Toronto Maple Leafs

Fighting With Two Broken Wrists

The trade of Bryan McCabe to the Florida Panthers should be announced on Tuesday afternoon.  The Leafs are apparently also sending a 4th round draft pick in 2010 along with poor old Bryan, who - with his $2 million in hand - will be lining up with his pal Wade Belak alongside the likes of Jay Bouwmeester and Tomas Vokoun.

The upside of the deal for Leafs fans should be apparent.  We’re rid of an overpaid, underperforming blue liner, who also happened to be the oldest defenseman on the club.  In addition the Leafs gain cap space going forwards.  The downside is, we lose another draft pick, and we’re getting ANOTHER D-man in return, who is coming off a season that for most intents and purposes was lost to wrist problems.

Van Ryn has been quoted as saying he feels “awesome” after being hampered by injury over the previous couple of seasons.  Personally I plan on waiting until he’s unleashing his cannon-like slapshot of old with some amount of regularity from the Leaf’s point on the power play, before I consider him valuable as an asset to the Leafs.

The other problem the trade has failed to resolve is the Leafs are still in a veteran heavy situation on the blue line.  Consider the fact that their top 4 D are now Tomas Kaberle (30 years old, entering his 10th NHL season); Pavel Kubina (31, entering his 11th NHL season); Mike Van Ryn (29 years old, entering his 8th NHL season); and Jeff Finger (28, entering his 3rd NHL season).  Further down the list we have the likes of Carlo Colaiacovo (25, entering his 6th NHL season, but he’s only played 101 NHL games - and average of 20 games a year); Ian White (24, entering his 4th NHL season); Anton Stralman (22, entering his 2nd NHL season); Jonas Frögren (28, entering his first NHL season, but he’s been playing as a pro in Sweden for 8 years, and he’s won two championships and finished twice four times with Färjestads BK in his last 6 seasons with the club); and Staffan Kronwall (25, entering his 3rd NHL season).

Obviously the depth of the Leafs blue line is likely their greatest strength moving into the upcoming season.  Since it is quite likely that the team is in need of Offensive help.  Even if they produce 210-220 goals, they’ll likely be maxing their potential output, so here’s where the next stages of the remodelling plan come in.

Fletcher will likely be looking at adding to the Leafs scoring punch if they enter this season without Mats Sundin.  Cliff is unlikely to sacrifice defensive responsibility, on the part of his forwards, in exchange for offence, as he has never displayed that tendency in the past.  I expect he will likely play the first few months of the season without changing anything drastically, in an effort to read who his most likely trading partners will be, and also to see who has the greatest value of his defensive assets.  Considering Kaberle and Kubina both have no movement clauses, they aren’t likely going anywhere.  I would assume of the remaining defenders, that Van Ryn, Colaiacovo, and White are the most likely players to be on the block.

Though it may seem counterintuitive to Leafs fans, it is possible that Fletcher will trade whichever of those three is playing the BEST when he makes a decision on who to hold on to.  Increased return should be his objective.  Here is a quick listing of teams lacking on the blue line:

Los Angeles - The team only has 4 NHL ready D men under contract. After Tom Preissing, Jack Johnson, Denis Gauthier, and Matt Greene, they’re looking at AHLers and prospects.  An NHL experienced defender might be of value to them as a stop gap.  They also have some solid young forwards to dangle in exchange.

Columbus - While they have seven defenders under contract already, very few of them are offensively inclined.  They might consider a player like White or Colaiacovo quite valuable, and they have some interesting young players up front.

Atlanta - They signed Ron Hainsey in the off season, but they still only have 5 NHL D men under contract for this season.  They bought out Alexei Zhitnik, and they could probably use some offense from their rearguards.  Up front they don’t have a lot that would be likely to interest the Leafs at the NHL level, but draft picks and prospects wouldn’t bring an unreasonable return for the Leafs at this point.

Obviously major injuries will factor into these decisions for Fletcher and other GM’s.  If Colaiacovo and Van Ryn drop out due to injury, the Leafs are suddenly back to Kaberle, Kubina, Finger, White, Stralman, and Frogen.  Not a horrible group of 6 frankly - and at this point that might be exactly what Fletcher is protecting himself against.