Mikhail Grabovski ticked at Maple Leafs over buyout

The Toronto Maple Leafs are poised to buy out Mikhail Grabovski after putting the veteran forward on unconditional waivers Thursday.

The buyout will make Grabovski an unrestricted free agent as of Friday at noon ET and he wasn't the least bit happy about it, spitting tacks in the direction of Maple Leafs head coach Randy Carlyle:

"He makes me [expletive] play on the fourth line and he put me in the playoffs on the fourth line and third line again," Grabovski told TSN.

"Yeah, I don’t score goals. I need to work more about that, I know that, but if you feel support from your coach [you'll score]. I don’t feel any support from this [expletive] idiot."

Grabovski, 29, had four years remaining on his $27.5-million US contract, which he signed in March 2012 during the tenure of Nonis's predecessor, Brian Burke.

At the time, he was on the verge of recording his third 20-plus goal season in four years.

But the Belarus native struggled this past season, recording just nine goals and 16 points in 48 games.

"I would like to thank Mikhail for his contributions with the Leafs over the past five seasons," Leafs general manager David Nonis said in a statement. "This was not an easy decision to make as Mikhail made numerous contributions to our hockey club.

"This is a roster move that will give us salary-cap flexibility moving forward."

The Leafs have already used their other non-compliance buyout on defenceman Mike Komisarek.

Waiver wire

Also waived on Thursday, a day before the start of the NHL's free-agent signing period, were New Jersey goalie Johan Hedberg, Colorado defenceman Greg Zanon, Nashville defenceman Hal Gill and Edmonton centre Eric Belanger.

The person revealed the list of waived players to The Associated Press on the condition of anonymity because the NHL doesn't announce the moves.