Maple Leafs Make a Splash!

[Casa Nova]

They just traded 3 draft picks to San Jose for Toskola & Bell!!!!

GREAT DEAL! We get some comp for Raycroft, we may well have the best dual tendom in the league now! aswell as a rally good young power forward with some snot in his nose! He has some office issues but hey that can be worked on! Just get Wendel to smack him around a bit lol


Looks like things are looking decently up in LeafNation!

Now lets hope we can land either Kariya, Katchuk or Smyth!?

[Evil Chris]

Interesting! I have been reading about this move all morning on different sports sites.
I like the move. Obviously they want to go with a proven product. Somewhat proven anyway. Mark Bell appears to be approaching the best years of his hockey career if you look at his stats. He's a grinding power forward that can put the puck in the net too. I think you'll see him doing a lot more of that with Toronto than he ever did with CHI or SJ.

Toskala's numbers speak for themselves. He looks like the next Hasek to me. His game is definitely on the rise. Toskala and Raycroft will compete for the #1 goaltender position, and no matter what, the team benefits. I'm curious now to see what prospects go in the later rounds of the draft.

[Platinum Chris]

Originally Posted by Casa Nova

Now lets hope we can land either Kariya, Katchuk or Smyth!?

And you expect them to pull the salary from where exactly?

Assuming the cap for this year will be $48mil. With the addition of Toskula and Bell, that leaves the Leafs with roughly about $3.5 mil. They still have a 3 more RFA's to decide on; Coliacavo, Williams & Harrison. Cola will probably sign for 1.5 mil, so now lets say they have $2 mill to play with. Most likely, the signing of Williams and Harrison will be about 1.25 mil for both. So lets just say they have $1mil to play with

Kariya was paid 4.5 mil last year - so unless he's going to sign low (which he won't), you can forget about it.

Smyth hauled in 3.5 mill last year. Again, not a chance here.

Honestly, the Leafs are done right now. The only way they can move players is through trades. And that'll be a bit tough with some of the salaries they are carrying.

We shall see either way

[Evil Chris]

Originally Posted by Platinum Chris

Honestly, the Leafs are done right now. The only way they can move players is through trades. And that'll be a bit tough with some of the salaries they are carrying.

We shall see either way

You're more than likely right Chris.
Personally, I am hoping that we have better chemistry this year, and also that some of our guys like Steen and Stajan start to click and show more.

The addition of Toskala and Bell can only be good. I'm really anxious to see what they do with Bell. 1st line? 2nd? Special teams? We'll see!

[Casa Nova]

"We're going to take a look around this week," said Ferguson. "It won't be just July 1 that we're going to be looking at. It's through trades, it's in other ways, but we'll be prepared July 1. We've got some money to spend and if there isn't anything there that makes sense to us, we'll look at a trade."

I beleive Coli signed for 1.5 already last week. & harrison just signed today. But the thing is Harry's salary wont count against the cap because most likely he'll be spending his year for the marlies not the leafs. Also your cap count is off currently thisis the cap situation:
Total Salary cap hit:$43,888,100.(21 Players).
Estimated Salary Cap:$48,500,000.
Estimated Salary Cap Space:$4,611,900.

that leaves just enough for a big name forward, aswell as some trades to clear some more space, which JFJ has admitted to be in the works of doing.

[Casa Nova]

Just heard on Primetime sports that the top runners for Smyth are Calgary & Toronto, Toronto has the upper hand I'd think because he wouldnt have ot play edmonton 9 times a season which would be hard for him. Though calgary is close ot his family in Banff.

[Mister E]

Well, Chicago Cubs have long suffering fans too! The only thing good about hockey (and I love the game) is that during the lockout I became a UK football fan. Manchester United would mean nothing to me had it not been for a huge opening in my sports watching schedule.

However, if we get Smyth that would help. And....if, like Superman we could fly into outer space and reverse the rotation of the Earth...well then we could go back in time and find a way to lure Grezky.... ahhh forget it...

But Smyth would help!