With Pittsburgh Penguins Ousted, Brian Burke Wins Another Trade

When the trade deadline approached us a few months back, everyone who writes about the Leafs (myself included) speculated where pending UFA Alexei Ponikarovsky would land.

The Penguins were the front-runner pretty much from the get-go and eventually went on to nab the big winger on the eve of the deadline.

Coming back to Toronto was Luca Caputi, a power forward who was widely regarded as the Penguins top prospect alongside Eric Tangradi.

The Leafs gave him some playing time over the remaining 19 games and Caputi grabbed six points, while keeping an even plus-minus.

Ponikarovsky went on to grab nine points in the 16 remaining games for the Penguins. But in the playoffs he was a non-factor and was even benched for two games.

In the 11 contests he played in, Poni only scored one goal.

Now that the Penguins are finished, it’s unlikely they will re-sign the big winger, as his contract is due to expire and they surely do not want to pay someone who was sent to the press-box when Pittsburgh needed a win.

Burke has won this trade.

The Leafs acquired a prospect who will either help them or not, but at least the opportunity is there regardless.

Ponikarovsky never brought the Penguins any success, and now he’ll walk this offseason, leaving them with nothing.

At the time the trade made sense for both clubs, as I expected Ponikarovsky could really help out Pittsburgh. It was a good move but simply didn’t work out the way they wanted. It happens.

Now the blue and white have a player in Caputi who is clearly a project and will need seasoning before we can judge him as a success or not. But at least it’s better than having no player at all.

This is coupled with the trade of Lee Stempniak for two picks (fourth and seventh round) as a pair of wins for Burke.

Stempniak became super-human at the end of the season with Phoenix and piled on 14 goals in only 18 games. All of Leafs Nation was shocked by his pace, but once the playoffs rolled around, Stempniak went away.

With only two points and a minus four rating in seven games, Stempniak was a ghost against Detroit.

Phoenix may re-sign him because of his regular season rampage, but two picks for a pending UFA who disappears in April sounds like a win to me.

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