If you have been paying any attention to the NHL free agency for sports news or sports on the web, you will know that Brain Burke’s trip to Sweden was not fruitless. It may just be one of the biggest free agent signings of the summer so far. Burke was able to sign Jonas Gustavsson (AKA THE MONSTER) to a one year entry level contract . The huge part about the signing is that Burke did not have to give up a single draft pick or trade anyone to do so.
Gustavsson is twenty four years old, six feet, three inches tall and weighs in at about 190 lb. He is also rated as the best goalie in the world that is not under NHL contract. He is still pretty young by NHL goal tending standards and should push Vesa Toskala for the number one position.
Add this signing to the recent one of Francois Beauchemin and the Maple Leafs back end is looking better by the day. Beauchemin is a pretty tough customer and can handle the rough going. He is also a pretty good puck moving defenseman that can score the odd goal.
So now the Maple Leafs have ten bonafide defensemen under contract this year, with much more grit. It will be interesting to see what Mr. Burke will do next. Since you usually only carry a maximum of seven defensemen on your roster, Allsports thinks a couple of them will be packaged up as bait to get a good scoring forward. Hey maybe Joe Thornton, rumour has it the Sharks would like to take a bite out of Thomas Kaberle.
“No Guts No Glory”
Walt Webb
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