So here we are at the half way point of the NHL season and the Toronto Maple Leafs are not even at .500 (16-17-8). In fact they are 26th out of 30 teams. Even the most loyal Leaf fan knows this team is not going to make the playoffs for the 3rd year in a row. John Ferguson knows it and is probably busy updating his resume.
I've posted several views on what is wrong with the Leafs - over value and over pay players; trade away draft picks leaving them too reliant on free agents; poor work ethic; not physical enough; horrible team defense. Few players are performing as expected. I considered who was performing "Above Satisfactory", "Satisfactory" and "Below Satisfactory" and this is how I rate the team.
Above Satisfactory: Sundin, Toskala, Antropov, Gill, Devereaux
Satisfactory: Kaberle, Stajan, Steen, Ponikarovsky, Kubina, McCabe, Kilger, Colaiacovo, Belak
Below Satisfactory: Tucker, Bell, Blake, Wellwood, Raycroft, White, Wozniewski, Tlusty, Pohl
Just not enough quality to win on a consistent basis. The only solution is to dismantle this team much the way the Flyers did it last year. Let's face it, once Sundin's play declines they will drop to the bottom of the league. The time to start rebuilding is over the next few weeks leading up to the trading deadline in February.
So who should they trade and who should stay? Better yet, who is tradeable in the NHL marketplace?
Raycroft is not tradeable with 1 year left in his contract because I doubt any GM sees him as a starting goalie and no one is will pay $2 million for a backup.
Few teams can pick up high salaried players because of the cap. Anyway McCabe and Tucker have no trade contracts and I doubt they would want to leave the country club atmosphere. That's why they signed here.
Perhaps you can move Kubina. Someone would have to find over $2 million in cap space for the rest of the season.
If you can teams looking for some grit going into the playoffs then move Gill, Devereaux, Kilger, Belak and/or Bell for draft picks or prospects.
But the player who has to be moved is Sundin. He needs to be persuaded to waive the no trade provision in his contract. Many GMs would be eager to give up a very good package to land Sundin considering his durability, production and leadership. I would expect you can get what Nashville gave up to land Forsberg last year. With so few prospects in their system, it's a trade the Leafs have to make.
So I would hang on to Stajan, Steen, Kaberle, White, Colaiacovo, Ponikarovsky, Antropov, Tokala, Tlusty and who ever you can't move.
