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Andrew Raycroft is not among the group of players protected by no-trade clauses or no-movement clauses. There is nothing written on paper saying the Toronto Maple Leafs are legally obligated to keep Andrew Raycroft on the team. So the question that begs an answer is why the hell is he still here?

You might have thought they were keeping Raycroft to use him down the stretch for the tank that would bring us a high draft pick. I think we’ve all come to the realization that this isn’t going to happen. After seeing Vesa Toskala play what seems like the 300th game in a row on Saturday it’s pretty clear that the Leafs don’t plan to use Raycroft in any significant way.  So why keep him?

It certainly isn’t because of his stellar play. The guy is easily the biggest flop on the team and maybe one of the biggest currently playing in the league. If the Leafs are in fact going on a “playoff drive”, as it appears they are attempting to, then Raycroft’s seive-like nature almost ensures he’ll be riding the pine almost the entire time.

So if the Leafs simply aren’t going to play him, then why keep him? The team has pretty clearly given up on Razor. It is probably safe to say he is no longer part of the team’s view of the future. So why is he still taking up space on the team?

What the team should do, and should have already done, is admit Raycroft is an expensive mistake and (more…)

Sorry for the late notice, but tonight will be a Guaranteed Loss Night as the Leafs head into Boston to play the B’s.

The prizes from the last GLNs are still up for grabs, namely your choice of two Leafs flags (one sharpened to a point) or an Official Leafs puck signed by Fredrik Modin.

Someone has to win these fine items, it could be YOU!

As with last week, to qualify for the GLN prizes just make a comment in this post and if the Leafs win, a winner will be chosen at random.

Kilger was suspended Wednesday for failing to report to the team after being acquired from the Leafs on deadline day. The suspension is indefinite and without pay.

I can sort of understand where Chad is coming from. You’re on the bottom feeding Leafs, deadline day comes around and you’re lucky enough to be moved. Your mind is racing with all the possibilities! Detroit maybe? Anaheim? Could this be your year.

Sorry Chad you’ll be heading to Florida! Send us a postcard.

I wouldn’t report either!

http://sports.yahoo.com/nhl/news?slug=txpantherskilger&prov=st&type=lgns

Trade deadline day has come and gone and Mats Sundin remains a Leaf, much to the disappointment of many Leafs fans who seem to forget all he’s done for the team. The real problem that needs to be examined though isn’t Sundin’s refusal to leave, but the entire concept of a rental player and why the league needs to put some countermeasures in place to make “rentals” a thing of the past.

First let’s define a rental. In a rental situation, the idea is that a player going into unrestricted free agency from team X is traded away at the deadline to team Y. Then, in the summer, the player re-signs with team X. In essence, team X gets something for nothing.

There are multiple problems with this. First of all, it could technically be done multiple times. Mats Sundin for instance has voiced that he is only interested in one year contracts. That means that in theory, had he been willing to be a rental, the Leafs could have rented him out over and over again, each time gaining without loss, until they were in a position to make a good playoff run. The real problem however is that in rental situations, it is very likely that the team acquiring the rental could essentially be getting cheated. If a team tells a player about to go UFA that he’s being traded as a rental, but he’s “welcome back next year, wink wink, nudge nudge”, then that is tampering. A rental situation in which a player is traded only to return to the team that traded him reeks of tampering and (more…)

Today Mats Sundin announced that he will not waive his no-trade clause and will remain with the Maple Leafs. Sundin said, as quoted from TSN, “I have carefully considered the team’s request that I waive my no-trade clause,” Sundin said in a statement. “I have always believed I would finish my career as a Toronto Maple Leaf so the actual request was still a very difficult one for me to contemplate.”

“I have spoken to and listened to my family and those closest to me about this issue. In the end, there is no right decision in a situation like this one.”

“I cannot leave my teammates and join another NHL Club at this time. I have never believed in the concept of a rental player. It is my belief that winning the Stanley Cup is the greatest thing you can achieve in hockey but for me, in order to appreciate it you have to (more…)

Today Sundin talked to reporters about the pressure he’s been under to waive his no-trade clause. If I was Sundin I’d do two things. First I’d tweak and take out that entire crowd of reporters, and then second I’d tell the Leafs to go screw themselves. I’d be so fed up with the team, the media and the fans trying to push me out, that I’d refuse to waive my NTC out of spite and then sign with a new team next year and play the best season of my career. I can’t believe the crap this guy is getting. He’s clearly fed up with the whole issue.

Thanks to Jeff at FaceOffCircle.net for putting the video on YouTube.

The Leafs will host the 9th place Buffalo Sabres tonight at the Air Canada Centre at 7:30 in the p.m. The buds currently sit in 14th in the Conference, 2 points ahead of Tampa, and are tied with the Oilers for third worst league wide. Lately though he Leafs have been jeopardizing their lowly status, and subsequent drafting position by playing slightly above .500 for the last 10 games! Luckily for Toronto the other teams in contention for the first overall draft choice - namely L.A., Tampa and Edmonton - have also all been playing .500 or better. It would be foolish for the Leafs to expect their competition to play this well for the remainder of the season, so in the name of drafting, Toronto needs to quit while they’re behind!

Buffalo currently sits in 9th place in the East, sharing 66 points with 8th place Philly and 7th place Boston. The Sabres should be out for blood tonight hoping to leap from at least one of those two teams, which bodes well for the Leafs who after winning two, are due for another less.

According to the team Andrew Raycroft is sick and Scott Clemenson will be coming up to take his place. In our opinion Vesa Toskala should be the one getting the night off. Clemenson can still ride the pine and Raycroft can sweat off his cold flailing around the net pretending to be a goalie. Everybody wins!

Introducing the LeafsAreTrash.com Guarunteed Loss Program!

I’m so confident that the Leafs are going to lose tonight, I’ll guarantee it! Tonight will be the first night of the LeafsAreTrash.com Guaranteed Loss Nights program where I’ll guarantee losses and give out a prize if the Leafs foil my prediction. The prizes will be (more…)

Today was the last day of the NHL’s annual General Managers’ meeting and Cliff Fletcher left Naples, Fl with no deals made. “Maybe some seeds will have been planted, but there won’t be any deals” said Fletcher yesterday adding that talks were preliminary and no firm offers had been received.

Some fans might see this and start to panic. After all, the trade deadline is just days away and this is supposed to be Cliff’s time to shine! Shouldn’t he be saving the franchise with a flurry of trades?

Well yes, and no.

The nice thing about having Cliff Fletcher sitting behind the GM’s desk is that in a situation like this, Leafs fans should feel confident. Fletcher has a track record of being a good trade-man in the NHL and buds fans should take comfort in this.

If John Ferguson Jr. was still handling the team’s affairs, his general incompetence would make it a good time to be affraid. With Cliff making the phone calls, you can safely assume that if no deals are being made, it’s because the Silver Fox is waiting for the right offers and is unwilling to liquidate the team for bargain basement prices.

That really is the key. While a less experienced General Manager might have come into this situation and started pulling the trigger on whatever deal he could - something some fans would like - Cliff knows better. He isn’t going to sell (more…)

After reading Sean’s post on Down Goes Brown about the rampant speculation going on over what some players contracts actually say, it strikes me that things would be a lot simpler if the National Hockey League simply required that all contracts signed between players and teams be disclosed to any interested fans and media.

It would be as simple as a scan of each players contract being uploaded in PDF format to a publicly accessible database on the internet. That way when people wanted to know wether or not Tomas Kaberle’s NTC would expire if the Leafs miss the playoffs this year, they could simply browse to Kaberle’s contract, open it up and read the section outlining his NTC.

The costs associated with having someone scan some paper wouldn’t be particularly high and it would save the massive ammouns of crap that go around about who’s contract says what and who can and can’t be dealt, etc.

If the players’ salaries in dollar ammount are already known to the media, what would be the harm in making the entire details (more…)

Deadline time is approaching and the media is ablaze over what will happen to players in regards to waiving their NMC’s or NTC’s. The problem is they rarely, if ever, take the time to explain the terms. I’ve had a few people ask me what each one means and what the differences are so I thought I’d address that here.

No-Trade Clause (NTC):

No-trade clauses protect players from being moved through trade to another team without their consent. Examples of Leafs holding such contracts are Mats Sundin, Tomas Kaberle and Darcy Tucker. For any of these players to be traded, they have to consent to waiving the clause in their contract. The waiving of an NTC is not a black or white decision, as players have the right to (more…)