Toronto Maple Leafs Best Trade Asset Tomas Kaberle: What Can He Fetch?

Going into the offseason, it's clearly evident the Toronto Maple Leafs are in dire need of some talent up front. After the 2003-04 lockout and the departure of Mats Sundin, the Leafs have had the pleasure of having little to no success, no playoff appearances, and no top-line talents. 

With the acquisition of Phil Kessel and the draft selection of Nazem Kadri, the Leafs made a step in the right direction. Still though, the Leafs have not found a first line center to feed Kessel the puck other than maybe Tyler Bozak. With the recent resigning of Marc Savard, one of the Leafs' top targets in the 2010 offseason was officially scratched off the list. Now the Leafs need to look in another direction.

There are many avenues GM Brian Burke and Assistant GM Dave Nonis can look at, but the road most travelled may b to just trade Tomas Kaberle to get them that missing piece.

With the draft this year very top heavy, the Leafs may be better served to just bite the bullet and skip trying to trade Kaberle for a first round pick. My idea is to package Kaberle along with Mikael Grabovski and maybe John Mitchell in an attempt to get that center.

The point of this article is for you to view my top five trades the Leafs should look at. Listed in no particular order:

TOR/BOS

Toronto Trades: Tomas Kaberle and J.S. Giguere

Boston Trades: Tim Thomas, Dennis Wideman and First Round Pick (No. 15)

Revised to...

Toronto Trades: Tomas Kaberle

Boston Trades: Joe Colborne and 15th overall selection in 2010 NHL Entry Draft

Why this move works? Toronto acquires a big hulking center, sort of in the Joe Thornton mold. Colborne is a great passer and playmaker. He's a  big body who has the potential to be a very good in this league.

Needs to work on skating, but the rest of his game is there. Doesn't have the grit that Burke likes, but again, some things can be changed over time. They also acquire a top 15 pick in the entry draft which will be a crapshoot by any means.

The Leafs will be looking for another forward prospect or possibly even the BPA at the time. Currently, according to mynhldraft.com, prospects that could be there at 15 include:

C Alex Burmistrov, C Emerson Etem, LW John MacFarland, G Jack Campbell and G Calvin Pickard 

TOR/CHI

Toronto Trades: Tomas Kaberle and Nikolai Kulemin

Chicago Trades: Patrick Sharp and Brian Campbell

Why would this move work? Looking at the Hawks cap situation with the recent extensions to Keith, Toews and Kane, they could be in some trouble financially. This move provides Chicago a better puck moving defense-man and a top left wing prospect off the Leafs to help with the loss of Sharp. They also have the likes of Jack Skille coming up too. 

With the recent play of Antti Niemi, you would say the easiest way to alleviate the problem is to trade Huet; the question is, who wants to be on the hook for that contract? My best guess is maybe Tampa Bay, but still, this move gets rid of the Campbell albatross contract and getting one of the best contracts in the game.

TOR/DAL

Toronto Trades: Mikael Grabovski, Tomas Kaberle, Third Round Pick (No. 62)

Dallas Trades: Brad Richards and Second Round Pick (No. 41)

Why this move works? The Leafs acquire another draft pick that they lost but they also take on a massive contract in Brad Richards. I do, however, believe that Brad Richards is one of the more underrated players in the league and one of the better set up guys.

The Stars make this move because they have extensions coming on Ott, Eriksson, Robidas, and Lehtonen, but also have to resign restricted free agents like LW James Neal and defenseman Nik Grossman and Matt Niskanen to new contracts. All of this costs money and adds to the teams cap hit.

TOR/TB

Toronto Trades: Tomas Kaberle and Mikael Grabovski

Tampa Bay Trades: Vincent Lecavalier

Why this move works? Toronto takes on quite possibly the worst contract in the game, but also take on one of the greatest underachievers in the game last season. He was up and down, playing with different linemates nearly every night, maybe a move to Toronto could mean a more steady role and playing with Phil Kessel. But lest we forget, he'd be coached by Ron Wilson, so what I just said, could be null and void.

TOR/VAN

Toronto Trades: Tomas Kaberle

Vancouver Trades: Cody Hodgson and Michael Grabner

Why this move works? This move alleviates the Canucks loss of Willie Mitchell on the Canucks back end. This move also gives the Canucks another power-play quarterback on quite possibly the most loaded power-play back end in the NHL. Losing Hodgson hurts, but the reality is he'll be stuck behind Henrik Sedin and Ryan Kesler for quite awhile and this move just satisfies both sides. 

For Toronto this move simply means they're acquiring assets for Kaberle. Hodgson is highly regarded as one of the better two way center prospects in the NHL. Having a group of centers that include Bozak, Kadri, and Hodgson going forward is a huge plus. Grabner gives the Leafs a young prolific goal scorer on the wing and what team cannot use more scoring?

I really have not found any better teams to talk trade with for Kaberle. Best time to trade him is when his no trade clause is temporarily lifted around the time of the draft.