Where's Kilger?

The Florida Panthers granted Chad Kilger a personal leave of absence when he was traded to them by the Leafs at the trade deadline. Unfortunately, Kilger's personal time has expired and he has not reported back to his team. As a result, the Panthers have suspended him without pay. Now, I don't condone this lack of communication by Kilger, but if he is angered by being traded then I can somewhat understand. Kilger is only 32 years old. In his 12 years in the NHL he has played on 8 different teams. But the Cornwall Ontario native was playing his best hockey in these past 3 years as a Maple Leaf. He played 214 games with the Buds and scored 41 goals and 73 points. Not impressive you say? Well consider he was doing that in a checking role and at an average of 11:38 of ice time per game (this year anyway, and probably pretty close to that in the last couple of years.) Now that's not bad.
Whenever I saw Kilger play in the blue and white he played with grit and soul. He was a +1 on a shitty Leafs team this year. Only 6 other Leafs who have played more than 40 games had a better +/- than him. His 10 goals ranked him 8th on the club.
He still has another year on his contract that pays him $900,000 per season. Worth his value.
Surely Cliff Fletcher could have flogged someone else! Kilger was a bright spot on the roster. I can just imagine how disappointed he is, and how he must be thinking to himself: "Dammit! I give this much effort and I still can't stick with an NHL team!" Let alone a team he probably dreamed of playing for in the first place.
Nah, the gutless Ponikarovski's and Antropov's get to stick with the club and a hearty guy like Kilger gets the boot. I don't like it. It's a business, but I don't like it.

T Tags: Chad+Kilger+suspended Panthers