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Pontus Holmberg Has Harsh Words for the Toronto Maple Leafs After Being Forced Out
Photo credit: Imagn Images
The Toronto Maple Leafs refused to extend a qualifying offer to Pontus Holmberg, which led to him signing a contract with the Tampa Bay Lightning.
Pontus Holmberg's time in Toronto wasn't always extremely productive. Last season, he wasn't scoring enough goals, and he was consistently bouncing around the lineup.
Heading into the offseason, Leafs fans were curious whether or not the Leafs would keep Holmberg around or let him walk.
We got that answer on Monday when the team refused to sign him to a qualifying offer, thus making him an unrestricted free agent.
Pontus Holmberg signs with the Tampa Bay Lightning
While speaking to the media today, Holmberg admitted that it was "tough" for the Leafs to reject him so boldly.
Meanwhile, he took a bit of a dig at a team, noting that the Lightning are a winning organization.
«First of all, it's a really good team,» Holmberg said. «This is a winning team."
The forward then went on to say why he believes he will be a success with his new team, and how he plans to impress the coaches.
«They can expect hard work of course,» Holmberg said. «I'm a pretty strong guy in the corner with the puck, good puck protection. Then I hope I can score a little bit more than last season. I know I can do more offensively, but my game starts with defense."
As for General Manager Julien BriseBois, he seems pretty happy with his new choice of winger.
"Good teammate, works hard. He's a pest, goes to the hard areas, takes pride in his work ethic and in being particularly competitive and feisty, draws penalties,» BriseBois said. "Our model is to be a really good defensive team, a really good 5-on-5 team. He allows us to be an even better version of that model. That's why we brought him in.»
We wish Holmberg the best of luck.
| POLL | ||
JUILLET 2 | 797 ANSWERS Pontus Holmberg Has Harsh Words for the Toronto Maple Leafs After Being Forced Out Do you believe the Toronto Maple Leafs will regret letting Pontus Holmberg walk? | ||
| YES | 212 | 26.6 % |
| NO | 585 | 73.4 % |
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