The Leafs begin trade season early!

It shouldn't be the first time you hear of this but today, General Manager Brian Burke of the Toronto Maple Leafs announced two major trades.

Trade 1: The Calgary Flames have traded defenceman Dion Phaneuf, forward Fredrik Sjostrom, and prospect defenceman Keith Aulie to the Toronto Maple Leafs in exchange for forwards Matt Stajan, Niklas Hagman, Jamal Mayers and defenceman Ian White.

Trade 2: Veteran goaltender Jean-Sebastien from the Anaheim Ducks in exchange for netminder Vesa Toskala and veteran forward Jason Blake.

You can go to www.tsn.ca for more info.

I have been a die hard leaf fan since the Doug Gilmore days. When Burke took over the Duties as General Manager, I actually got exited for the Leafs' future. But then Burke made the Phil Kessel trade and gave up our First Round Pick for 2 years and a 2nd round pick to a division rival, the Boston Bruins. This was when I got worried again.

This year the leafs have shown splashes of competence in what is the ocean of the NHL. But lets face it, they've been poop all year, and playoffs are out of the picture. Kudos to Boston who's gonna have two first round picks this coming off season.

This is what I like about the Kessel trade. We get a Top Line Winger. What I don't like. We Lose rights to two First round picks for the next two years. How do you build a team with no High draft picks?

What I like about today's trades is that they make some sense. Toskala and Blake (with a combined cap hit of 8 million) to Anaheim for J.S. Giguere (7 Million) makes sense cause we get rid of Toskala (who should go play for the KHL or something) and addresses a major goaltending issues. Giguere can be a Goalie that gives us stability and helps take the pressure off our future goalie Jonas Gustavsson.

What's good about the Phaneuf trade, is we get some potential powerplay help. I don't like seeing Ian White get moved but Phaneuf is a good exchange. Losing Stajan and Hagman and now Blake means, we have nobody at the NHL level who can score. Oh wait. these guys weren't scoring much anyway. This is a Great Trade for Calgary and gives them depth. This is a good stepping stone for us for the future but I would have liked to see Rene Bourque come our way in this trade too.

Here's where the problem lies for Toronto. They have all this depth at Defense, and have answered their goalie problems, but what about scoring? Today's trades would have been that much more significant had we never traded for Kessel. We would be in the same place we are now in the standings (if not worse) and have a possible Lottery pick for next year. Not to mention this year's 7th overall pick Nazim Kadri aging into a fine NHLer. These trades today, should have meant we would be in the right direction for building for the future.

But alas, here we are once again. Filling our missing ranks with Marlies, wondering how we're gonna recover from a crippling lack of Draft depth. How is Burke gonna get some top 6 forwards to help play with the ever costly Kessel?

Hopefully with a little patience, time will tell.


- Griff Xombie