The Leafs locked up one of their most important players on Tuesday. Mikhail Grabovski signed a five-year, $27.5 million contract, forgoing unrestricted free agency where he would have been the only real option at centre for many teams. Grabovski and his agent were pushing for six or seven years, which would have likely lowered the cap hit slightly, but the Leafs would not budge from five years.

The initial reaction from most parts—aside from a few, such as CBC's Elliotte Friedman—is that the deal is too much money. Grabovski is now the highest paid forward on the Leafs, $100,000 more than Phil Kessel.

Cross another name off the list of potential free agents in 2012. The Chicago Blackhawks locked up all-purpose forward Patrick Sharp to a five-year contract with an annual cap hit of $5.9 million per season.

The two premier free agents remaining – assuming they make it to July 1st, which is, admittedly, a total unknown – are Alexander Semin and Zach Parise. Both are high scoring wingers who are capable of topping 40 goals a season. Both will also be only 28-years-old by the start of next season. To suggest they will be highly sought after is an understatement.

After Parise and Semin, the second-tier of forwards consists of Dustin Penner, Ales Hemsky, R.J. Umberger, Brad Boyes, and Mikhail Grabovski – the latter being the only real quality top-6 centre option available.

Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD), also known as Winter Depression, is a mood disorder where people who enjoy normal mental health for most of the year break down during the winter months and suffer from depressive symptoms. It’s believed to be related to a lack of light. Just imagine yourself living in the dead of winter in Edmonton, waking up in the dark, going to work all day and coming home in the dark. You’d take up meth too. And people get mad at Chris Pronger for demanding out.

There’s a little known strain of SAD which has a similar onset and produces the same depressive symptoms. This strain is known as Maple Leafs Syndrome (MLS) and begins in late November and early December. Early onset has been known to occur even earlier - sometimes as early as October 1st. Its inception coincides with mounting losses in the stats column, a lack of first round picks, and a dearth of talent.

A well-known treatment for SAD-MLS is copious amounts of booze. Unfortunately, it’s only Tuesday night and I’m sort of a semi-productive member of society. So if you’re feeling blue about the blue and white then you might want to read the following points. Sometimes finding a glimmer of hope is all that can keep you going.

As you might imagine, this was a very hard list to compile. So sometimes the points aren't so hopeful. Take a shot if you feel sad.