OT: LEAFS make huge moves, MLSE willing to spend after all?

[s e n s i]

Apparently now Burke is trying to dangle Kaberle and Ponikarovski for a first-line center.

[Yosemite Dan]

Giguere is done. I don't know his contract status but let's hope it's not an albatross contract like Phanouf's is gonna end up being. It seems to be Burke's attempt at getting a guy who will steal a few wins so the Leafs don't fiinish dead last. It worked with Gerber last year (to the Leafs detriment, I never understood the reasons for Burke picking him up when they needed to tank last year) but Burke fails to realize no matter how "hot" he hopes Giguere gets it's not gonna translate to wins because, besides Kessel, who the hell is gonna score on this team. Giguere is gonna have to post shutouts every other game.

[Contract Season]

Perspective people, lol.

My two cents:

Blake/Toskala for Giguere is highway robbery. You dump a year of Blake's awful contract and get a quality mentor for the Monster. Giguere is on the decline but he is a winner. Conn Smythe as the losing goalie + a Cup win? I'll take that influence in the locker room any day.

As for the mega-trade:
First, I believe Phaneuf is one of the most overrated players in hockey and not worth that contract.
But, he still has a huge upside if a coach can get him to play the way he should be playing. He is a legit #2 d-man with the potential to be a #1. Plus, for everyone crying about all the offence leaving. Guess what? The Leafs never scored with those guys, how can they be any worse? They were so bad on the PP stempniak was on the point a lot of the time. Now you've finally replaced McCabe's cannon with a PP specialist.
Phaneuf will make them much better.
Aulie was good enough to play for Canada at the WJC. He's a 6-foot-five punisher on the blue line. He's not a scrub throw-in. Sjostrom is.

IMO, White WAS hugely underrated, but he's been patted on the back so many times this season that he no longer is underrated and he will buy they hype and demand $4 million a year. Do you want to be paying him $4 million a year going forward? Have you seen him play the last three weeks? Hes been as bad as any Leaf defender not name Fingerby, again, IMO. He's tailed off a lot.

Hagman's a loss. He's a very talented second-line winger.
Could care less about STajan, he's a third-line centre on a playoff team.
Mayers is a bum.

Plus we don't have to watch Blake or Toskala anymore, that's a win right there.

Cap hit assuming White signs 4 years, $16 million:

In:
$14 million this year
$13.2 next year
$6.5 +$1 million? for Aulie (restricted free agent)
$6.5 +whatever for Aulie
$6.5 +whatever for Aulie


Out:
$15 million this year
$11 million next year
$11 million
$4 million
$4 million

Those numbers look fine to me.

[SwaggyB]

Hagman's on pace for 48 and won't make that.

He's already got 33.. Phaneuf only has 22. I'd say Hagman has the better chance

[sh00n]

It's Phaneuf to make you Laff.

The only way I see this benefiting the Queefs is if they move Phaneuf to Atlanta for Kovalchuk. Because Toronto's already got a solid D-Core; why take away what little scoring they had to add more defense? Now they're Calgary East, but worse.

[Yosemite Dan]

Apparently now Burke is trying to dangle Kaberle and Ponikarovski for a first-line center.

Then Burke will be waiting a long time unless it's a 1st line center from 5 years ago who's grossly overpaid which is my fear.

[Jer McNama]

this is what the leafs get

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Iql-lyihBkM

And this

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e4f3qkhZa7M

[tecumseh18]

It's been years since I paid attention to anything to do with hockey. The last game I watched and cared about was the junior worlds final featuring Sid and Ovechkin. Phaneuf was far and away the best player on the ice (Malkin was second). It always seemed unfair that he was going to Calgary which already had Regehr.

So this is interesting. Hey, maybe DP is the Bargs of hockey. Apparently, defencemen take longer to develop.

[SwaggyB]

this is what the leafs get

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Iql-lyihBkM

And this

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e4f3qkhZa7M

A guy who can't hit the net but can throw a heavy hit once a year?

[Southward1]

Hagman's on pace for 48 and won't make that.

He's already got 33.. Phaneuf only has 22. I'd say Hagman has the better chance

You said Hagman was on pace for 60+. He isn't. He's not a 60+ point getter and never will be. He had a nice start, that's about that. Expect 20g 15a next year.

[SwaggyB]

Hagman's on pace for 48 and won't make that.

He's already got 33.. Phaneuf only has 22. I'd say Hagman has the better chance

You said Hagman was on pace for 60+. He isn't. He's not a 60+ point getter and never will be. He had a nice start, that's about that. Expect 20g 15a next year.

Yeah that was my bad, and I don't expect him to get 60, or really make a difference for the Flames. But Phaneuf was only bringing us down, I'm just glad he's finally gone.

[squeekysneakers]

Phaneuf might pay off in the short term as he is playing worse than he ever has. If he comes around this is a good thing. He has potential to be a steal.

Getting rid of all kinds of players that played in an era of losing is always a good thing. Stajan, White, Blake, Mayers...all of them, live and have played a long time in, a losing culture. That is not good for a team that is trying to change their culture. Poni and Kaberle need to be next because they've never played in anything but a losing culture either. Get them out of here they are too comfortable with losing.

Worst part of this trade is that I will now have to listen to Nick Kypreos talk about Phaneufs gluten free diet (or some other such "inside" nonsense) for 20 minutes before I get to see the Raptor highlights tonight.

Good moves because you are bringing in guys who actually know what winning feels like. You know, like the Raptors.

[sh00n]

Toronto just essentially replaced Bryan McCabe. An underachieving expensive hitter who is high risk and leaves his partner stranded. A lot.

[RomaniaLuvTR]

this is what the leafs get

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Iql-lyihBkM

And this

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e4f3qkhZa7M

loolzz

[totallyr]

Leafs won this trade hands down, the center piece comes to Toronto and a good young prospect. Lets see what else Burke has up his sleeve. This isn't the highway robbery trade that Flethcher pulled on Calgary aquiering Gilmour but its pretty decent in its own right

[Grizzled]

I think Phaneuf needs to get his head back into the game. Maybe a change of scenery will do him good. If he doesn’t then Toronto just picked up an overpaid, average, defenseman, but if he does he could be Toronto’s next Wendell Clark. He has a Wendell Cark type personality. He’s a small town prairie boy who is quite soft spoken and reserved off the ice, but hardnosed and fearless on the ice.

Soft spoken? Reserved? Having had a few run ins with Phaneuf, I can tell you that he is a prick. He isn't a hard-worker by any means, but I'll give you fearless. The guy is probably too stupid to be afraid of anything.

Well, he’s reserved and soft spoken in interviews anyway. We live in the same neighbourhood and I ran into him at the Safeway once, but that’s as much personal contact as I’ve had with him. He played for Brent Sutter’s Red Deer Rebels, so I can pretty much guarantee that he was a hard worker then, but the fact that he’s being traded now definitely suggests something’s changed. Come to think of it, I used to see his Maserati illegally parked in front of the Starbucks, and that's a bit of a sign of a swelling ego. There’s been a lot of talk that Phaneuf’s relationship with Elisha Cuthbert has been distracting him, and maybe that’s the case. I guess we’ll see if a fresh start will help him get back on track.

[sh00n]

this is what the leafs get

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Iql-lyihBkM

And this

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e4f3qkhZa7M

And this

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nF8K-szx ... re=related

[whysoserious]

Wow, pretty big news from Leaf land. Phaneuff is definitely struggling but go back about two years and people were talking about him as a possible Norris contender. Maybe a change of scenery will do him some good. Plus, he's still relatively young. Kaberle, Schenn, Komisarek and Phaneuff makes a solid starting 4 defence and we still have Beauchmin who's been solid all year. Sad to see White go as he was becoming one of my favourite Leafs.

The only crappy thing is we don't have our pick this year, if we could have kept the pick this year and given next year's pick instead we'd have 2010 pick, Kessel, Kadri, Schenn, Phaneuff and Gustavson, a solid start.

[YogiStewart]

Perspective people, lol.

My two cents:

Those numbers look fine to me.

the problem?

Burke has locked up so much of his cap space on his D and on ONE top forward who can't score because there is a serious lack of talent around him.
i'd say that its a poor use of cap space.
the Kessel trade looks incredibly horrible from a cap perspective as well, since you now have Kessel eating up your cap during cap-tight years instead of having a TOP 1st round pick (or two) making $1mil/year.

in all, while you are sending crap out and taking some crap back in, you don't need more cap space $$ on your D line. they weren't winning with a cap-heavy D and they won't continue to win with a cap-heavy D.

[Indiana Jones]

oh boy...this will be a disaster for the leafs. phaneuf will come here and be faced with impossible expectations by the leaf media and fan base...he's like turk on ice.

Puck

Ball.