While the Toronto Maple Leafs sit at home, Nazem Kadri is showing the world his max potential.
On July 1, 2019, the Toronto Maple Leafs traded Nazem Kadri, Calle Rosen and a third-round pick to the Colorado Avalanche for Tyson Barrie, Alex Kerfoot and a six-round pick. When the trade happened, many Leafs fans were excited.
Kadri was coming off back-to-back suspensions in the playoffs and the Leafs needed to upgrade their defense. With Auston Matthews and John Tavares playing ahead of Kadri, the Toronto Maple Leafs were able to add a cheaper centre (Kerfoot) and upgrade their defense (Barrie) all with one trade.
On paper, it felt like this would work out tremendously. Kerfoot (26-years-old) was younger than Kadri (29-years-old), while Barrie was the right-handed defenseman the Leafs were looking for.
Leafs fans were hoping that Barrie would score 50-60 points and be a stud on the blue-line. Unfortunately that didn’t happen. Barrie turned into the new Jake Gardiner and fans turned on him quickly. (And, like Jake Gardiner, his overall strong play was basically completely ignored because it didn’t fit the narrative).
Personally, I think he got ridiculed too much because his numbers improved drastically under Sheldon Keefe, but he still wasn’t able to contribute one point in the qualifying series and looked lost defensively.
Kadri Is Shining In Colorado
For the past decade, Kadri was a fan-favourite in Toronto, but everyone understood why he got traded. Although he makes a reasonable $4.5 million per season, that was too much for a third-line centre when you’re already paying your top-two over $10 million each.
So when Kadri got traded to Colorado, it felt like a win for both teams. The Leafs were getting defense and a replacement centre, while the Avalanche were getting a motivated second-line centre.
In 51 games during the regular season, Kadri finished with 19 goals and 36 points. At an 82-game pace, he would have scored 30 goals and 60 points, matching his career-best in Toronto. Based on the opportunity of playing on the second-line, that was all expected for Kadri.
However, the playoff performance is what’s making everyone upset. If you truly love Kadri for his time in Toronto, you’re happy for him, but you just wish you could have saw this performance in the blue-and-white.
In 11 games so far, Kadri already has 14 points. While averaging over a point-per-game, he’s also scored seven goals in that time-frame. The Nazem Kadri we’re seeing in the playoffs right now is the one we dreamed of having in Toronto. He lives for big-moments and if he never got suspended, the Leafs could have beaten Boston in either years.
I truly believe that.
Knowing the Leafs luck, Kadri will end up winning the Stanley Cup and will be awarded the Conn Smythe Trophy in a few months.
Kadri will always be loved in Toronto and although it’s awesome to see what he’s doing with the Avalanche, it would have been much sweeter if that performance happened when he was a Leaf.