Jake Gardiner has signed a $20.25M, five-year extension with the #leafs. Gives him a $4.05M AAV.
— Chris Johnston (@reporterchris) July 29, 2014
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| The Calder Memorial Trophy that Bure won in his rookie season (Photo credit: Wikipedia) |
Stu Hackel, SI.COM --- That might be a new name for you, but he’s a University of Wisconsin star defenseman who was drafted by the Ducks in 2008 before he started his college career. He broke in as a freshman on a Badgers team that already boasted Ryan McDonagh, Jake Gardiner and Brendan Smith. (“I don’t know how anybody scored on them,” Ferraro remarked, adding that Schultz is thought to be better than Gardiner, but not as good as McDonagh.) But Schultz has never signed with Anaheim and if he doesn’t by July 1 – it’s been clear for a while that he won’t — he, too, becomes a UFA. Projected as a top-two defenseman and an excellent puck mover, he’s coming off a great junior year and he found the hole in the CBA that allows him to choose the team that best fits him the way Blake Wheeler did when he signed with the Bruins a few years ago. Whoever gets Schultz will be getting a very good prospect and won’t be trading anyone or using a draft pick to secure him.
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| Badgers Herald.com |
Larry Brooks, New York Post --- Ryan McDonagh told Slap Shots he spoke a couple of weeks ago to one-time Wisconsin teammate Justin Schultz, the junior defenseman selected 43rd overall by the Ducks in 2008 who can become an unrestricted free agent this summer if he so chooses.Edit: I guess we can always dream right, Badgers guru Chuck Schwartz assures me that Schultz is not coming back and that he will might pursue the Blake Wheeler option.
“But he was smart enough not to tip his hand to me,” said McDonagh, who raved about the 21-year-old’s skating ability and skill, likening Schultz to Toronto’s Jake Gardiner.
Schultz cannot be signed until July 1, but he can become a free agent and start the negotiating process by mid-June — it’s the Blake Wheeler model — after giving notice to Anaheim.
There has been some speculation the defenseman might opt to return to the Badgers for his senior season because of the possibility of a lockout that would necessarily mean a start to his pro career in the AHL, but it’s expected he will indeed hit the open market after deciding not to sign with the Ducks last month, when doing so would have burned the first year of his Entry Level Contract.
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| sportsnet.ca photo |
Mike Brophy; Sportsnet.ca --- Frattin's story has been told and told again. He was sent home from the University of North Dakota and had his scholarship revoked because of some teenage pranks, but returned to the team, at his own expense, and became one of the best college players in the nation. He was a cut above the rest of the pack at rookie camp and didn't skip a beat when he joined the Toronto veterans. Frattin also had five points, including two goals, in the pre-season.There are still tickets available for this weekend's Ice Breaker tourney. [Fighting Sioux]
He said he really wasn't overly surprised that he made the varsity squad.
"Well, maybe a little bit," he said. "We have a bunch of guys out and Clarke MacArthur is suspended. I got put into his role s hopefully I'll play on that line for the first two games. Every game you get opportunities and you just have to build from there. You have to take advantage of them. Coming to practice today I had no clue what to expect. We did a workout and the next thing I know I'm on a line with Nikolai Kulemin and Mikhail Gabovski. I had a great practice today and I feel good."
The Irish would have helped legitimize the NCHC a little bit more. At the very least it would have made the move to leave the WCHA seem smart as opposed to selfish. It leaves the rest of us questioning whether or not the schools that left for the NCHC significantly improved their situations by leaving the WCHA.Again the WCHA bloggers/website preseason poll was conducted and the Fighting Sioux were picked to finish third in this season's poll. [Goon's World], [A tradition of Excellence]
The WCHA could have done much more to keep these schools from leaving, no question. A failure of leadership and foresight might have killed the WCHA as we know it. There are still many questions to be answered, and with the NCHC failing to gain one of the richest athletic departments in college sports, the answers may be harder to come by.
Kevin McGran; The Star --- One of few players who may actually get some ice time with the Leafs this year is Matt Frattin, easily the best player on the ice Tuesday night. The puck followed him around, it seemed. He scored the Leafs’ first goal, on a fine feed from defenceman Jake Gardiner.
It was a power-play goal with Frattin — a forward — playing the point.
“He clearly showed some of what he can do and I think he still has more to give,” Eakins said of Frattin. “We used him in all situations. We had him on the point on the power play, up front on the power play, 5-on-5, 4-on-4, penalty killing and he wasn’t falling away. It looks like he’s fairly fit as well.”
At 23, Frattin was one of the older players at the four-team tournament. It was expected he would dominate and he did. GM Brian Burke was impressed.
“I think he’s a good player,” Burke said of Frattin. “He’s going to get a good look in camp.”
TORONTO — The rookie wants to be a role model.
He wants young people to know his story and how it changed him, made him a better hockey player and — ultimately — a responsible adult. Wants them to know that as a sophomore at the University of North Dakota, he made foolish decisions that resulted in him being kicked off the hockey team and working a blue-collar construction job.
And how it made Matt Frattin who he is today.
“It was a life experience that I kind of needed to happen,” says the Toronto Maple Leafs prospect, who is among those competing at a four-team rookie tournament in Oshawa, Ont., this weekend. “I wasn’t really living my life as though I wanted to be a professional. I was more a college kid. It happens. But it was probably good that I got caught in a couple of situations and it changed the way I am today.”
