Toronto Maple Leafs

Wait For Rick Nash You Say?

I bet anyone that said the Leafs should hold off and wait for Rick Nash feels mighty dumb right about now.  Why’s that you say? Well you see, the Columbus Blue Jackets didn’t even let him begin his final year prior to free agency before signing him to an 8 year contract extension.

In hindsight the odds of Nash getting to unrestricted free agency were FAR FAR lower than the odds of the Sedin twins making it to UFA status, and yet media member after media member trotted out the idea of the Leafs holding off on this year’s round of free agency in the hopes of signing Nash next season.  Welcome to the real world Leafs fans.  Teams don’t let players like Nash walk to free agency.  Hell they don’t let players like the Sedins walk to free agency either, as the fans that were in favour of their signing found out earlier this week.

Oh well… now we can all feel stupid about wishing upon a blue and white star together can’t we?

Here’s hoping Nazim Kadri turns into something special.

Leafs Get Tougher - Goal Scoring Will Drop

Ok, so day one of free agent insanity is done, and the Leafs beefed up a bit.  The first signing they made was of ex-NY Rangers tough guy Colton Orr.  The team’s first legit heavyweight since the departure of Wade Belak, Orr is one of the better fights in the league, but he isn’t a very good skater, and he won’t do much else for the team on the ice.  He averaged 6:29 in ice time a game for the Rangers last year, but led the team in penalty minutes with 193.  He played in all 82 games, so he’s durable to boot, but if you average out the PIMs that means he spent 2:21 in the box per game… or in the showers… whichever.

Then came the Leafs first action on the trade front this off season, as they dealt $5 million dollar a season, top goal scoring defense man Pavel Kubina and the rights to Tim Stapleton to the Atlanta Thrashers for Garnet Exelby and Colin Stuart.  Exelby was an upgrade to the heft of the blue line, giving the Leafs another heavyweight, who throws the body effectively.  He’s a bit of a cheap shot artist who lets his elbows fly, and he often takes himself out of position with his hits, but he’ll make sure the other side has it’s head up.  Stuart has played most of his pro career in the minors for the Chicago Wolves, and while he adds size to the mix at 6′3″ and 205 lbs, he’ll probably spend a lot of time on the Marlies this season.

The biggest news for the Leafs of the day soon followed when they signed Mike Komisarek for 5 years, at $4.5 million per season, including a limited NMC in the deal that lets Komisarek select 12 teams per year that he’s willing to be dealt to.  Komisarek has been one of the league leaders in hits the past few years, and he is a talented defensive defenseman, but last year was his worst in the NHL statistically, and he only played in 66 games following shoulder issues as a result of a fight during last season.

Hopefully Komisarek recovers completely from the injury, and he patrols the Leafs blue line for most of next season, again reinforcing the new rule of vigilante justice on the Leafs back end.  I’m not a huge fan of the signing as I feel $4.5 million per season over-estimates his worth to the team, and I don’t think he adds enough across the board to merit that kind of contract.  He’s making the most money of any defender on the team now, so he’d better step up to the plate in terms of his all around game.

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Leafs Sign Komisarek - Trade Kubina

The Toronto Maple Leafs have bolstered their blue line by adding Mike Komisarek, and have compensated for the cap hit by dealing away Pavel Kubina and the rights to Tim Stapleton to the Atlanta Thrashers for defenseman Garnet Exelby, and winger Colin Stuart.

Komisarek had 191 hits in 66 games last season, which is good for 2.89 hits per game.  That would put him near the top of the league on a per game basis.  It should be noted that the Habs score keepers have a tendency to inflate hits totals, and his adjusted hits last season were closer to 170.

Exelby led the Thrashers in hits last season with 151 in 59 games played.  So again he’s adding to the physicality of the Leafs blue line.

By way of comparison, Kubina only had 91 hits all of last season in 82 games played, so the Leafs are definitely going to be hitting opposing forwards a lot more often.

Exelby and Komisarek immediately make the Leafs blue line a tad tougher to play against.  Toss them into the mix along with Jeff Finger and Luke Schenn and you suddenly have a rough and tumble group of defenders.

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Scratch A Few More

Off of my list we should now remove Ian Laperriere (Flyers), Mike Rupp (Penguins), and Joel Ward (Predators).

That leaves Beauchemin, Pahlsson, Havlat, Grier, Moen, Fedotenko, and Fiddler.

They still don’t have a backup goalie but Gustavsson is still available and the Avalanche have filled both their spots, so at this point it’s Toronto, Dallas, and San Jose in the running for his services.

I’m still at my 10% quota, so hopefully I’m not on par again this season.  I would like to see the Leafs make at least one more significant signing in free agency… hopefully Beauchemin and Moen.

Colton Orr A Leaf

The Toronto Maple Leafs have signed former NY Ranger tough guy Colton Orr to a 4 year, $4 million dollar contract.  The cap hit will be $1 million dollars a season, and they immediately become “tougher” up front.

I’ve also managed to hit my 10% target in free agent predictions so anything else from here on out is gravy.

In other news, the Leafs are no longer in the running for the Sedin twins who elected to stay in Vancouver by signing 5 year contracts with no movement clauses that will pay them an average of $6.1 million dollars a season.

Mattias Ohlund has signed a 7 year contract with the Tampa  Bay Lightning worth $26.25 million, for a cap hit of $3.75 million per season.

Johnny Oduya resigned with the Devils last night, and Craig Anderson signed on with Colorado, who also resigned Peter Budaj, presumably taking themselves out of the running for Jonas Gustavsson, thus increasing the chances that the Leafs will sign the Swedish netminder.

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Wow - Didn’t See That Coming

Ok so the Habs just traded away their best prospect in Ryan McDonagh, and one of their young centres in Chris Higgins, just to obtain an overpaid 2nd line centre in Scott Gomez.  He’s a good puck distributing player, but he isn’t worth over $7 million a season.

Thing is, they still have $30 million in cap space, and they’ve only got 6 forwards, 4 defense men, and 2 goalies under contract.  They have 4 forward RFA’s to sign, and other than that they’re in the clear.  They’re going to be building this thing from the ground up apparently.

They still need at least two centres, two left wingers, three right wingers, AND 2 defense men, MINIMUM.  I think Bob Gainey is a bit crazy for leaving this many slots to fill from the open market personally… but we’ll see how it works out.  Later this year he’ll be judged.

The Flames signed Bouwmeester, and the Oilers traded for Heatley, giving up Cogliano, Penner, and Smid in the process.

So where does that leave things?

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Free Agency Notes

Jonas Gustavsson Decision After July 1st

Sportsnet is reporting that Jonas Gustavsson will wait until after July 1st to make his final decision on a destination in the NHL.  The Leafs have actually stated publicly that if Gustavsson wants to wait until after the opening of Free Agency on Canada Day that they’re fine with that.

Obviously there is a lot riding on the decision for Gustavsson, and his girlfriend apparently has a lot of say in the decision.

According to his agent Joe Resnick he is likely to wait and see what unfolds during Free Agency as it appears a lot of roster changes may be in the works around the league:

“It’s highly unlikely we’ll commit before 12 noon Wednesday. With so many teams potentially making major changes to their rosters, maybe it’s best to wait and watch it unfold first.”

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Who The Leafs Should Target In Free Agency And Why

Ok, over the past few years I’ve made many vocal suggestions on who the Leafs should be looking for in Unrestricted Free Agency.  A few years ago I was in favour of Pavel Kubina.  I was right on that one, but unfortunately the mumbling guy with Richard Peddie’s hand up his behind decided it was a good idea to sign Bryan McCabe to a completely asinine deal, thus wasting a gazillion dollars and setting the Leafs needed rebuild back a few years.  Toss in a dose of Jason Blake and that year was SNAFU… still is in some ways.

Last season I was in favour of signing any of Niklas Hagman (check); Aaron Voros (toughness and grit you say?); Ryan Malone (toughness and grit you say again?); Adam Hall (nada); Shean Donovan (c’est la vie); Michael Ryder (might not have worked in T.O. but he looked pretty good this year); Curtis Glencross (best $1.2 million Sutter spent last season); Ruslan Fedotenko (He won another Stanley Cup); Joe DiPenta (played for Frolunda in Sweden last year); and Michal Roszival (he stayed in NY where bad contracts are all the rage).

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Leafs Tender Qualifying Offer To Pogge

In an effort to cover all of their bases, the Toronto Maple Leafs have extended a qualifying offer to Justin Pogge.  The offer is more of a formality than any sort of result of contract negotiations, as it equates to the bare minimum that Pogge would need to be re-signed for as an RFA.

In essence this just ensures that should another club attempt to sign Pogge, the Leafs will be guaranteed the right to match the offer and are guaranteed draft pick compensation depending on the amount of any offer Pogge signs with another team.  The minimum contract amount required for draft pick compensation this past year was $863,156, which then translated into a 3rd round pick.

Had the Leafs failed to make the qualifying offer to Pogge before the first Monday following the NHL entry draft (or June 25th - whichever comes first), then the player would become an Unrestricted Free Agent on July 1st, and been able to pursue a contract to play elsewhere with the Leafs receiving nothing in return.

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Why Chris Pronger Is Driving Up The Value Of Tomas Kaberle

So two days ago, in the first round of the 2009 NHL entry draft, the Philadelphia Flyers traded Joffrey Lupul, Luca Sbisa, and two first round draft picks (2009, 2010) AND a conditional 3rd round pick in 2010 or 2011 to the Anaheim Ducks for Chris Pronger and prospect Ryan Dingle.  The conditional pick is dependent upon whether or not Pronger resigns with the Flyers.

Dingle was undrafted, and played 4 years in the USHL with Des Moines and Tri City before moving on to play another 3 years with the University of Denver in the WCHA conference of the NCAA. Dingle was signed as a free agent by the Ducks in 2006-07. He played a few games with the Portland Pirates in the AHL after leaving Denver in the midst of the 2006-07 season, and eventually dropped down to the ECHL to play with the Augusta Lynx.  This past season he spent the entire season playing for the Iowa Chops in the AHL.  He’s 5′10″ and 190 lbs, and he scored 11 goals and 18 points in 70 games.  Suffice it to say, he’s unlikely to make a huge impact in the NHL.

Which basically leaves us with Chris Pronger for WAY TOO MUCH. Lupul is a former 7th overall draft pick of the Ducks, who has played 372 NHL games, in 5 full NHL seasons.  He has scored 20 or more goals in 3 of those seasons already, and he isn’t even 26 yet - oh and this is the second time he’s been traded for Chris Pronger, which I’d imagine is flattering and frustrating at the same time.

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