I'm not gonna get into the discussion of this too much because I'm gonna eventually read the book myself soon, but all I will say is that anyone who wants to tar and feather Kadri and call him an idiot for sticking up for his team and wearing his heart on his sleeve can get lost. Unlike other cowards who couldn't handle this market, he embraced all the adversity and scrutiny and wanted to be a Leaf for life. He proudly wore that crest every f***ing night and he went to war for his team. Even Matthews and others have mentioned in recent years after the trade that Naz was the best teammate and had a great attitude and outlook in the room. He had his warts but for better or for us he embraced who he was and truly grew up here, and he had the back of his team.
Blame the league for their double standard on reffing and supplementary discipline, or for the management and team for creating a cowardly culture where guys didn't have each other's backs. Why did it always land on Naz? DeBrusk almost pulled a Chara-Pacioretty on a respected vet like Marleau and there was no discipline for that. A season later Chara does EXACTY what Kadri did to DeBrusk but even more blatantly to Gallagher (he even mocks Gallagher for jerking back his neck out of recoil) and he doesn't even get a f***ing penalty Let alone a suspension, only a pathetic 5K fine. A 6'9 ogre doing that to a dude who is 5'10 at most in good lighting, what an absolute joke.
Naz loved Toronto and I wish we had more players who played with pride and passion like him. f*** Dubas for that dog shit video game trade, Barrie solved none of our problems and if anything was emblematic of the exact issues this team had in its roster construction, and was also a heartless coward himself