It would be a stretch to say Mikhail Grabovski is the new face of the Maple Leafs, or that he is the designated successor to Mats Sundin.
The 5-foot-9 Grabovski - listed at 5-foot-11, but not a chance - would have to be literally stretched in order to resemble the semi-retired, 6-foot-5 Swedish centre.
Thank goodness they didn't give Grabovski No.13 in the same way poor Jonas Frogren was handed the departed Bryan McCabe's No.24.
Talk about being handed a scarlet letter.
Grabovski is one of a handful of Leaf players who represent new possibilities going into the 2008-09 season, one widely expected to be long and dreary. As head coach Ron Wilson joked yesterday, the bar for these Leafs has been set so low "we can't even trip over it."
That said, the Leafs have the opportunity in the first year of the post-Sundin era to do something useful and important, which is to establish the beginnings of a constructive new era for this hockey club.
Grabovski, unable to latch on to a regular spot in Montreal before being traded to Toronto last summer for the rather lofty price of a second-round draft pick, is thus symbolic of this year's Leafs. If he - like they - wants to be taken seriously, making something out of this season is a start.
"I was happy when I heard I was traded here," said Grabovski, 24, born in Germany but a native of Belarus. "The first team I asked about was Toronto."
Somewhere, somehow, these Leafs will have to find a way to score goals. Right now, Nik Antropov and Grabovski are 1 and 1A up the middle and together they will be asked to replace the roughly 32 goals and 80 points Sundin delivered every season.
"It's a little bit different here," Grabovski said yesterday. "I like it because I play."
Every Leaf who made the squad, it's fair to say, is going to get a chance under the Wilson regime. The blackboard has been wiped clean and it's interesting that Matt Stajan and Alex Steen, two players previously identified as pivotal to the future of this team, are occupying third- and fourth-line roles going into the season opener tonight.
No player has been designated captain. Instead, five players will share three assistant captain designations on a rotating monthly basis. There is no acknowledged No.1 blue-line tandem and, really, aside from Vesa Toskala as the starting goalie, the true audition sessions begin tonight in Motown and the minutes played by individual players will paint an interesting picture.
"I haven't really seen anybody. Now the real bullets start to fly," Wilson said. "Until now, it's been like paintball. But starting (tonight) you can get killed out there."
Along with Grabovski, defenceman Jeff Finger - still out for another week to 10 days - winger Niklas Hagman, forward Nikolai Kulemin and 18-year-old blueliner Luke Schenn are the players who provide the sense this club is headed in a new, fresh direction. Otherwise, it's Wilson making daily promises that players will be held accountable, including no more hiding from post-game media inquiries.
We'll believe that one when we see it.
"Anybody who stagnates or doesn't pay attention to detail, well, they won't be here," Wilson said.
The new coach still carries San Jose fingerprints, showing his new team Sharks video clips as a means of explaining what he wants done. He chatted on the telephone with San Jose scout Tim Burke yesterday, discussing the progress of various Sharks youngsters.
Starting tonight, however, the strength and talent of that Silicon Valley squad that he helped build will seem a universe away. Beginning against the Red Wings in the city where both his father and uncle played, Wilson officially returns to a Leafs team for which he once briefly played at a time when the franchise is at a low ebb.
He's probably already noticed Sundin is gone. Helping Grabovski and others believe they can be the beginning of a new era in Leaf hockey is the stiff challenge that lies ahead.
The Toronto Star
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