Who is this of whom I speak? Gary Roberts: one of the biggest fan favorites up here in Toronto since the days of Dougie Gilmour, Wendel Clark and Felix "The Cat" Potvin. We all loved him, his gritty play, the fact that he was dependable and was someone that was all over the radio and the TV - and he just left one day, deciding to decline the Leafs offer, as he headed down south with Joe Nieuwendyk to sunny Florida, home of the Panthers - and a new 9 million dollar contract.
Sure, we kinda missed him (and his ads are still on the radio, sometimes, late at night) - but we got over it. We ended up with players like Jeff O'Neill, Eric Lindros and Jason Allison, who pretty much filled the same role that he did - fan favorite who doesn't get more then 50 points a season and will inevitably miss something like 20 games - and last season I didn't miss old Gary in the slightest.
But now he wants to come back - his ex-wife has moved back to Chicago (or whatever) and his daughter is still in boarding school in Toronto, so he wants to go back to where his family is - but the Leafs don't need him anymore. They have no need for a player who is:
a) 40 years old
b) misses a good number of games a year (He only played 56 games last year)
c) Can't score, doesn't throw the body around and hogs up ice time
d) Will take up valuable cap room
It would be stupid to take him back at this point - the guy will not only not help the team this year, but by taking away ice time from the youth movement (as well as cap room) he'll hurt the Leafs in the future. There is no reason, not even sentimentally, for him to be on the Maple Leafs roster. And no matter how much he wants to be a Leaf again, he shouldn't be. It's as simple as that.
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