Michael Grabner to wait until season begins before deciding future

Veteran winger Michael Grabner is one of the more intriguing players who is still on the UFA market.  After being bought out back in October, his original plans were to wait until closer to training camp before deciding on what his plans were for the upcoming season as by then, there would be more concrete information on what the format would be. However, it appears as if he has changed those plans again. Craig Morgan of AZ Coyotes Insider reports that while Grabner has spoken with a few teams, he will now wait until the season begins before making a decision on where to sign (or whether to sign at all).

The 33-year-old is coming off a tough season in Arizona that saw him put up just eight goals and three assists in 46 games while spending considerable time as a healthy scratch. When he was in the lineup, he saw sparing ice time, as his 12:22 ATOI per game was a career-low.  However, Grabner was still productive in the bubble, scoring three goals in nine playoff games, finishing behind only Clayton Keller (four goals) in that category, but it wasn’t enough for to avoid being bought out.

While Grabner is no longer the quality scoring threat he was just a few years ago (when he had 27 goals in each of the 2016-17 and 2017-18 campaigns), he’s still a strong skater and is one of the top shorthanded threats in the league. If he does wind up signing at some point, it will likely be for close to the league minimum, but it appears that he will wait and see what early-season opportunities present themselves first.