario Hockey League seasons in Guelph.
Toronto opened its training camp Thursday with medicals before heading to Halifax for a weekend of workouts and team bonding.
Grabner is in the final year of a deal that carries a $3 million cap hit this season (but he earns $5 million actual salary).
“We acquired an experienced player with one year left on his contract,” Leafs assistant GM Lou Lamoriello said of Grabner, acknowledged as one of the fastest players in the league, who has 95 goals and 60 assists in 317 career NHL games.
“He (Grabner) brings a tremendous amount of speed to the lineup. I certainly have seen him enough (with the Islanders). And it also allows us with the number of contracts that went back, it allows us to do other things at the right time.”
Lamoriello called Grabner one of the top penalty-killers in the league.
