Controversy around David Kampf as the NHL gets involved.

It was starting to look like an exit out of Toronto was inevitable for disgruntled Toronto Maple Leafs forward David Kampf, but a new wrinkle to this story might make the decision to terminate his contract significantly more challenging.

On Saturday night, National Hockey League insider Elliotte Friedman revealed that the dispute between Kampf and the Maple Leafs has escalated to a point where both the NHL itself as well as the NHL Players Association have now gotten involved.

"I have heard that one of the issues there is that he received a signing bonus this year," revealed Friedman on Hockey Night in Canada.

Friedman would expand on this point and revealed that there is now a larger dispute at play here when it comes to the NHL and NHLPA due to how both sides feel about Kampf's signing bonus and how it pertains to his contract being terminated prematurely.

"There's been a bit of a conversation about if his contract gets terminated, should he have to return some of the signing bonus," said Friedman. "I sense that the [NHL] and [NHLPA] are involved in this part of the conversation and you can guess which side either one is one."

According to Friedman, the NHL's insistence that Kampf should be forced to reimburse a portion of his signing bonus is one of the factors that has caused this issue to drag out for so long. Kampf received a signing bonus of $1.325 million this season and you can see why having to return that money would be a big issue for a player already expected to leave millions on the table by terminating his current NHL contract.

Stay tuned for more on this developing story.