"In Michael's case, when Mike [Gillis] and I met with [him] this morning, it went well in the sense that I think he’s matured, he’s taken his career into his own hands right now," said head coach Alain Vigneault of Grabner. "He definitely understands the commitment as far as conditioning goes."

"[Now] he needs to dominate the American league with his strengths. He’s supposed to be an offensive player with great speed and that can put the puck in the net. He did it last year at times, he had some inconsistency there, this year we expect him to do it and do it consistently. And if he does that then we’re confident that we're going to have a young man that is going to help us out in the future."