Let's get the simple stuff out of the way.
Alexander Radulov is returning to the Nashville Predators this week, less than a month before the start of the NHL playoffs.
He will not have to pass through waivers.
This is all as it should be.
Radulov was drafted by the Predators in the first round of the 2004 draft as the great white hope to solve their offensive woes.
After ripping up the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League, he made his Preds debut two years later and did nothing as a rookie to dispel the belief that he would be a scoring sensation.
The next year, he approached the 60-point mark as he continued along the path to stardom. Then he bolted.
In an illegal and unprecedented move, Radulov, who was under contract to Nashville, jumped ship to Salavat Yulaev Ufa of the Kontinental Hockey League.
Four years later, he has done nothing but set the second-best league in the world on fire.
Now there are those who believe Radulov should have to pass through NHL waivers before suiting up for the Predators, as mid-season free agent signings from Europe do.
Really? You don't think the Preds have suffered enough? They have done nothing wrong here. They've been without the services of a first line sniper, under contract, for the last four years.
Radulov still has to honour the last year of his entry-level deal. Is the timing excellent for the Preds? Yes, but they didn't orchestrate this trip across the Atlantic.
Yes, there's something in it for Radulov.
Playing these last nine games of the regular season is enough to burn that last year of his contract, so he will be free of that obligation.
And with his KHL season over, why not hop on board with a team that appears set to make a deep playoff run?
On Monday, a Russian media report said that KHL president Alexander Medvedev is expecting Radulov to return to Ufa next season, as his contract for the rest of this year was bought out on the condition that he return in the fall.
By playing out this year with Nashville, Radulov will become a restricted free agent, which means going back to the KHL would not break any rules the way he did the first time.
Still, the fact that the KHL has openly approved this process - and may have even helped to orchestrate it - sends the wrong message.
Hey, if you're not happy with your new team in North America, you can breach your contract, come home, make boatloads of money, then go back for a month whenever it's most convenient for you and finish your contract.
There are those who believe Radulov's return could convince star defencemen Ryan Suter and/or Shea Weber to re-sign with the Predators. Get real. You think they believe this guy is in it for the long haul?
Predators coach Barry Trotz summed up the whole situation nicely earlier this week, saying he won't believe Radulov is coming until he "sees the whites of his eyes."
***
I would much rather talk about Alexander Radulov these days than the Toronto Maple Leafs.
Last month, I made a vow to myself that I wouldn't watch this joke of a team again until they proved they were worthy of my time.
I relented briefly when they finally canned Ron Wilson, hoping that new head coach Randy Carlyle would ignite a spark, but it's been the same old.
Monday night's embarrassing 8-0 blowout loss to the Boston Bruins should have been the last straw for any sane Leafs fan this season.
As if murdering Toronto in two franchise-changing trades in the last six years wasn't too much for fans to handle, the Bruins can beat the living $#!& out of the Leafs with two hands tied behind their backs and cement in their skates.
The Leafs have browbeaten my faith in them into such a fragile state that I simply don't care anymore.
I don't care that it's game day. Hell, lately I don't even know that it's game day until after the game has started.
That, friends, is the worst thing that can happen to a sports fan, and in turn, to a franchise.
Not seething anger that makes you break your hand punching a wall.
Indifference is the worst thing.
The Leafs have had a stranglehold on their fan base for decades, and the growth of the mass media in Toronto over the years has only strengthened that grip.
But seven years of outright failure - and I don't mean "fell short of the Stanley Cup" failure, I mean humiliating, mind-boggling non-playoff failure - is taking its toll.
I'll never cheer for another team, but I'm not cheering for my team these days, and I'm now realizing that one day it could get to the point where they're my team in theory only, like when you pick a country in the World Cup, or the NBA.
This I know: I'm not the only one.
Josh Lewis can be reached by phone at 634-2654, by e-mail at [email protected], on Twitter at twitter.com/joshlewis306 or on his Bruins blog at estevanmercury.ca/bruinsbanter. Can everyone please stop complaining that their bracket is busted? Every single bracket gets busted. The least busted bracket wins.
