Maple Leafs: Looking Ahead to the Cliff Fletcher Era

It just seems fitting.

With the Leafs needing important wins down the stretch before the All-Star break, the Leafs got a big one tonight.

The game winner was scored by none other than Mats Sundin, the subject matter of Cliff Fletcher’s first task at hand in turning around this organization. With the trade rumors of Sundin’s inevitable departure heating up, how fitting is it that he scores the game winner?

 “Within two weeks, we should be prepared to, philosophically at least, know what direction we’ve chosen to go in," Fletcher said on Tuesday.

If they want to go in the direction of winning and compete for the playoffs, they must keep winning important games down the stretch, and tonight was a great start.

Toskala was his usual solid self, making 30 saves. Chad Kilger and Alex Steen scored the other goals for Toronto, while Ovechkin and Semin scored for Washington.

The Leafs have won four of their last five games, and are only five points behind the final playoff spot in the East. They are 1-0 under the Cliff Fletcher regime.

Fletcher, who took over the interim GM’s duties on Tuesday, has inherited a mess of a lineup. The key assets that he would view as trade-able are currently locked up to contracts that have multiple years remaining.

McCabe has three years left on a deal that pays him 5.75 million. Darcy Tucker has 3 years left on his deal with a cap hit of 3 million. Jason Blake has 3 years left on his contract of 4 million a yea,r and Kaberle has two years remaining on his 4.35 million contract.

In short, Fletcher is going to find it extremely tough to trade away these players unless there is a team that can bear the brunt of these salaries, which leaves us to Mats Sundin. 

He’s in the last year of his contract with a cap hit of 5.5 million and is by far the easiest and most attractive asset for other teams to take on. The problem is , Sundin is unwilling to go anywhere and has stated many times how he likes Toronto and wants to end his career here. If Fletch wants to pull the trigger and trade him, he’s going to have to go to Sundin himself and do some heavy selling and convincing.

The only other alternative is to go with the guns that they have at present and keep stringing together victories in hopes of capturing that last playoff spot. However, there is a better chance of the Leafs trading away Sundin than that happening.

With a man as old and senile as Cliff Fletcher, I wouldn’t bet against it.