RealGM

http://tsn.ca/nhl/story/?id=326894

The Toronto Maple Leafs have signed unrestricted free agent defenceman Brett Lebda to a two-year contract, worth $1.45 million per season.

Lebda, 28, has appeared in 326 regular season games amassing 18 goals, 50 assists, and 201 penalty minutes.

Seems like a good deal IMO. Good skater and definitely pushes out someone (Kabs) from our top six...

Phaneuf Komi
Beau Schenn
Lebda Gunnarr
Finger(?)

I've always been a Lebda fan and even mentioned signing him a few weeks ago over at HFboards. If Kaberle is dealt then Lebda will at least bring some form of puck moving ability to otherwise what will be a rather slow defence core and on top of that he's one of the best skaters in the league. Makes some questionable decisions with the puck and is very prone to turnovers but play him with one of the stay at home guys like Schenn or Komi and he should be fine. Lots of people will overreact to the 1.4 million a season but he should play a bigger role on the Leafs then the Wings and many of teams are paying #5/#6 defencemen the same kind of coin. I would compare him to a slight less effective Joe Corvo who shoots left. I think many Leaf fans will be suprised with how well he skates and gets around the ice. One of the more underrated bottom pairing Dman in the league.

Here's some clips of Lebda

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pXGKq7aPqmw

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FUIH_ceQeX8

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wBsMRKabK3E

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GhBdEYQn2KA

I'm a relatively new Leafs fan, but I'm not sure why everyone wants Kaberle to be the guy that gets moved. He's a really good player, so all I can think is that maybe people want to trade him because he's good enough to bring in someone else good in return. As for your defensive pairings, I'd be inclined to mix them up a bit. Phaneuf/Komisarek and Beauchemin/Schenn are both great pairings, but I wouldn't want to see Lebda and Gunnarsson paired together. They are both good at moving the puck and have some offensive potential, but Lebda is a midget who needs to be paired with a more physical and defensive player.

Definitely need to roll with Beauchemin-Phaneuf as we did at the end of last year.

good depth signing. i watched quite a few red wings games last year and i think Lebda can be a great 6th defense men for us next year.

i wonder if this means a Tomas Kaberle trade is on the way... thats alot of money on the back end now

this is a good move, all but signals the exit of kaberle.

yes hopefully we dump kaberle soon, dont know much about this guy but hopefully he's a good replacement