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http://www.tsn.ca/nhl/story/?id=283954

Let's hope he's the next Henrik Lundqvist....

impressive.
i would label him as a backup for the first 10-15 games. if Toskala sucks, the roles will be quickly reversed.

Well, even if last season's and this off-season's moves all end up being complete busts, at least we've had something to talk about for as long as I can remember. It started with the trade deadline where two "big" pieces (Moore and Antropov) were moved. Then we had US college signings. Then we had the "We want Tavares" declaration. Then, the team actually picked in the first round of the draft. Then we had a trade for Exelby followed by a pretty aggressive free-agency where the team loaded up on D. And now, we have probably the biggest signing out of Europe to talk about (Gustavsson) and another smaller one that might be following (Wallin). I have been thoroughly entertained by everything that's gone on so far which is more than I could say about any of the past 15 off-seasons or so.

Habs fan here...LOVE what Burke is doing in TO! Monster will be starting over Toskala, unless Toskala is absolutely phenomenal (win-win for Leafs!). With that defense, Gustavsson will be hard to beat...And I know Burke will turn that depth on D into a couple of good offensive players...The Leafs are back

I gotta be honest,

I've had faith in Burke all along. Everybody can say what they want to about how he runs his mouth and has an arrogance about him, because in my mind it's all a part of the job. Professional sports is a cut throat industry, and basically, you either chew **** up, or you end up getting spit out.

Burke obviously knows what he is doing, and outside of fans who don't appreciate role players and only pay attention to the points column. We just picked up a crapload of quality defence.

Think about our D right now.

Beauchemin / Schenn
Exelby / Komisarek
White / Van Ryn
Finger

Thats smash mouth.... smash **** mouth. Nobody is going to be taking liberties on us this year. Especially with Colton Orr patrolling the 4th line as well.

Our scoring was NOT bad last year, our defence and goaltending was horrendous. We have every reason to have maximum optimism. We have a couple scorers locked up and we have a plethora of young talent. Kulemin, Tlusty, Grabovski etc... They may not even all be on the roster this year. One thing is for sure though, we're building from the net outward and I think it's the right way to do it.

In my opinion, Kaberle will not be spending this season in the blue and white. I believe that Burke will trade him for a "sniper" type player who is employed to put goals on the board. We're looking like a big strong physical team, who is going to take care of our own end, and with Jonas signed we now have stability between the pipes. After Kaberle is traded, Finger/Stralman becomes our 7th D. Regardless, in exchange for Kaberle, we should receive a Kessel like talent.

Our Top 6 won't look so bad....

Blake / Grabovski / Kessel
Hagman / Wallin / Stempniak
Hanson / Mitchell / Kulemin
Orr / Stajan / Bosak

I don't see how anyone could argue with a lineup like that... that is a terrific blend of youth, talent, grit, scoring, toughness, size and in the bottom 6, defensive presence (Mitchell,Stajan,Kulemin)

Combine that with our newly rock solid D and goaltending and I think this is a playoff team, we also have a lot of flexibility in the way of interchangable parts.... Mayers/Tlusty/Kondratiev etc.

The latest rumors I've heard have Kaberle going to St. Louis. St. Louis is definitely a team that I'd be interested in dealing with. They have a lot of great young talent like Oshie, Berglund, Backes, or Perron....

If Burke manages Oshie for Kaberle he's a ****ing genius, straight up.

_venom_ wrote:The latest rumors I've heard have Kaberle going to St. Louis. St. Louis is definitely a team that I'd be interested in dealing with. They have a lot of great young talent like Oshie, Berglund, Backes, or Perron....

I'm curious to where you heard this. You've gotta link?

Right now Burkie is putting some of his DNA in this club. He promised levels of pugnacity, testosterone, truculence and belligerence. And we're going to see a lot of that in Beauchemin, Komiserak, Orr and Exelby. I'm not surprised the direction we're headed he said he builds his teams from the net and out. One thing is for sure the Maple Leafs will not be pushed around by any of the other 29 teams.

Whats amazing to me is that we've gone through GM's like dirty undies in the past 10 years and not one of them had the balls or where-with-all to do anything like Burke is doing.

The transactions he's making are by no means "miracles" ... we finally have someone whos ready to pull the trigger and is actually following through with what their intent was.

Right now these are all the rumored deals I've heard or seen for Kaberle.

None of them may be true but they're just rumblings.

Kaberle for Kessel and draft pick (you all know about this one)
Kaberle to COR for Chris Stewart and 2010 1st round pick
Kaberle to VAN for Corey Schneider and Jannek Hansen/pick

Test of Wills wrote:

_venom_ wrote:The latest rumors I've heard have Kaberle going to St. Louis. St. Louis is definitely a team that I'd be interested in dealing with. They have a lot of great young talent like Oshie, Berglund, Backes, or Perron....

I'm curious to where you heard this. You've gotta link?

Right now Burkie is putting some of his DNA in this club. He promised levels of pugnacity, testosterone, truculence and belligerence. And we're going to see a lot of that in Beauchemin, Komiserak, Orr and Exelby. I'm not surprised the direction we're headed he said he builds his teams from the net and out. One thing is for sure the Maple Leafs will not be pushed around by any of the other 29 teams.

http://mapleleafshotstove.com/index.php/2009/07/06/gustavsson-update-kinda/

It's a rumor from the star but it does make sense. St.Louis could use a good veteran dman and have a bunch of young talented forwards.

Also Brian Burke said that he received a very big offer for a dman (not Kaberle) after he signed Beauchemin today in his press conference.

Hopefully Gustavson lives up to the hype. I wasnt really that impressed with him when I watched him against Canada in the finals of the world championships. He gambles alot, leaving alot of open nets and lots of room to pick corners. He's able to get away with it in the swedish elite league but I wonder if that will be the case in the NHL. We have one of the best goalie coaches around so hopefully they can adress some of his flaws. He is a athletic guy and really tall so right there thats 2 things that can be very usefull as a goalie.

He style reminds me alot of Emery. Big athletic goalie who takes alot of gambles and not thet greatest on cutting down angles.

Test of Wills wrote:Right now these are all the rumored deals I've heard or seen for Kaberle.

None of them may be true but they're just rumblings.

Kaberle for Kessel and draft pick (you all know about this one)
Kaberle to COR for Chris Stewart and 2010 1st round pick
Kaberle to VAN for Corey Schneider and Jannek Hansen/pick

That last deal I dont like one bit.

The Colorado deal would be very dependant on how good the first rounder becomes.

The Blues would make a good trading partner. They could really use Kaberle to pair up with Erik Johnson and they have alot of valueble young players in Berglund, Oshie, Perron, Backes.

I'd look to deal him for Backes+1st rounder. We might have to add on something from our end.

Griff83 wrote:

Test of Wills wrote:Right now these are all the rumored deals I've heard or seen for Kaberle.

None of them may be true but they're just rumblings.

Kaberle for Kessel and draft pick (you all know about this one)
Kaberle to COR for Chris Stewart and 2010 1st round pick
Kaberle to VAN for Corey Schneider and Jannek Hansen/pick

That last deal I dont like one bit.

The Colorado deal would be very dependant on how good the first rounder becomes.

The Blues would make a good trading partner. They could really use Kaberle to pair up with Erik Johnson and they have alot of valueble young players in Berglund, Oshie, Perron, Backes.

I'd look to deal him for Backes+1st rounder. We might have to add on something from our end.

I'd rather take Andy McDonald and Lars Eller for Kaberle

I agree St. Louis does look like a good trading partner... However, I'm not to sure trading Kabs would be the best thing. I mean where is the scoring coming from on the blue line? He is our only puck moving defense man. In 8 months for now we will be sitting here saying "I wish we had a good puck moving defense man." We will see though, very exciting offseason so far. Hope it keeps up.

Test of Wills wrote:

Griff83 wrote:

Test of Wills wrote:Right now these are all the rumored deals I've heard or seen for Kaberle.

None of them may be true but they're just rumblings.

Kaberle for Kessel and draft pick (you all know about this one)
Kaberle to COR for Chris Stewart and 2010 1st round pick
Kaberle to VAN for Corey Schneider and Jannek Hansen/pick

That last deal I dont like one bit.

The Colorado deal would be very dependant on how good the first rounder becomes.

The Blues would make a good trading partner. They could really use Kaberle to pair up with Erik Johnson and they have alot of valueble young players in Berglund, Oshie, Perron, Backes.

I'd look to deal him for Backes+1st rounder. We might have to add on something from our end.

I'd rather take Andy McDonald and Lars Eller for Kaberle

Id rather have David Backes then Andy McDonald. We already have enough 2nd line centers in this organization (grabovkski, bozak, stajan, kadri). Backes is one of the better power forwards in the west and will prolly give you 30-35 goals per season from here on out.

The blues first round pick in next years draft has a very good chance to become better then Lars Eller.

Andy McDonald is old and not worth the trouble. IF we can find a way to get Backes, I'm all over it. But I doubt St. Louis would be willing to move him, and would sooner part with Eller (which I have no problem with, if it were Eller+1st rounder or even Eller+other prospect I'd be satisfied).