Toronto Maple Leafs

Other Things You’ll Get Sick Of Hearing About

I must admit, I’m already sick of a few of these. I got my fill of Jeff Finger about 10 minutes after everyone heard a) his name, and b) the amount he was being paid. That being said, I think it’ll be nice to have a few of these stacked away in a list for easy reference at a later date so I can say ‘told ya so’. Am I a jerk for that? Probably, but that won’t keep me up at night.

Here are some things you’re going to hear about over and over again down the road, and perhaps upon reflection you’ll remember why we made the moves in the first place. Or not. All I know is, every time people bring up the Owen Nolan deal, the trade that brought Wendel Clark BACK to Toronto (giving the Isles our first rounder that turned out to be Roberto Luongo), or the Steve Sullivan move, I kinda die a bit more on the inside. One of these days people should go back to talking about the Fredrik Modin trade for Cory Cross and a 7th rounder, or maybe I should just stop caring? Probably the latter. Either way, here they are:

1) The buyout of Darcy Tucker - Leafs fans will be annoyed en masse when Tucker returns to some semblance of form in the Mile High City. He’ll likely receive power play time alongside players like Stastny, Smyth, Hejduk, Wolski, and Svatos, so it’s quite possible his numbers will improve. He’ll also have a massive chip on his shoulder when it comes to proving his detractors that think he’s “wearing down” wrong. I’d expect him to score 15 to 20 goals, and perhaps achieve 40 to 45 points this season. Ironically, that is almost exactly how he performed last season, when he scored 18 goals and had 34 points for the Leafs while playing with Jason “pop-gun” Blake and Matt Stajan. That still won’t stop people from claiming we let Sideshow go too soon.

He might put up a few more points since he won’t have Blake shooting from every possible angle on the ice and he’ll be making every effort to remain healthy and in the line-up. That being said, it probably won’t help Colorado much, as the team will be in tough to make the playoffs should Sakic and Forsberg decide not to return. If he’s playing on a line with Arnason and Laperriere, don’t expect him to score a lot.

2) The waiving of Kyle Wellwood - Wellwood is soft. His entire game is based on his ability to dangle and dish, and he hardly ever back checks. Luckily for him he’s going to a team that doesn’t really have many players that can dangle and dish, and almost all of them spend time on the back check. If there’s anything Vancouver really sucks at, it’s scoring goals. Kyle has enough talent that he could easily reprise the role of Steve Sullivan with the Chicago Blackhawks of the late 90’s. If he gets significant power play minutes, and he has the opportunity in Vancouver to do so for sure, Wellwood will put up big numbers, despite his weak defensive game.

Leaf fans (many in the blogosphere included) have a serious problem with Kyle’s lack of dedication to fitness, but that will likely be forgotten by many when they see he can score at better than a point per game pace when healthy. If he can recover from a broken foot, and his problematic groin injuries, and perhaps wake up as a result of his being waived by the team that drafted him, expect Wellwood to make many Leafs fans sigh at another lost “piece of the puzzle”.

Also expect Cox and Berger to point to this deal as one Fletcher was “stupid” for making since Wellwood was still making less than $1 million dollars and was an RFA.

Personally I’m not so sure he’d ever have worked out for the Leafs, but losing him for nothing doesn’t really help the Leafs in a positive way either. Changing up the whole “country club” mentality aside, I’m not sure Leafs nation will remember his departure fondly in a few years.

3) The Jeff Finger signing - Finger is doomed. Not because he’s likely to be alarmingly bad, but mainly because most of Leafs nation has already pegged him as a failure. Cognitive Dissonance is not Jeff’s friend at this point.

He was playing in a Colorado system behind some of the best blue liners in the NHL for the past 5-10 years (think Blake, Foote, etc.) and unfortunately was a victim of numbers. When a team can rotate through 8 D men who have over 200+ games of NHL experience, it’s pretty hard for a “rookie” to crack the lineup without being a blue chip prospect. Jeff was drafted 240th overall, in the 11th round and he played 3 years at St. Cloud State University in the WCHA division of NCAA division 1. He started his minor league career off in the ECHL, so he wasn’t exactly pegged to fly to the tops of the NHL from the beginning. The fact that he even MADE the NHL with Colorado should be a testament to his perseverance and dedication to developing and improving his game.

Before anyone jumps all over Fletcher for this one, and says he should have paid less to (and perhaps intended to) sign Kurt Sauer they might want to think about the following. Kurt Sauer has never scored more than 6 points in an NHL season. Prior to this past season where Sauer was a +17, he was a career -32 player. He had only had 1 season prior to this one where he was a + player, and 3 of those years were with Colorado. He has only played 70+ games in 1 season at the NHL level. That was his rookie campaign with Anaheim, and it was 6 seasons ago - the guy is injury prone. Sauer missed 28 games last season with a concussion… and he’s had concussion issues in the past. We don’t need another Carlo Colaiacovo on the team Leafs fans.

Finger has only played 94 games in the NHL, but he’s already a +22 for his career. He also has 24 points in those 94 games… Kurt Sauer has a total of 22 points in 288 games. A lot of the press about Finger coming in has implied he’s a one dimensional player offensively that only scores goals because he has a good shot on the Power Play. Problem with that theory is, only 1 of his goals, and 1 of his assists came on the PP last season, and yet he still scored 8 goals and 19 points. That means that 7 of his goals and 17 of his points came at either even strength or while short handed. I’m ok with those numbers.

I’m not saying he’s going to impress everyone and be the next Larry Murphy or Bryan McCabe *laugh track*, but lets at least give the guy a chance before we tar and feather him and put a sign on his back that says “Aki Berg”.

4) Mats Sundin - I don’t just mean the rumours of his departure. I actually mean the whole thing. If he comes back and the team sucks still, you’ll get sick of hearing about how he’s “hindering the development” of the younger Leafs (I’ll probably be someone saying that so I’ll apologize in advance). If he retires and the team sucks still, you’ll get sick of hearing about how the team would be much better with him than it is without him. I’d expect this to include graphics comparing his production to that of the remaining Leafs. You might also anticipate analysis that compares production of players WITH Sundin to their production WITHOUT Sundin. Basically you’re screwed either way with this one.

If he comes back and they’re a success, you’ll get sick of hearing about how heroic it was of him to come back for one last chance at the Cup with his beloved Leafs. If he stays away and they’re a success, the campaign for the Exclusion of Mats Sundin from the HHOF will kick into high gear. You will also begin to hear about how the Leafs could have accelerated their development by kicking Mats and friends to the curb earlier. The geniuses that write stories about the Leafs will probably spin that as “we told you the youth movement was the right way to go”, despite the fact that many of them have been saying repeatedly that the Leafs are destined to suck this year with or without Sundin. Again - either way this works out, you’re going to get screwed.

Suffice it to say, when all is said and done, you’ll probably be glad to see the pundits shut up and just sit back and watch some hockey. I think no matter how this season pans out, I’ll just be glad to see some new players in a Leafs uniform. Even if they don’t win, we all have the excitement of what other moves they could make to improve things. Hopefully it wouldn’t entail bringing back recently retired Leafs… (maybe I’m the only one that thinks that way).

Let me know if there’s anything you’re tired of reading/hearing about these days, and if there’s anything you want some more info about, and I’ll see what I can do. We’ve still got over a month to go, but the light is forming at the end of the tunnel.