Matt Frattin has ended our speculation and signed with the Toronto Maple Leafs. Per an employee of the University of North Dakota,Jayson Hajdu:
@UNDSID: Breaking: Matt Frattin has signed a contract with the Toronto Maple Leafs. Details to come.
@UNDSID: Frattin will suit up for the Leafs tomorrow night.
Frattin wore #21 in college which is honoured for Borje Salming. It's unlikely he'll wear #21 for the Leafs due to that and Burke's insistence that rookies wear high numbers. If Kadri's wearing #43, Frattin isn't playing his first game wearing an honoured sweater.
I'll say that I'm pleasantly surprised: if Frattin waited until August 15th he could have been an unrestricted free agent and chosen where to play. Perhaps it was Burke offering him a contract after he got kicked off the squad last year or perhaps Frattin just wanted to play in the largest hockey market in the world. We don't really know but Burke did a good job on this.For those unaware of his past:
Matt Frattin Arrested and Suspended
Frattin was arrested along with former Sioux hockey player Joe Finley at about 3 a.m. Tuesday after campus police saw the pair throwing objects — cups, plates, a kitchen table and a lawnmower — from a residential garage on the 400 block of North Columbia Road, where one of the two lives.
Seems harmless enough to me but he later was charged with a DUI (later acquitted). He was kicked off the Sioux but pledged to stay with the team rather than sign the offered pro contract from the Leafs. He was a runner up for the 2011 Hobey Baker award; given annually to a senior who later uses it to hide his ECHL "participation" trophies on his mantle.
Good to have Frattin on board, I'll have a post up tomorrow with what role he'll likely fill for the Leafs.