Patience is the Word
It may seem uncharacteristic of Brian Burke, historically a headline maker at the Entry Draft, to sit essentially idle on the hockey world’s biggest stage. Important to remember is that the big man can be patient when he needs to be. The Anaheim and Calgary deals of last February, when Burke waited until certain pressure points reached a head, were both examples of Burke’s willingness to sit back until the time was right to pull the trigger – despite all the temptations to hit the panic button as his team sat in the Eastern Conference basement with no first round pick to look forward to.
’09-10 Player Reviews: Fredrik Sjostrom
Next up: Fredrik Sjostrom, profiled by SkinnyFish:
The Summary: Brought over from the Calgary Flames alongside Dion Phaneuf, Shoe Storm was initially overlooked in that deal as Phaneuf was the big name coming back. However it quickly became apparent that Sjobacca was just the man to fix the atrocious Maple Leafs’ penalty kill, something that he’s become one of the league’s best at.
Read more here.
The Discussion:
Where do you see Schlitzstrom fitting in to the overall scheme of things for next season? Does he play low minutes on the 4th line and PK, or does he continue to play on the 3rd like he did this past season? After this year, do you think he should resigned for the 2011-12 season? Do you have any other awesome nicknames for him?
Audience Participation:
Rate Sjostrom’s performance last season on a scale of 1-10 relative to his potential and your expectations for the season.
Ryan, Sharp, Stafford? How ’bout Shugg
The word out of Los Angeles today remains that Brian Burke has yet to receive an acceptable offer for Tomas Kaberle. While talks are said to be heating up according to Pierre LeBrun’s twitter (rumoured to involve Buffalo, Boston and Los Angeles), Burke appears to be tempering expectations and maintaining the possibility that Kaberle remains a Leaf come Saturday. It could well be that Burke quietly slips out of Los Angeles with only with only six third – seventh round picks to his name. TSN has released a sleeper list with some names Leafs fans can keep an eye on for Saturday:
’09-10 Player Reviews: Viktor Stalberg
Next up, Viktor Stalberg by PPP:
The Summary: Viktor Stalberg made a big splash in the pre-season as he led the NHL with 6 goals in 8 games. Then came game number three of the season and the player known as the A-Train. After Anton Volchenkov‘s hit Stalberg began a steep decline that led him to the AHL for 39 games. He returned in December but his impact was minimal until he found a bit of chemistry with his fellow Frat PackersTyler Bozak and Christian Hanson. It was enough to make some wonder if there was any hope to marry his exceptional speed with a more physical game.
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’09-10 Player Reviews: Luke Schenn
We’ve partnered up with Pension Plan Puppets to bring to you a Player Review series, where we will be evaluating and grading the 2009-10 season for every Leaf who featured in a significant number of games for the Blue and White last season, with an eye towards 2010-11. Next up we feature Luke Schenn, profiled by Skinny Fish:
Luke signed a Maple Leafs Annual and I'm boasting about it.
“The Summary: People will point to the Calder worthy performance of Tyler Myers, or the Norris worthy performance of Drew Doughty and then say that Schenn had a terrible season; a sophomore slump if you will. Those people are dead wrong. Doughty is among the elite of the elite defensemen in the game, and Tyler Myers benefited from being on a Sabres team with terrible defense while playing in front of the game’s best goal in Ryan Miller. Schenn, on the other hand, played on a team with proven veteran defensemen like Beauchemin, Phaneuf, and Kaberle. Another thing to note is that Schenn was never touted as a point producing blue liner; his game is out of a shut down style of play against tough competition. Myers led his team with nearly 3 minutes of PP time a game; Schenn averaged 14 seconds.
Swinging for the Fences
Just had a brief word with Leafs head of amateur scouting Dave Morrison, who spoke about the approach to this weekend’s draft without a first or second round pick in hand (as of now):
We have done our list the same as we would in any other year fully prepared for anything that may happen. However we have certainly spent more time looking at a group of players that we think could be there when we pick at 62. Every year we try to unearth a gem and it will be no different at this draft.
Given that the scouting staff has focused more efforts than usual in looking at players within the 62nd pick range, you would think this gives them a slight edge in finding that “gem” should he be out there.
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Leafs Release 2010-11 Schedule
The Leafs will start and end with Montreal as to be expected. The schedule includes nine back-to-backs, an increase over the seven they played last season. The Leafs will head northwest March 22-24 to play Minnesota and Colorado after hosting them last season. The most taxing travel appears to be a four game stretch from January 7 – 13 when the Buds will make stops in Atlanta, Los Angeles, San Jose and Phoenix. The Leafs will also conduct a potentially critical division tour from February 12 – 19 when they face off consecutively with each Northeast rival. From December 14-18, the Blue and White will go on a Western Canada road trip where they can visit Taylor Hall, Matt Stajan and Kyle Wellwood. The full sched after the jump:
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’09-10 Player Reviews: Nik Kulemin
We’ve partnered up with Pension Plan Puppets to bring to you a Player Review series, where we will be evaluating and grading the 2009-10 season for every Leaf who featured in a significant number of games for the Blue and White last season, with an eye towards 2010-11. Today we feature Nikolai Kulemin, profiled by PPP:
The Summary:
Nikolai Kulemin continued his development into the Maple Leafs’ best two-way forward just in time for his agent to try to play hardball with Papa Burke over his new contract. Rumours are that they are $1M apart but the reality is that if Kulemin, as he has indicated with his words and his actions, wants to play in the NHL then the Leafs have the upperhand thanks to the CBA.
But why is this dragging out? Well, let’s look at his season to see why Kulemin might expect more from Burke.
The Discussion:
Well, we know where this is going no matter what so knock yourselves out.
Audience Participation:
Rate Kulemin below on a scale of 1-10 (10 being the best) based on his performance relative to his potential and your expectations for the season.
’09-10 Player Reviews: Colton Orr
We’ve partnered up with Pension Plan Puppets to bring to you a Player Review series, where we will be evaluating and grading the 2009-10 season for every Leaf who featured in a significant number of games for the Blue and White last season, with an eye towards 2010-11. Today we feature Colton Orr, profiled by Alec Brownscombe:
Acquired via free agency on a 4-year, $4 million contract last July 1, Colton Orr arrived in Toronto to operate as the club’s resident heavyweight, a position left unoccupied since fan favourite Wade Belak was shipped to Florida in February, 2008.
What the Leafs were said to be getting in Orr was not only a player with a winning track record as a pugilist (he was voted as either winning or tying 15 of his 18 fights in 2008-09 according to hockeyfights.com), but also a player capable of skating a regular fourth line shift due to his forechecking energy, passable on-the-puck abilities, and defensive diligence.
