Morning Rumors: Phaneuf, Fenton, Booth and Grabovski
  • Hope Smoke: Maple Leafs GM Dave Nonis: “it’s our intention to get Dion signed. It has to be at a number that will allow us to continue to build our team”
  • SN 590 The Fan: Nonis: “We’re going to try & get Dion signed, whether it comes to fruition or not it’s our intention to get him signed”
  • John Shannon: Sabres Pat Lafontaine has been advised speak with Predators assistant GM Paul Fenton about their vacant GM spot. The Predators haven’t been asked for permission as of yet.
  • Elliott Pap of the Vancouver Sun: Cancucks GM Mike Gillis on is David Booth could be sent back to the AHL:

    “Maybe. That’s going to be up to David. He’s had a lot of meetings with the coaches, a lot of philosophical meetings about where he’s at and what he needs to do and, as we move along here and see how he reacts and whether he’s prepared to step it up again and get back to that level that we saw prior to the injuries, we’ll see. There isn’t an easy answer to this situation but at least we have a player who’s committed, who wants to play, wants to get back to the level he’s accustomed to and we’re going to work as hard as we can with him to get him there.”

  • Mike Zeisberger of the Toronto Sun: The Maple Leafs bought out Mikhail Grabovski in the summer and there was speculation that coach Randy Carlyle helped push him out the door.

    “Randy never told me to get rid of him,” Nonis said in an interview Thursday night. “That simply is not true.

    “We just felt with the (David) Bolland signing and some of the other things we wanted to do — re-signing Tyler Bozak and Nazem Kadri — well, we just needed the cap room. We made the decision we thought needed to be made.

    “It was a hard decision to make. Grabbo was a very good player. I knew he would have a positive impact wherever he ended up.”