Leafs Talk: Mikhail Grabovski---The Worst Second Line Center in the NHL?

As training camp continues to move along slowly, the Leafs appear to be closer and closer to making some big roster decisions in the coming days. Today, the Leafs cut 17 players, including veteran fourth line center Wayne Primeau.

Primeau had a decent first game with the club, but the Leafs opted to give his spot to a youngster instead. The position will most likely be filled by the suddenly rough and tough 6'4" 225 pound center Christian Hanson. Primeau was always a class act with the club and I only wish the guy good luck with his pursuit to continue his NHL career.

As for the biggest decision on the plates of head coach Ron Wilson and General Manager Brian Burke this training camp, the second line center spot, still remains up in the air to this point. Both Nazem Kadri and Mikhail Grabovski have had a terrible training camp thus far with the end in sight.

Kadri is having a hard time offensively and an even harder time defensively. He still appears to be getting pushed around out there and his confidence right now is shot. Every move he makes seems to backfire on him. 

As for Grabovski, despite having a slightly better camp; scoring a cheap chip in goal against the Ottawa Senators, he appears to be winning the second line center position by default.

Grabovski's absolutely terrible ability to keep the puck on his stick and make the smart play always sticks out in my mind. Far too many times I see Grabovski trying to dangle through three players, or try a long outlet pass that never reaches his target; the pass usually ends up going for icing or the puck is passed into his teammates skates.

On the defensive side of things, Grabovski has the skating ability and the overall belligerence to be an effective penalty killer and two-way forward, yet he still remains one of the teams worst performers in that department. His face-off prowess has not been much better than Kadri's either at this point in camp, yet he still sees ice-time in all situations.

Like I've said, Grabovski will have to suck pretty badly this next week to lose his second line center role this season. I reality, if there was another center here who could give him a true run for his money, Grabovski would be on the first plane out of Hogtown, but with no suitors right now, the Belarussian remains in Toronto.

To make matters worse Grabovski is not well liked by former teammates such as the Kostitsyn brothers from Montreal and Jason Blake when he was with the Leafs. They all had run-ins with Grabovski. These are just the instances I've heard about, I'm sure there's more where that came from. Let's not forget to mention the bar fight in Vancouver when he was supposedly injured too. To this day, I still don't know what possessed Burke to offer him a three-year, $9 million deal. 

With all this said, I looked over some rosters in the NHL and I feel right now Grabovski may be in the top five for worst second line centers in the NHL. Is he the worst, that remains to be seen, but in my humble opinion, Grabovski could be the worst in the NHL.

Here's the other five teams who have some pretty mediocre second line centers (according to yahoo depth charts)

Minnesota: Matt Cullen

Matt Cullen despite not having all the offensive talent in the world, is one of the better penalty killers and face-off men in the league. Here I give the nod to Cullen over Grabovski.

Calgary: Matt Stajan

Stajan was the first line center in Toronto until the Dion Phaneuf trade. He played a decent all around game and I'm still missing the guy a little on the team. I easily give him the nod over Grabovski.

Florida: Shawn Matthias

Matthias has had a very slow start to his NHL career only getting 20 points in 79 NHL games, yet his size and skill remain constants in his game. Could he be a flop? Probable. Due to the fact he's played a year in the NHL (in games) and he plays on one of the worst offensive teams in the league, he could have a very bad year. Right now Grabovski gets the nod.

New York Islanders: Josh Bailey

Bailey is a young player heading into his sophomore season in the league and is looking to improve on a decent rookie season in the league. Taken ninth overall by the Islanders in 2008, Bailey still has yet to reach his potential. I'd take Bailey over Grabovski.

Phoenix: Eric Belanger

Belanger is the probably one of the best face-off men in the league and is one of the better penalty killers to boot. His size lends itself nicely to being a prolific penalty killers as well. Grabovski right now isn't even close to Belanger's defensive abilities, and to make matters worse for Mikhail, Belanger can hold his own on the offensive end. Grabovski once again is passed over.

Some honorable mentions include Edmonton's Sam Gagner, Carolina's Brandon Sutter, Red Wings C Valtteri Filppula, Rangers C Chris Drury, and Kings C Michal Handzus.

In a short analysis, there's one common thing with these names I listed. Other than the Coyotes( who had Wolski as their second line center last year with Lombardi as their top line guy), all these teams missed the playoffs and weren't even close for the most part.

Grabovski, according to my short analysis, is the second worst in the NHL, only the Panthers, who many prognosticators have to finish in the bottom five in the NHL, have a second line center that's worse.

You win with a good all around team, goaltending, defence and the last component, good all around offensive talent. Until the Leafs make a swift move to infuse a top two line center into this lineup, question marks will remain as to whether this team has the make-up to push for a playoff spot and make the playoffs this season.

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