When the Maple Leafs traded Brett Lebda to Nashville for Cody Franson and Matt Lombardi, it was believed that the Leafs acquisition of Lombardi was mostly for financial reasons. The Predators had a guy in Lombardi who missed almost all of last season with a concussion and his initial prognosis showed that his potential return to action this year didn’t look too good.
With the deal made and now with Lebda being bought out by Nashville in the aftermath, Franson is set to be one of the top blue liners in Toronto while Lombardi is attempting to make a comeback of his own. As we’ve seen with those coming back from concussions, it’s tricky to figure things out with an injury you can’t exactly examine physically. For Lombardi, he’s been working out on the ice and things are going well enough that it looks like we could see him on the ice this season.
Jonas Siegel of TSN Radio’s Leaf Report checks in Lombardi and sees that the progress for him lately has been nothing but positive.
“It’s getting better,” he explained. “I’m definitely not where I need to be in terms of my fitness, but with every day we’re pushing it a little bit more and I’m getting work done in the gym and obviously pushing her on the ice. It’s coming real good.”
Acquired in a trade from Nashville earlier this summer, Lombardi remains optimistic about returning to action this season, but is unable to narrow down a timeline.
“That’s my goal,” said Lombardi. “I want to keep getting better and be in there as soon as I can.
“I wish I could have a date and have that in mind, but obviously training camp is coming pretty quick here. We’ll see how it progresses the next few days and go from there.”
Lombardi’s openness about how he’s feeling and what he’s doing on the ice is in stark contrast to the secrecy that surrounds Sidney Crosby’s progress in coming back from a concussion. While it took a handful of clandestine reports from mysterious sources to get Crosby and the Penguins to be more forthcoming in how he’s progressing, things on Lombardi’s part sound much more positive.
If Lombardi can come back and play this season he’ll give the Leafs another offensive producer at center to use and with Tim Connolly and Mikhail Grabovski already slotted in on the top two lines up the middle, getting Lombardi into the mix would give the Leafs better depth and a solid scorer.
In Lombardi’s last full season played he scored 19 goals and had 53 points in Phoenix. If Lombardi could come close to that production, he’d provide a huge lift to the Leafs lineup. He’d also help make GM Brian Burke look like a genius for taking a chance on a guy that Predators GM David Poile was eager to give up on not knowing what, if anything, Lombardi could provide.
With Lombardi having two more years left on his contract at $3.5 million, the usually frugal Predators didn’t want to have the potentially wasted cap space. Having Burke use the Leafs cap space and gamblers mentality here could wind up paying off big time for the Leafs and help turn an already seemingly lopsided deal into one for the history books.