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The Chicago Wolves officially ended the Toronto Marlies run at the Calder Cup yesterday, going down 4-2 at AllState Arena. While the Marlies won’t bring the Calder Cup to Toronto, they did set season records for wins and points for a Leafs farm team. Overall the season can be viewed as a solid success, although one without the ideal finish, for the baby Leafs, and it’s nice to know that at least one professional hockey team in Toronto is capable of making the playoffs, let alone winning rounds.

Pogge didn’t get the games he should’ve, but lets hope that he stays on the Marlies for next years playoff run, as there’s no point in putting him on the bench behind Vesa Toskala for a season.

Let’s just hope that when draft day comes, the Leafs can add another solid player or two to help the Marlies (or even the Leafs, but let’s not get ahead of ourselves) come next season.

Let’s say hypothetically that the Leafs win the draft lottery and are allowed to choose 1st overall. The immediate choice most people make is Steve Stamkos from Sarnia, who is considered by the majority to be the most talented player in this years draft. However, Stamkos is a centre and that might not be the best position for the Leafs to look to fill.

This year in the National Hockey League in the goals-for category, the Leafs sit ahead of 11 other teams. However in the goals-against column, only two teams are worse. While some feel Toskala is a god and some much less, most fans can agree that Toskala has done a respectable job and is not the problem in the Leafs GA category. That points the finger square on the defense and any casual observer can verify that the Leafs d-men have been atrocious this season.

So that brings up the question, with 6 of the top 10 ranked North American prospects for this years draft being defensemen, should the Leafs choose the most talented player, or a slightly less talented player who can help where they need it the most? Here are a few names the Leafs might think about looking to instead of Stamkos: (more…)

With the rumors flying about Sundin possibly being dealt to the Detroit Red Wings, I felt it would be a good time to do an analysis of the team composition of a current serial-winner, the Red Wings, vs. a perennial loser, the Toronto Maple Leafs. The analysis will concentrate on salaries dispersed between team draft picks and non-draft picks, and shows a stark difference between the composition of these two teams.

Detroit Red Wings:

The Wings totally salary commitment for the 07/08 season is $42,280,833. Out of that entire salary commitment, here is a list of players drafted by the Detroit Red Wings and their contribution to the overall number (more…)

According to the National Post it looks like Jiri Tlusty will be playing on the top line with Mats Sundin and Nik Antropov for tonight’s game against the St. Louis Blues. The Leafs will look for the young gun to help produce some needed scoring. Tlusty, who scored a couple of goals in his first game up with the team, is known in Toronto more for his controversial internet photos than his time on the ice with the Laughs. Ice time might be just what he needs though.

Tlusty was Toronto’s first round draft pick, 13th overall, in the 2006 draft. He’s got some serious potential and getting some playing time with Mats Sundin, and to a much lesser extent Nik Antropov, could (more…)

All I can think of when I look at this move is “why?” Is there any point to this move what so ever? Does the team really think that a guy who was cast away from the Wild, having scored three points in 30 games, is going to have any kind of effect to help the team climb out of the huge hole they’ve fallen into? Dominc Moore? Who? Here’s who, a 27 year old centre whos’ career high season in points was 18 in 82 games with the Rangers in 05-06.

Moore will undoubtedly become one of the handfull of players that the Leafs move up and down between the big club and the Marlies, seemingly at random, just hoping to God that (more…)

There are two things the Toronto Maple Leafs do that never surprise me. The first is to take seemingly high quality prospects and turn them into mediocrity or worse. The second is signing or trading for old men nearing the ends of their careers (often times ones who were previously on the team!)

Oh and losing. So three things I guess.

Let’s examine the first two though. How is it that the Leafs can take talented young players and turn them into garbage so rotten and slimey that it seeps out the corners of the bag? It’s really amazing. Matt Stajan scored 85 and 94 point in his last two years in the OHL. He initially looked very promising with the Leafs, but somehow they managed to break him down. Don’t forget his two friends on the “future hopes” list, Alex Steen and Kyle Wellwood. Another two guys who showed possibilities of stardom, but eventually sucumbed to the Leafs thirst for draining talent. How about Nik Antropov. Can you believe it! This is his big breakout year! How sad.

That’s just the current team too! Let’s not forget such names as Mike Johnson, Alyn McCauley, Jason Smith, Fredrik Modin and more who just a decade or less ago had their talent forcably taken from them by the merciless Leafs. The only saving grace is that these players all went on to be solid contributors to other teams. So while no one ever recovers completely, players can recover, if only partially, when moved to other teams.

Maybe it’s not that the Leafs destroy young talent, but that they’re just so (more…)