Blakey, Blakey,Blakey What are we Going to do With You?

Jason Blake, what are we going to do with you?

The pesky Toronto forward has been lighting it up the last few weeks and is beginning to beg the question, what do the Leafs do with Jason Blake?

1. The Leafs could keep the 35 year old winger until the end of the season and then buy him out, but that would leave the Leafs with nothing but a salary cap hit.

So it seems that they will have to trade him. Now, the speedy winger is only two goals away from surpassing last years total of 15,  and yet is still a far cry from his 40 goals two seasons ago with the Islanders. So where exactly does his trade stock value sit?

Well there are a couple of factors that weigh into that. One, he is on pace for a 55 point season and two he has a salary of $4.5 million this year and $4 million next season.

What could GM Brian Burke possibly get for the 50+ point scorer?

Well last season there were a few trades involving goal scorers with point totals between 50-65 points.

The Tampa Bay Lightning traded forward Vaclav Prospal to Philadelphia for defense prospect Alex Picard and a conditional 2009 second or third round draft choice.

The Carolina Hurricanes and Ottawa Senators made a swap in which Ottawa aquired Cory Stillman and Mike Commodore for Patrick Eaves and Joe Corvo. Of course this trade included defenseman, but the Leafs could pull of a deal like this by including Jeff Finger or Ian White. The Canes got a young gun in Eaves and a solid defenseman with a few years left in him in Corvo.

The Blues even made a splash by trading away Doug Weight and seventh roundpick to Anaheim for Andy McDonald. Weight was only a 25 point scorer too. Of course some of this had to do with salary cap issues but still a trade like this for the Leafs is still plausible.

So as you can see, Burke could pull off a trade involving the 35 year old if he can find a team willing to take the salary and it would not even be a salary dump, it will be a good trade for the future. So let's all thank Jason for playing so well because every time his name gets written on the score sheet his trade stock rises and rises.