Nazem Kadri admitted that he was “embarrassed” and “a little bit humiliated” to be kept out of the Toronto Maple Leafs’ lineup for three games and be publicly criticized by Leafs president Brendan Shanahan for his decision making.
In the end, Kadri said it was a “lesson learned,” but Don Cherry seems to think that bridges have been burned in the process.
“The kid is not going to be here in two years, he’d be nuts,” Cherry said on Coach’s Corner, per the National Post. “To be humiliated in front of his family and everything. He’s been called everything since he came here.”
To be clear, Kadri will only be a restricted free agent this summer and Cherry expects Kadri to still be around for the start of the 2015-16 campaign as a result. However, Cherry even went so far as to say that if Kadri re-signs once he’s eligible to become an unrestricted free agent “then he has no pride.”
Former Maple Leafs coach Ron Wilson also recently weighed in, saying that he felt Kadri never listened to him. In particular, Wilson was unhappy with how often Kadri turned the puck over and feels that the 24-year-old forward is “still making the same mistakes he did as a rookie.”
Related:
Lupul on Kadri: ‘This stuff happens — it happened in Winnipeg’