Moving Day - thoughts

Heh leaf fans and leaf detractors;

What do you think of the day today?

1  - Unload Kilger, Belak and Gill for mid range draft choices and no other action?

2 - Cannot find a good enough deal or convince Tucker, Sundin, McCabe, Kaberle and Kubina to accept a move to a team with brighter fortunes?

For what it is worth, I take the view that we are losing because the 5 guys mentioned above would rather enjoy the comforts of home than a play off game. They have this right because their agents all hoodwinked leaf negotiators into thinking that their clients liked a challenge. Clearly they do not.

I particularly do not understand why McCabe would want to stay here given the treatment he gets from the fans at the ACC. Fletch said that nobody took any interest in McCabe anyway, ouch.  

Here is a quote from Fletch

" I can assure you that the face of the team will look different at the start of next season"

hmmm does that mean no effort to sign Matts?

F*** Tucker, F*** Kaberle, F***  McCabe, F***  Sundin, F***  Kubina, F***  JFJ!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! F*** NTC's!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

If we could pluck a 2nd and 5th for Gill, These 5 NTC's clearly came back to bite us in the a**!

Sundin is a selfish S*O*B and thinks more about himself retiring in a Leafs uni. than actually trying to help the team long-term future. Kubina backed out of waiving his NTC because he changed his mind after the Ottawa game. And JFJ screwed us over by making all of these rediculous contracts.

Im glad Cliff seems to have chosen the rebuilding direction with the Press conference and he seemed to be as pissed as I am.

I'll give Cliff an A- for the value that he got, and under the circumstances he was under.

I expect to see Kubina gone in the offseason (his NTC is no longer available after this season) as well as Kaberle and Sundin is not going to be asked to resign. As for McCabe and Tucker, I think we are absolutely stuck with Tucker, but we may have an chance to trade McCabe to the Islanders.

I am with you with every word of your post Mayhem.

I would keep Antrpov but deal all the other forwards. I would not even care what they got for them so long as they get out of here. That means Sundin, Tucker, Pony, Stein, Stajan. Antropov is worth keeping though at least he is an average player. I do not mind if they try Wellwood from one mor year either but I would make him run 15 k a day during the off season.

On D, I am not that upset with what has happened. When Mccabe is in the house the team has a much better record than when he is not playing. Kaberle actually offers good value. I do think that we can afford to keep both of them though because they are both offensively minded. I also think that we could get some good players for Keberle where as McCabe seems to not attract any attention form the other clubs. Kabina will be dealt in the off season like you said but we will probably have to pay some of his salary next year which is fine with me.

What bugs me is that here in Toronto on the radio in particular people are saying that the leafs are doing well and showing some signs. That is crazy. Any team can win the occasional game in the NHL these days with how close the teams are with each other.

Here are a couple of thoughts since moving day as the buds have been playing better.

I do realize they do this every year and this does not give us reason to be optimistic with the current squad, just that there are 8 points that are worth considering.

1 - As we have seen before, for some reason the leafs play well without Sundin. I know it is not fair but it seems like asking the kids for some help works. I think it supports the idea to not resign Matts and let him decide his own fate outside of the leaf organization.

2 - Whenever McCabe is hurt, the leafs have a horrible record. I know he makes defensive mistakes, but he seems to make a positive net difference. Next year his cap hit is 6.1m. You can see below that his salary drops to 4.1 in 2009 and 2010. That is pretty good for 09/10 and 10/11.

<table cellspacing="1" border="0" class="normal"> <tbody> <tr> <td class="playeractive"> McCabe, Bryan</td> <td class="nationality"> </td> <td class="position"> D</td> <td class="age"> 32</td> <td class="capnumber"> 5.750</td> <td class="totaldays"> 187</td> <td class="caphit"> 5.750</td> <td class="salary">  </td> <td class="salaryregular"> 7.150</td> <td class="salaryregular"> 7.150</td> <td class="salaryregular"> 6.150</td> <td class="salaryregular"> 4.150</td> <td class="salaryregular"> 4.150</td> </tr> </tbody> </table>

3 -  I think that Kaberle is also relatively well priced expecially if the cap goes up by 5 million for next year. Kaberle is flat lined at 4.25 million until the end of his contract.

4 - Anton Stralman is playing very well at 0.625 he is a steal.

5 - Mark Bell is at 2.5 million for next year that is a horrible deal. I do not know how to get rid of him but I guess a throw in somewhere would be good.

6 - Stajan and Wellwood are going to demand a raise next year up from the 0.9 that they are at now. Signing Stajan is a no brainer but I think that they need to get Wellwood in around a milion or let him walk.

7 - Tucker is expendible if we can move him at 3.0 million as is Pony (2.4) and Blake (4.5). I realize that Pony is probably the only guy who can be moved. But I think a team that needs size could use him.

8 - Keep in Mind Toskala goes up to 4.0 million for next year, thereby consuming more space.