Toronto Maple Leafs Quiet at a Busy Deadline

Over the past few months in Toronto there have been rumor after rumor of trades the Leafs could make.

To  many fans, including myself, these rumors, and our hope of a better future, were all we had.

When Mats Sundin refused to waive his no-trade clause, there was disappointment across Toronto and a lot of this hope was squashed.

Now the Leafs have slowed their rebuilding a great deal, and fans will have to endure additional years of bad Leaf hockey.

The Penguins traded Eric Christianson, Colby Armstrong, Angelo Esposito, and a 2008 first-round draft pick for Marian Hossa and Pascal Dupuis.

This upset me a little because Sundin has similar value as Hossa and the Thrashers got three promising young players and what looks to be a late first-round pick.

This would have sped up the Leafs rebuilding process a lot if we were able to strike a deal like this.

Most teams that rebuild well do this by getting young talent through trades and the draft. For now, all the Leafs have for rebuilding is the draft.

Rebuilding through the draft is not always successful.

Teams like Florida, Columbus, and Atlanta have tried to rebuild through the draft and only had limited success.

However, Pittsburgh is an example of a team that thrived off the drafted.

It helped that they had two first-overall picks (Crosby and Fluery) and two second-overall picks (Staal and Malkin).

With some good prospects in the next two upcoming drafts, the Leafs will need to be smart and resourceful to keep their rebuilding process moving quickly.

There was speculation that some players on the core of the team (Sundin, McCabe, Kubina, Tucker, and Kaberle) would be traded, but all these players have no-trade clauses and chose not to waive them and to stay in Toronto.  

It was rumored that defensemen Pavel Kubina was going to waive his no-trade clause, but at the last second changed his mind.

This would have been great for the Leafs.

They could easily get a prospect and a draft pick for him, in addition to that five-million dollars of cap relief.

Now, if Kubina is not traded in the offseason he could end up in the minors at the start of next season, because of his huge and relatively unearned salary.

If they send him down or get rid of him, it will mean that the Leafs will have some breathing room under the cap allowing them to be active in free agency.

The Leafs have some talented young players in Steen, Wellwood, Tlusty, Stajan, and Jeremy Williams, who has been hot of late.

In addition to this, the Marlies, who are the Maple Leafs farm team, are playing very good hockey.

However, this is not enough.

The leafs need more young talent before we start rebuilding through the draft, because not every young player we have will end up being a good player.

Out of all the names I have just mentioned, maybe two will turn out into decent players.

Now, let's say the Leafs get Steven Stamkos in the draft, and then in 2009 get a decent pick like the fourth pick and pick up another solid player.

With the talent the Leafs have, this may not be good enough.

I would like to say that Cliff Fletcher, the interim general manager, did a pretty good job at the deadline considering he had all those no-trade clauses.

He was able to get four draft picks, the highest being a second-round pick from the Penguins and around three-million dollars in cap relief.

This will help because if they draft well, there could be players they steal in the late rounds that may end up being pretty solid players.

We can also use some of the cap relief to pursue a free agent that could help our team out, but we cannot be as careless with our signings in the future or we could end up with the exact same problem we have now which is to much money invested into mediocre players.

Even if the Leafs somehow slip into the playoffs this year, which is highly doubtful, they will only have added to the years of suffering for Leafs fans in a couple years.

Let it be said that the Leafs do have some players that when the cap frees up, could be very valuable assets to the team's future. Tomas Kaberle and Kyle Wellwood to name a few.

If they get a high draft choice, make a few steals in the draft, which given the Leaf's past drafting is unlikely, try to make some trades for younger players in the offseason,  and clear their salary cap a little bit, then it can be said that this rebuilding process might not be as grueling as the ones in Florida and Columbus.