Trolling the Leafs? Kadri bringing Stanley Cup to Toronto next week

Nazem Kadri, finally, is bringing the Stanley Cup back to Toronto.

Unfortunately for Toronto Maple Leafs fans, well, it obviously won’t be as a member of their organization.

Kadri, of course, won the Stanley Cup this past season as a member of the Colorado Avalanche, before signing a seven-year contract yesterday with the Calgary Flames.

In the three seasons since he was traded away from Toronto, the Leafs have fallen in the first round of the playoffs three times, to each Columbus, Montreal, and Tampa.

Kadri’s day with the Stanley Cup is slated for next Saturday, August 27.

“I’m going to take [the Stanley Cup] back home [to London, Ontario] and share it with my community. I think that’s certainly an important aspect with family and the people that have supported me from day one down there,” Kadri said in his first media availability as a member of the Flames. “And I’m thrilled to be making a bit of an appearance in Toronto later in the day. I’ve done a lot of growing up in that city as well, and there have been lots of supporters of mine there.”

Later, of course, leaves up all kinds of possibilities. Back in 2016, former Leafs forward Phil Kessel brought the trophy back to Toronto’s SickKids hospital just a year after being traded.

Kadri had 161 goals, 196 assists in 561 games for the Maple Leafs in his career, before being shipped to the Avs in exchange for Alexander Kerfoot and Tyson Barrie.

“They were pretty critical of me in meetings and there were a lot of ridiculous headlines written about me and my game. But I’ve always been someone who, if I’m told I can’t do something… it just makes me want it so much more,” Kadri wrote in an article for the Players’ Tribune earlier this year. “The pressure, the attention, the scrutiny — none of that scared me. I wanted it.”

But even if bringing the Cup to Toronto might be a bit of a jab at his former team, secretly, he’s probably cheering for their trophy drought to end one day too.

“I was a player on the team, yeah, but I was a fan, too. Always will be,” Kadri added in his Players’ Tribune piece.

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