Brian Burke got back into the job this week by trading minor league players Colin Stuart and Anton Stralman, and 2012 7th round pick to Calgary for Wayne Primeau and 2011 2nd round pick.
So whats this deal all about? Well it's not really Stralman for Primeau. It's more like Stralman for a 2nd round pick. Stralman was having difficulty earning a spot on the Leafs and that was before they upgraded their defence. It was obvious the Stralman was no better than 9th or 10th on their depth chart. However, the Leafs can only carry about 7 defensemen and Stralman can no longer be sent down to the Marlies without clearing waivers. It was becoming clear that the Leafs would be losing Stralman this fall so why not pick up a 2nd round pick?
So who is next? Well it doesn't look like Tomas Kaberle. Serious suitors have not come forward and the window for trading him without Kaberle waiving his no trade contract closes in less that 3 weeks. The Bruins were considering moving Kessell because of cap problems but those problems have been resolved. Van Ryn will not be going because you can't move a $2.9 million players that spends most seasons injured. Finger is also too expensive to trade. Komisarik and Beauchimin just got here. Same with Exelby although there were rumours this past month about moving him ofr Patrick Sharpe. Luke Schenn is an untouchable for the moment. That leaves Jonas Frogren and Ian White. Frogren can still be sent to the minors without clearing waivers. That leaves Ian White. Although he is a versatile and inexpensive player, for those reasons he is also very tradeable. He is also small player, not really a Burke-type.
Ian White is only one of ten players still remaining from the Ferguson era which ended just 17 months ago. Matt Stajan, Vesa Toskala, Tomas Kaberle, Jason Blake, Alexei Ponikarovsky, Nikolai Kulemin, John Mitchell, Jiri Tlusty, and Justin Pogge are the others. I don't see Stajan, Ponikarovsky and Pogge sticking around much longer. As for Tomas Kaberle, he is the sole survivor from the infamous "Muskoka Five".
