Tomas Kaberle
TORONTO -- Leafs general manager, Brian Burke, has repeatedly stated he will not ask Tomas Kaberle to waive his NTC. This situation, however, could be key to shoring up the goaltending the Leafs need.
[more…]
- The Toronto Sun has an interesting article up, talking about the future of several Maple Leaf players leading up to this year's trade deadline. [more…]
On the heels of a disheartening loss against the last-place Carolina Hurricanes, it could now be concluded that the Toronto Maple Leafs will not be participating in the playoffs this season.
The second half of the season is underway, and the Maple Leafs continue to struggle. Naturally, speculation has begun to shift to what can be done to improve the roster, and which buyers on the market may have interest in what the Leafs have to offer.
Being a General Manager of an NHL Hockey team is quite similar to sitting down at a high rollers table at the Bellagio in Las Vegas and having a marathon session of no-limit hold'em poker versus some of the biggest and meanest sharks in the ocean.
With a Leafs team stuck in the bottom 5 of the league from the first day of the season, and after public proclamations of being aggressive at the draft and public and vocal assurances that he has built one of the better defensive units in the East. Additional proclamations that it would be reasonable to expect the Leafs to compete for the playoffs this year, spending right up to the salary cap, trading away the clubs next 2 1st round picks and trading away some of the organizations mostly highly thought of prospects for practically zero return, it is safe to say at this point, that if being an NHL General Manager were a game of poker, Mr Burke is "All In" and has absolutely zero chance of winning this round. He has been effectively cleaned out.
There is a silver lining however, as Mr Burke is flush, sitting on a recently signed multi-year, multi-million dollar deal and has an opportunity to buy back into the game and try again.
The Leafs face up against their old bench boss Pat Quinn tonight hoping to get back on a winning streak of some sort. The big lineup change seems to be a demotion for Grabovski to the fourth line. Rickard Wallin benefits from Mikhail's demotion with a undeserved look on the second line.
The Toronto Maple Leafs are in a rebuild, or a re-tool, whichever you prefer. Â In any event, a process such as this requires a team to have a plentiful prospect pipe, ripe with blue chippers are all positions. Â The Leafs certainly may not be plentiful when it comes to blue chip prospects, but they do have a few who are developing quite nicely.
And you just never know when and where a potential blue chipper may come from.
If drafting has taught us anything, it's shown to be far from an exact science. Â Can't miss prospects turn out to be busts occasionally, and sometimes late round picks have proven to be key components for a team, just ask, among others, Tomas Kaberle, Henrik Zetterberg, Pavel Datsyuk, and Viktor Stalberg.
Okay, while he may not garner enough adulation to be put in a group with some of the NHL's top stars, there is plenty of reason to believe he may in fact one day be worthy of the mention.
The Toronto Maple Leafs continue their 3 game road swing tonight as they visit Columbus to take on Rick Nash and his Blue Jackets. The Leafs will be without both Jonas Gustavsson and Carl Gunnarsson for the trip, and Vesa Toskala will be in the lineup as MacDonald's backup for the tilt.
[more…]
**Inspired by Eric Engels' question blogs**
After a night of burning police cars Montreal Canadiens jerseys in celebration of the Toronto Maple Leafs' 3-0 victory, here's a list of questions for you all to answer.
The Toronto Maple Leafs begin a 3 game road trip tonight as they visit the long time rival Montreal Canadiens tonight for an Original Six Battle. This is the third time these two clubs have met this season, with Montreal taking the first two games by scores of 4-3 in overtime, and 5-4 in a shootout. The Habs will celebrate their 100th anniversary on Friday against another original six club in the Boston Bruins, but will first have to deal with the always threatening but rarely scoring Leafs.
After a sloppy first couple of periods, the Maple Leafs held on for a 4-3 victory against the Tampa Bay Lightning. The Leafs blew a 2-goal first period lead, as well as a 1-goal lead in the second, but played a solid third period and came out on top. It surely wasn't the Leafs' best performance of the season, but it was nice to see them emerge on the right end of a tight scoreline for a change. [more…]
It's been widely reported the past few days that Leafs' GM Brian Burke is working on at least two trades in an effort to provide a much-needed shakeup to the team.
Sifting through the vast amounts of information, misinformation, and fanboy longing, two teams keep getting repeated over and over ... enough to raise at least one speculative eyebrow.
