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LEINO FACES RUFF ROAD

BUFFALO - Ville Leino and his agent waited and waited last June - even checking back in with Flyers general manager Paul Holmgren hours before the start of free agency at noon on July 1 - until they just could not wait anymore.

Ville Leino is making more money than every forward in the NHL except Brad Richards and Steven Stamkos. (Associated Press)
Ville Leino is making more money than every forward in the NHL except Brad Richards and Steven Stamkos. (Associated Press)Read more

BUFFALO - Ville Leino and his agent waited and waited last June - even checking back in with Flyers general manager Paul Holmgren hours before the start of free agency at noon on July 1 - until they just could not wait anymore.

Leino had even decided to table contract extensions with the Flyers during last season in order to give the team the salary-cap flexibility to bring in high-priced acquisitions like Kris Versteeg. He didn't want to have to start over, in a new town, with a new coach, in a new system.

Leino wanted to stay in Philadelphia. And Holmgren wanted to keep him in a Flyers uniform - but not at the price of $27 million.

So Leino ended up signing with Buffalo and is now knee-deep in the same exhausting process, this time under the iron fist of Sabres coach Lindy Ruff.

Under Ruff, who became the second-longest tenured coach in pro sports behind the San Antonio Spurs' Gregg Popovich on Monday when Cardinals manager Tony La Russa retired, Leino has already dangerously flirted with sitting out as a healthy scratch.

Tonight, Leino will face his former team - even if it now bears little semblance to the one he played for less than 6 months ago - for the first time since inking a 6-year, $27 million deal.

"It's been a tough start to the season, to say the least," Leino told the Daily News yesterday. "For sure, things haven't exactly gone the way that I would have hoped. I have a lot of work to do to prove that I am a better player than what I have shown."

How bad has it been? Leino's only highlight so far was opening the season with the rest of his teammates in his native Finland, as part of the NHL Premiere. Leino is one of Finland's biggest names.

"It was definitely a unique way to start a season," Leino said. "It was pretty nice. I had a ton of friends and family there to watch me, who made their way down . Other than that, it's pretty much been a blur. It's been frustrating."

Leino, 28, spent much of Saturday's loss to Florida on the bench. He played a little more than 2 minutes, 30 seconds in each of the second and third periods. Leino's total ice time was 9:35, the third lowest on the team that game. Yet, he is the third highest-paid player on a traditionally small-market Buffalo team, which under new owner Terry Pegula, is suddenly spending as much as the Flyers.

Though his salary cap hit is just $4.5 million, Leino will earn $11 million this season, paying him more money than every forward in the league except Brad Richards and Steven Stamkos.

This season, Leino has seen time on the fourth line, the first line and everywhere in between - including the bench.

Leino has just one goal and one assist in 10 games. He has a total of five shots on goal, tying him with Matt Ellis for the least on the Sabres - and Ellis has played seven less games.

Really, it's no surprise. Leino has struggled to find himself in each of the three NHL markets he has played. In search of cap space in 2009 season, the Red Wings let him go for scrapheap defenseman Ole-Kristian Tollefsen after just a 55-game audition.

With the Flyers, Leino cracked Peter Laviolette's lineup just 13 times in his first 26 games with the team. He sat out the first four playoff games in 2010 as a healthy scratch before going on to tie an NHL record for points by a rookie in a single playoff season (21 points) as he led the Flyers to within two wins of a Stanley Cup parade.

We visited Leino at his house in April, learning what makes him tick. He is an interesting character, one who doesn't easily adapt to set standards and practices.

"I can't play in the simple way that others can," Leino said in April. "If I fail, I'll fail as myself and the player I've developed and the player I've always been - not the player that tried to please somebody.

"Before, I tried to do things that made coaches happy. That's the Finn in me. Because I don't want to [tick] anyone off or give a bad impression. But that's not what I am - I decided I wasn't going to change for anyone else."

Therein lies Leino's clash with Ruff, a rigid man who squeezes every last ounce of talent out of his players with a unified system. Nonconformists don't often last on Ruff's teams.

Soon, perhaps even tonight - when Leino skates on the first line for the first time all season with Jason Pominville and Tomas Vanek, who have already combined for 29 points - Ruff will find what makes Leino's silky-smooth game so unique.

Unfortunately for Leino, it's something that Laviolette had already figured out.

"I really liked it in Philly," Leino said, his voice trailing off. "We tried to make it work. Now, I'm going to keep working hard to turn this thing around."

read Frank Seravalli's blog, Frequent Flyers, at

www.philly.com/FrequentFlyers. Follow him on Twitter at

http://twitter.com/DNFlyers.