2010 NHL Draft Day: What Surprises Are in Store For The Toronto Maple Leafs?

Draft day in the NHL always arrives full of speculation and rumours, and this one is no exception. There have been plenty of ideas put out so far of who is going where, which teams are after certain picks in the draft and where Taylor Hall and Tyler Seguin are going. 

Of course what often happens is that teams pick where they are supposed to, free agents sign with the teams they played last year and big name players stay put.

Patrick Marleau already resigned with the Sharks. Chicago has traded Byfuglien and several others, but the marquee names of Sharp and Versteeg have stayed put and likely will stay that way. 

But if all the teams stayed with the rosters they had last season, and drafted exactly where they were projected, well that wouldn't create this much buzz would it?

One of the General Managers who often creates a lot of speculation at this time is the Toronto Maple Leafs' Brian Burke, who caused a stir last year when he said that he was interested in trading up to draft John Tavares. That wasn't able to happen, but if there is one thing that Toronto has learned from watching him as a GM, he is definitely capable of surprises. 

For instance, who saw the Dion Phaneuf trade coming? Anyone? What about when he was able to trade away Jason Blake and Vesa Toskala for J.S. Giguere, was that in the news beforehand? 

So what may happen at this draft could be what people are talking about, yes, Kaberle could get traded, yes, he may somehow acquire Sharp or Bobby Ryan. 

But what might be even more likely to happen is the moves that people do not expect and aren't out there in the rumour mills. 

Kaberle could stay put and sign a new contract to stay with the Maple Leafs for the next few years. Burke could trade some of his assets to move into the first round of the draft, but most of those players aren't ready for the NHL for the next few years, so that doesn't really help his less than five year plan. 

So if roster players are dealt, such as Kulemin or Grabovski, then Burke is going to go after another roster player, someone who can help the team win in the next couple seasons. 

If you think about what kind of players Burke might be after, you could look to the Team USA roster that he put together for this year's Winter Olympics.

You could reasonably speculate that he would be interested in Ryan Kesler, but it seems highly unlikely that Vancouver would trade one of their key players. Burke would love to have players like Stastny, Kane, Parise or Pavelski, but those just aren't going to happen, they are too important to the team they are with.

In this day in the NHL, very rarely are franchise players traded away, except in cases where free agency is approaching and they are trying to recoup assets. 

This is what happened when Atlanta traded away Kovalchuk last year to New Jersey, they were trying to get something back before he walked away for nothing. Now there is a lot of talk that he could be headed to the LA Kings, which would mean that they might have to clear some cap space.

Which brings up another player on the Team USA roster, Dustin Brown is definitely a Burke type player, he is big, has soft hands and talented stick skills and he hits like a train. So possibilities exist here for the Leafs dealing some smaller contracts to the Kings, and taking back Brown's affordable $3.175 million per year salary.

Another possibility that Burke might pursue from that same silver medal winning team is Ryan Callahan on the New York Rangers or David Backes on the St. Louis Blues, both could be fit into second line roles or in the case of Backes could even be your first line centre. Both are very affordable at $2.3 and $2.5 million respectively, though they are also upcoming UFA's in 2011.

These of course are not from any sources, no one has said these players are involved in trade discussions, but as Burke has shown before, surprises are often in store. 

The Maple Leafs have already been remade heavily in the past two years, so there is always a chance that more will be done, but with Brian Burke at the helm, don't expect the obvious.