RealGM

Press Release - Brian Burke, President and GM of the Maple Leafs, announced Sunday that the club has acquired forward Matthew Lombardi and defenceman Cody Franson from the Predators in exchange for defenceman Brett Lebda and forward Robert Slaney. The trade also includes a conditional fourth-round pick in the 2013 Entry Draft.

Wait, what? How the hell did Toronto manage to get Cody Franson as a throw in to a deal with essentially nothing coming back?

Not a fan at all of this deal. They needed to save money to bring Weber back but it shouldn't have cost them Franson.

Not sure if Lombardi will see the ice this season, but Franson is an awesome addition. Hopefully this is the end of Komisarek's days in Toronto. Phaneuf (26 years old, 6-3 & 215), Aulie (22 years old, 6-5 & 220), Schenn (21 years old, 6-3 & 235), Franson (23 years old, 6-5 & 215) is a scary group on the back end. When you throw in guys like Gunnarsson and Jake Gardiner the Leafs have some major potential on the back, really hope it pans out and we see this group of defensemen develop together.

If Lombardi is able to contribute significant time this season that's just the icing on the cake, he'd be a pretty solid top 9 forward for our team.

Leafs have major question marks at C with Connolly and Lombardi but if they can get back to form(not holding my breath) watch out.

And the Defensive corps is flat out scary right now.

Great deal for the Leafs. It really doesn't even matter if Lombardi recovers they won this deal by getting Franson for basically nothing.

Nolan wrote:Great deal for the Leafs. It really doesn't even matter if Lombardi recovers they won this deal by getting Franson for basically nothing.

That's what I mean. Nashville could've got this deal for Lombardi alone. The fact that they donated Franson for nothing is insane.

Getting rid of Lebda is a bonus. Lebda and his -3 rating in a 9-3 win.

Nashville has to know something about Lombardi's injury that the rest of the league doesn't. Otherwise this deal makes absolutely no sense.

Lombardi is done, so any contributions you think he can make you can just forget about that right now.

lol

trwi7 wrote:Lombardi is done, so any contributions you think he can make you can just forget about that right now.

That's fine.

We'll gladly take Franson for Lebda any day of the week. I'm pretty sure Burke would've traded Lebda for next to nothing (if not, nothing).

Crowned wrote:That's fine.

We'll gladly take Franson for Lebda any day of the week. I'm pretty sure Burke would've traded Lebda for next to nothing (if not, nothing).

I know.

The only way this works is giving Weber an extension and possibly making salary room for Suter and Rinne. It's not like they don't have depth on defense in the system. Josi could problem come in and pair with Bouillon on the 3rd line pushing Lebda to 7th defenseman or they could send him out and make Laakso the 7th defenseman.

darth_federer wrote:

lol

HAHAHAHA!

Lebda sucked on the Wings and it was a good day when we let him go. Getting Franson from him is theft. Nice move by the Leafs

Nolan wrote:Nashville has to know something about Lombardi's injury that the rest of the league doesn't. Otherwise this deal makes absolutely no sense.

It's a salary dump. Lombardi isn't likely to see ice time this year. The Leafs arn't concerned about money and they can hide his Cap-Hit in the Marlies. Franson is the cost for the Leafs absorbing Lombardi's salary.

ps: That screencap is hilarious.

Hopefully Cube can come back for the Preds.

Weber - Suter
Blum - Klein
Cube - Josi
Laakso

Bury Lebda in the minors and it's no downgrade to the defense.

When is Ellis getting a shot?

Probably a year from now. He only played a few playoff games in Milwaukee last year, so they'll take their time with him.