Shark Bite

Chris:

See.

I KNEW that I was going to have to back up my opinions with facts. I wasn't going to be allowed to just rant about why just the sight of Daniel Alfredsson makes me want to dry heave.

Ok. Some quick thoughts on the Toskala\Bell trade.

Initially I was all for it. But after some time to think I've changed my opinion somewhat. It's not that Toskala is a bad goalie. Steve has just laid out how that's clearly not the case. It's that trading for Toskala was not the right move at the right time for this organization.

Allow me to elaborate.

JFJ is a lame duck GM. There's no other way to look at it. The MLSE board, in its infinite wisdom, has seen fit to only grant him a year long extension to his contract. It's difficult to build a strong competitive team for the future when you might not be around to see them play. Hence the Toskala trade. JFJ needed to make a trade and he needed to make it now, not beacause it would help the team but because he needed to be seen doing something to make the Leafs better ASAP. And to hell with the consequences.

And there are consequences. The draft and develop approach got pitched out the window in favour of a quick fix by a GM feeling the pinch.

Now we've got Bell's 2.1 million dollar salary hanging around our necks next year, restricting our ability to buy in the Free Agent market and giving us a potential bad blood scenario between two goalies both used to being the number one puckstopper.

My question is whatever happened to Aubin? In the 2005 drive to the playoffs he stepped it up and more than filled Belfour's shoes. If he looked less than stellar between the pipes this year its because, in an attempt to justify Raycroft's sweetheart contract, they decided to to overplay their #1 goalie at the expense of their backup. Every time Aubin played he had to shake off a month's worth of rust. Maurice should have played smart hockey and played Aubin every fifth or sixth game, not just when Raycroft had a particularly bad outing and needed to rest up for a night.

So. For 500k we could have used Aubin in back up for another year. This would allow Pogge one more year to sharpen up for his big league debut and saved the Leafs 4.475$ million from the combined hit they took from adding Toskala and Bell's salary to the roster.

That would have left us with one first round draft pick and a much more significant amount of change with which to land a serious free agent.

Steve says:
True, JFJ is attempting to save his own neck. No doubt about that. But this trade does make sense because nobody we drafted this year would be ready for at least 2-3 years to come to the NHL.
Also, by the time Toskala and Raycroft are due to be traded or whatever, Justin Pogge will be ready to take over...Pogge wont be ready for at least 2 years..he's only 21...and he only had a decent AHL year (mind you, the Marlies kinda blew, so it's not all his fault).
I agree with the suckiness of having Bell's price tag, but hey...you can't always get what you want...especially with JFJ at the helm.
I also agree with the idea that we should have played Aubin more last season...I think we would have at least made it into the playoffs had he been given some more ice time, but that is now water under the bridge...we must look forward.
The draft this year was simply average...it had a lot of stay at home players who will be solid, but not a lot of high scoring players, or really exceptional D-men. So trading away out #1 this year wasn't as crucial as it would be next year or the year after. I will say that I feel me missed a boat by not getting Esposito, but who knows...he could still be traded before he even steps on NHL ice...
July 1st will show us if JFJ actually has a master plan to make all of this make sense... I will withhold final judgement until I see if JFJ can get some real help for our 1st line ...