MacK_Attack

I'm surprised to see Indy as the 5th-best market.

Bettman can thank the Canadian dollar for that.

They are, and the ratings prove it. But it's NBC that wants no part of Canadian teams, meaning they would never get a spot in the Winter Classic.

Leafs want their own game, but BMO Field isn't big enough. They would probably fill it now as a terrible team.

The rumour before White was traded was that he was seeking $4-5 million. Stajan is a good center, but I wouldn't pay him $3.5 million his best day. The difference between White and Phaneuf this year is that White has probably been playing at the peak of his ability. I'm not sure he's going to get any better, and it might have just been a contract year performance. Phaneuf has the potential to play much better and did in the very late stages of the season. I'd rather have Phaneuf than White/Stajan at $7-8 million combined.

I think the difference is that they were horrible up until the very moment Vesa Toskala was traded. The Leafs penalty killing was 20 percent higher when Gustavsson was in net compared to Toskala. They were out of the playoff race in November, but it wasn't until they got Toskala out of the net and ditched those 6 players that they started to play well. Of those 6 players, only Ian White had any future with the team. People can say Phaneuf is overrated, and he probably is, but I'd rather have Dion Phaneuf than any combination of the guys they gave to Calgary....especially considering the contract given to Stajan and the contract White is going to get.

People forget that the Leafs won more games than they lost (in regulation) with Gustavsson in net.

Exelby is sllllllllllow. He's not bad as long as he doesn't have to move very much. He can cover in front of the net, but if he has to touch the puck, it's trouble. He asked to be traded before the trade deadline and the Leafs couldn't find any takers.

Even if he wanted all of them, he can't say anything because of tampering rules. So anything he says regarding this topic is all window dressing.

Komisarek was terrible at the start of the season when he was feeling the pressure of the big contract and spent way too much time doing way too much. He got hurt for a couple games, which I guess let him get re-focused, because he was playing much better until he suffered the season-ending injury. Hopeful for him that he picks up where he left off, hopefully in a fearsome pairing with Phaneuf. Beauchemin & Schenn would be a good 2nd pairing for me and then Gunnarsson and maybe a cheap UFA signing for the 3rd pairing. I really like Gunnarsson. He played really well in a top-four pairing last year, and I expect he'll work his way into that role again. Really good PK'er. The biggest key for the Leafs next year will be the lack of Vesa Toskala in net. He destroyed the season as soon as it began.

The NHL-operated message boards are all ghost-towns since they switched to laggy, glitch-ridden software.

If you want to get technical, the Hockey Hall of Fame owns the Stanley Cup. The NHL simply has control of it for the purposes of it being their championship trophy.

Inheriting Steven Stamkos & Victor Hedman is a start.

Raffi Torres is apparently going around telling people that he's going to sign with the Leafs. Whether that's true or not, I could see it being a fit. That would create a good third line of Torres - Hanson - Sjostrom That would leave Orr and probably John Mitchell on the 4th line, with maybe Philippe Paradis, whom Burke said could make the team to play a bottom-six role next season. The Marlies will at least have some prospects for a change next season with: - Jussi Rynnas - Korbinian Holzer - Juraj Mikus - Chris DiDomenico - Dale Mitchell - Keith Aulie - James Reimer - Mikhail Stefanovich - Phil Oreskovic (who might be a guy they keep with the Leafs to be a 6th/7th defenceman) Nothing special, but better than the borderline AHL/ECHL'ers that they've been having to use the past couple years.

He's got all kinds of talent, but since he refuses to use his linemates most of the time, his rushes end by the 2nd or 3rd guy he tries to deke out. What that leads to is mediocre offensive results.

The word is that Grabovski is on the outs because he refuses to play any semblance of defense and they're tired of his constant Lone Ranger rushes. A report came out around the end of the season stating that the Leafs were looking to move him for anything they could get.

*Big Deep Breath* Here's a bit of what I expect to go down: - Kaberle dealt at the draft - Kadri makes team, plays in a second-line role - Grabovski traded for something, anything - Finger will be one rich Marlie - No major UFA signings. No Marleau or anything like that. - Sign guys like Raffi Torres to cheaper deals. Kaberle is the one that I'm sure will be gone. He was dropped down the depth chart with the arrival of Phaneuf, playing less than 20 minutes a night quite often. I really like Carl Gunnarsson, another one of those Swedes with unlimited panic threshold and just does the little things right. Good top-four potential there. But it's clear that Kaberle's time is up and he knew it with how disinterested he played after the Olympics. I don't want to put any line combos out there because I have no idea what will be coming back in some of the trades. I hate hypothetical scenarios like some wannabe-GM's love to throw out there.

I hope Montreal gets destroyed.

Phoenix trades Jared Staal to Carolina for a 2010 5th round pick.

Teams that are out can trade with each other. Besides, this is a trade of "rights", so it's not a big deal. Phoenix wasn't going to sign Staal, so they just moved his rights to Carolina, who will presumably sign him.

I guess you could say the merger of the Minnesota North Stars & Cleveland Barons was a contraction of sorts.

There would never be contraction. 'PA wouldn't allow it. There's too many markets right now that are trying to get teams that the NHL would never get away with contraction. I don't think it would take long to get jerseys ready. Have to think that they would switch back to the Jets moniker and they could use the old logo if they had to for a year while they got a new jersey designed.

The MTS Center was designed with the NHL in mind and room was left to expand the arena. That said, my understanding is that they would not add upper bowl seating, but rather a row of private boxes around the top of the arena, since they obviously create far more revenue than cheap seats.

Brad May on the FAN 590 just now, he says he's likely going to retire. Says that he doesn't want to be away from his family any more and would only play in Toronto. He adds that he still wants to play, but his body is telling him otherwise. Says he wants to stay involved in the game in some fashion.

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