friom Terry Koshan of the Toronto Sun,
The question remains whether Bolland will be a Leaf past this season. He’s headed for unrestricted free agency this summer and there have been no contract talks between his agent, Anton Thun, and Leafs management, since early February.
“Nothing is happening right now,” Thun said. “We exchanged proposals prior to the Olympics and we were significantly apart.”
At that time, Bolland was recovering from a lacerated tendon in his ankle, but returned to the Toronto lineup on March 22 after missing 56 games. When negotiations broke off, Bolland reportedly was seeking upward of $40 million over seven or eight years.
While that kind of contract is unlikely to happen in Toronto, Bolland isn’t being unreasonable to seek a deal in the neighbourhood of what David Clarkson is getting from the Leafs. In fact, since Clarkson, who has zero Stanley Cup rings to Bolland’s two, is going to have a salary-cap hit of $5.25-million US for the next six seasons — a contract, that for one season at least, has haunted the Leafs — then certainly Bolland should expect as much, if not a shade more.
Injury trouble has shadowed Bolland, and his durability likely will continue to be challenged as the seasons pass by. But it’s his heart that makes it that way, as he never has had a problem putting his six-foot, 184-pound body into the fray. The guy’s a gamer and we figure he will be until he skates off an NHL rink for the final time.
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