The 400th game came and went for Tyler Bozak, but there is meaning in the accomplishment for the undrafted centreman.

Bozak was passed over in the 2004 NHL draft, the first time he was eligible, and passed over again the following year. But of the players selected in 2004, only 37 have played more NHL games than Bozak has and here’s the larger surprise — only 18 players from that draft, just four of them centres, have managed to score more points.

Bozak isn’t a star as much as he has been a bargain and a trustworthy player for the Leafs, but consider this: Of those chosen ahead of Bozak in the 2004 Draft, 167 of them never played a single NHL game, another 21 never registered a big league point.

There are 20 non-drafted current NHL players who have played more games than Bozak, the leader being Dan Boyle in New York, but most of that group are significantly older than him. He will not end up like Joey Mullen or Adam Oates in the Hockey Hall of Fame, but a legion of players out there must wish they had his kind of career, with all the odds against him.

THIS AND THAT

Steven Stamkos still hasn’t signed in Tampa Bay, but the fact his parents have moved to the area has left a lot of people believing he will re-sign with the Lightning ... There are those who believe Henrik Lundqvist’s save percentage numbers are enhanced by dubious shot counting at Madison Square Garden. That point of view came my way when I recently touted Lundqvist as a Hart Trophy candidate and was told about the apparent free stats ... There is still occasional debate as to whether the Leafs should have kept Bozak over Mikhail Grabovski three years back. GM Dave Nonis bought out Grabovski’s contract and since then, Bozak has outscored Grabovski 46-27 in goals, 66-39 in assists ... A quick Nonis plug: He pushed to hard to sign Leo Komarov, who has more goals than Corey Perry, Ryan Getzlaf, Sidney Crosby, Jaromir Jagr, Anze Kopitar, Henrik Sedin, Rick Nash, Jarome Iginla and Phil Kessel in this first quarter of the NHL season. That won’t last, but if you’re Komarov, how about telling that one to your grandchildren one day? ... Love this kind of story: Mississauga’s Brent Urban, playing in his first NFL game, blocked the game-winning field goal for Baltimore on Monday Night Football that led to a return touchdown and a Ravens win over Cleveland. Urban used to play GTHL hockey and one of his linemates was the Islanders’ Casey Cizikas ... What you don’t see or hear: Rogers ownership people explaining how they went from Paul Beeston and Alex Anthopoulos and the best feel-good story in Canadian sports to Mark Shapiro, Ross Atkins and a whole lot of uncertainty. Talk about sticking a pin in a balloon and watching the momentum quickly deflate ... When Bill Ranford had Jonathan Bernier in Los Angeles, he once told me he wasn’t sure which goalie was better, Bernier or Jonathan Quick. Ron Hextall, then in Los Angeles, said much the same things. So the Leafs have to fight to get Bernier back to form and Bernier has to fight just as hard to find his place again ... Crosby after 24 games: Five goals, 10 assists and playing better of late. Crosby after 24 games a year ago: Nine goals, 24 assists. A 51-point pace this year; 112-point pace last year.

HEAR AND THERE

Cheer up Blue Jay fans: The Kansas City Royals won the World Series with the 12th-best starting pitching in the American League. And, with a rotation of Marcus Stroman, Marco Estrada, R.A. Dickey, J.A. Happ and either Jesse Chavez or Drew Hutchison, 12th may be just about right. The wild cards in all this: Aaron Sanchez as a potential starting pitcher and Hutchison with a bounce-back year ... This gem came courtesy of Hall of Fame baseball writer Bob Elliott and may help make new GM Atkins more popular in Toronto: When playing A ball at Kingston, his shortstop was John McDonald and his second baseman was Marco Scutaro ... What the new sports fan with access to almost everything on television or computer must understand: Press conferences broadcast live are mostly for show. Reporters don’t get their primary information from press conferences. They get them from private conversations, telephone calls, text messages and scrums ... Did you see that Sabres rookie Jack Eichel has become a spokesman for Tim Hortons, but Ryan O’Reilly has not? ... Someone named Matt Henderson with the tweet of the week: “Has any Leafs goalie started their NHL career by crying 2 games in a row?” ... Signing Ricky Ray, who turns 37 next October, is something of a gamble for the Argos. Especially if they end up losing backup/starter Trevor Harris because of it. Harris wants to play. And being behind Ray, he won’t get that chance. Wouldn’t be the least bit surprised to see Harris end up in Montreal.

SCENE AND HEARD

Jonny Flynn can tell people this the rest of his life: I was taken one pick ahead of Stephen Curry in the 2009 NBA Draft. Drafted two picks after Curry: DeMar DeRozan. Also taken in that first round that year: James Johnson and DeMarre Carroll. Curry spent a lot of time in Toronto between the ages of 10 and 13 when his father, Dell, played for the Raptors ... Wanted to buy tickets for the Golden State game Saturday until I saw the prices: $332 for a single ticket in the lower bowl, $144 in the upper bowl at the Air Canada Centre. Suddenly my television seemed like the right alternative ... Willie Burden, all heart as a Canadian Football Hall of Fame player, died while waiting for a heart transplant ... This is how my mind works: When I hear Toronto referred to as The 6, I think Ron Ellis. To a lesser extent, Gill Fenerty ... Good time to go the movies: Lots to see with Creed, The Martian and Spotlight all in the Billy Red Lyons don’t ya dare miss it category ... Drew Doughty is 28th in scoring amongst NHL defenceman, which means once again he won’t get a lot of Norris Trophy consideration. Which, of course, is wrong. The voters prefer point-scoring defencemen like Erik Karlsson or John Klingberg. Doughty is second in the NHL in minutes played and Los Angeles has given up the fewest goals in the league. To me, he’s the best in the league again.

AND ANOTHER THING

The new Blue Jays slogan: “It’s all about the short term and the long term, or is it the long term and the short term?” Now that should sell season tickets ... Weird team, the Raptors. They beat Cleveland, win in Atlanta, Dallas and Oklahoma City, beat the Clippers in Los Angeles, but lose to the Knicks, Denver and Phoenix at home. Hard to get a feel for what this team is going to be come playoff time ... This is Paul Stastny’s 10th NHL season. The first five years he scored at 75-point pace, looked like a star. The past five seasons, 59-point pace and, on just a 53-point pace since joining structured St. Louis, looks like just another decent guy ... It will never happen, but the NHL would be a much better product if the game was played 4-on-4 during regulation time and 3-on-3 in overtime ... Say a prayer for Toronto Junior Canadiens president Tyler Cragg, who is fighting brain cancer. Among the best players Cragg ever coached in minor hockey: Alex Pietrangelo of the St. Louis Blues ... Happy birthday to Johnny Manziel (23), Larry Bowa (70), Larry Zbyszko (64), Andy Stewart (45), Kevin Cash (38), Garry Lariviere (61) and Jelani McCoy (38) ... And hey, whatever became of Sylvain Turgeon?

WAS PRICE BEING A PHONY?

A colleague of mine who covered the Detroit Tigers for years had a word of advice about David Price, sometime around September.

“Don’t believe anything he says,” he told me. “My experience is, he’s a bit of a phony.”

Price didn’t seem that way with the Blue Jays. He seemed engaged, involved, loving his time in Toronto. He called it the best atmosphere he had ever played in. He said he hadn’t felt anything before like pitching here. He bought scooters for the clubhouse, monogrammed robes for his teammates and he was everything he was supposed to be until the post-season began.

When the season ended, there was all kinds of misdirection regarding Price, depending on who you listened to. He told some people he wanted to play in the National League, preferably Chicago or St. Louis, because it was close to home, they were quality to teams and easy access for his parents, who live in Nashville. He said publicly he wouldn’t be averse to a return to the Jays. He also said he wanted to bat, which meant NL only.

There’s nothing wrong with playing the field in free agency and taking the best offer, which is what Price did. But upon hearing him in Boston, saying he was so happy to be there sounds only scripted. I’m thrilled to play for ... fill in team ... and excited in to be ... fill in city ...

That’s the way it sounded to me, harkening back to what I was told by my veteran colleague from Detroit.

Great pitcher, Price is. The rest, you can decide.

CURRY PLAYING LIKE GRETZKY

The thing about greatness is that it never looks the same.

Michael Jordan was different from Magic Johnson, who was different from Larry Bird, who had a different game than Kareem Abdul-Jabbar.

Wayne Gretzky was nothing like Mario Lemieux in size and or style. Dominik Hasek invented his own way to stop pucks. There was only one Bobby Orr, one Bobby Hull, one Gordie Howe. All of them different, yet magnificent.

It is that way now watching Steph Curry with the Golden State Warriors. He is unlike anyone who has ever played before, maybe closer to Gretzky in mind and thought and body type than anyone from his own sport. Like Gretzky did, he seems to defy logic and physics, with an innate understanding of time and space, equally able to create offence for himself and for those of whom he plays with. With Gretzky, his vision and instincts could never be accurately measured or duplicated, but it separated him from all who played, just as it now seems to separate Curry.

It isn’t often a basketball player and a hockey player can be compared in any way — and usually it would have no relevance — but in this case you can see Curry carving out a new way to play, his way, just as Gretzky did in Edmonton in the early 1980s.

YOU CAN’T FAULT JONES

Chris Jones has to look out for himself because in a world as small as the Canadian Football League, no one is really looking out for you.

Sure, the optics don’t look good with Jones winning the Grey Cup in Edmonton and almost certainly bolting for the big money and bright lights of Regina. The money would be life-changing for Jones, a career CFL coach, who has only been a head coach for two seasons. But the opportunity to run his own franchise with the Roughriders would put him in John Hufnagel and Wally Buono on the rise territory in the Canadian league.

And yet, from afar, something seems wrong with all this, especially with the optics. You win a championship, really on a call you made to challenge a penalty that wasn’t. You celebrate, you hug your players, you appear at a civic reception, and all the while you have to be thinking ‘I’m probably out of here.’

There are no rules that prevent Jones from moving from Edmonton to Saskatchewan and maybe there should be some. But until them, he’s free to take the money and run, much as it doesn’t smell right.

Until there’s a rule that says differently.