MacK_Attack

Or, if he wants to come in and play right away on the top line (which has been hinted by his representatives), he might not choose Detroit. This kid isn't going to come in and be a 4th liner or play a season in the AHL, he wants to step in and be 1st liner. A rebuilding Leafs team or a team like Vancouver with offensive deficiencies might be a better fit for him in the short-term.

Same can be said for the other two teams going after him.

They've backed themselves into a corner where they have to give total control now, which is what Cliff Fletcher has and is what the next guy will have. As it has been called, the "Colangelo Clause"

They didn't draft either one of them. Syl Apps III played two years in the Leafs farm system after signing as an undrafted free agent out of college. Syl Apps Jr. was never Leaf property at any time, but he had a respectable career nonetheless. Also, there are some that keep saying that the Toronto media is dreaming that Scotty Bowman (or anybody else with Detroit's management) would go, but Scotty Bowman very clearly said on Hockey Night in Canada in front of the entire hockey world that he was willing and had at one point agreed to go to Toronto. Just because they've been in one place for a long time and have been successful doesn't mean they wouldn't go elsewhere. Sometimes, there's the desire for a new challenge, or a chance to be "the guy", in the case of Nill. Like it was said before, being the guy to build the team that ends Toronto's Cup drought pretty well guarantees you god-like status. I think there's still a chance that it'll be Bowman. Peddie said that they will be hiring the President of the team, who will have the option of also being the GM, or hiring his own guy to be GM. They will throw oodles of money at whomever they target as "their guy". It's just a matter of finding the right one. As for the people that are tired of all the Toronto talk, I don't blame you, but Leafs talk sells and gathers ratings, so they won't dither far away from it.

I think you're wrong about that last part. There's always GM's who need to either make the playoffs or go deep to keep their jobs and if giving up a good portion of future to get Mats Sundin will help them get another contract, then there are some that will do it. GM's remember the Keith Tkachuk's and the Ryan Smyth's that didn't work, but they also remember the Mark Recchi's and Doug Weight's that did. Besides, there's about five or six teams behind the Wings in the West that probably figure they'll need Mats to beat Detroit, so they'd probably take a run at him, too. Mats is one of the most clutch players to play the game (3rd all-time in game winners with 93, 1st all-time in overtime goals) and teams salivate over players like that around playoff time.

Since he has played in Europe this season, he would have to clear waivers in order to join an NHL team.

They won't hire Yzerman. They'll hire somebody who has been a GM before in the NHL. Holland, maybe, but only if Detroit feels that Yzerman (or Nill) can step in.

Apparently Fletcher's two main conditions were that he have full autonomy of hockey operations while he's GM, and that he have a say in who is hired as the new GM/President. Peddie said today that the new GM will have Bryan Colangelo control of the team. The Raptors rebirth has forced their hands in that regard. This is about five years too late. I don't know that Cliff Fletcher is the answer, but he's been given the full control of the hockey team, and that's a huge step in the right direction. Cliff's his own man and he won't allow people higher up to whisper in his ear.

TSN.ca has an article up with speculation that Curtis Joseph will sign with either San Jose or Calgary by the weekend at the latest and perhaps as early as today. http://www.tsn.ca/nhl/news_story/?ID=227049&hubname=nhl

I believe that "something" would be the Coyotes defence.

There's a certain lore that goes with working for the Leafs. It has nothing to do with being an Original Six team, or being in "the centre of the hockey universe" or anything like that. It has everything to do with being "the guy" to end the Leafs Cup drought. Scotty knows what it was like to end Detroit's, and no disrespect intended, but to end the Leafs Cup drought would top even that. It's a challenge that despite how uphill the climb is, that is just too hard to turn away from. Also, Scotty's still got that competitive edge that just doesn't seem to go away. Retirement doesn't take away your desire to tackle new challenges.

They swallowed their pride with the Raptors and it's worked pretty well. The Leafs are embarrassing them so badly that they're probably going to be forced to do much the same. The "board" doesn't meddle in the Leafs affairs. Richard Peddie does. He has a symbolic title of president of the Leafs and he seems to think that alone gives him some sort of hockey I.Q., when in fact, he has less than none. John Ferguson was Peddie's little project, much like Rob Babcock was with the Raptors. Given Ferguson's most recent clusterf*ck, Peddie seems poised to lose his title as president, just like he did with the Raptors. The reason Bowman wasn't hired was because he wanted Peddie's title as president of the team. Peddie used his clout with the Teachers to avoid that. Peddie bought Ferguson one more year when the board went to fire him last year. With this year being by far the worst of his tenure, the Leafs out of the playoff race, and not having seen a cent of playoff revenue since 2004, Peddie's not going to be able to get in the way this time. Of course, rumours are running wild that Peddie will lose his title as president of the Leafs, Ferguson and Maurice will be fired and Bowman will takeover as president & interim GM. He'll orchestrate the Sundin trade, as well as trade off any other stiff that he can and then he'll hire his full-time GM this spring. Keith Acton would takeover as interim head coach and then a new coach named after the GM is named. I don't know that it'll be Bowman, but I think it will be somebody with similar experience in the game to take the figurehead spot.

http://www.tsn.ca/nhl/news_story.asp?ID=22...amp;hubName=nhl

The Anaheim Ducks have traded RW Matt Keith to the New York Islanders for Darryl Bootland. They have been assigned to Bridgeport & Portland respectively.

Oh, they're clearly bad enough now to get high draft picks. They're 3rd-last and dropping. They've lost 10-of-12 and have lost the will to compete. They're free-falling. As for the management team, those wheels appear to be in motion. Nothing will happen until they get back from the West Coast on Sunday.

Psst....No they don't! A lot of non-Leaf fans just assume that because it fuels their belief of what Leafs fans are really like.

The only place he can do that is a non-playoff team, and he doesn't want that, either. Ottawa is the ideal situation for him because Gerber can drop the ball at a moment's notice, but Murray can't move Emery or Gerber at the moment to make room for CuJo. I don't think San Jose will be quiet around the trade deadline, as there have indications that they'll jump into the Sundin sweepstakes. And the chances of Sundin accepting a trade to San Jose increases greatly with his buddy CuJo there.

San Jose definitely needs CuJo. They have nothing in net beyond Nabokov. They need to rest Nabby down the stretch and CuJo can give them those quality starts that the top teams get from backups. This actually does increase San Jose's Cup chances because it allows them to rest Nabokov down the stretch.

Sens can't move either of their current goaltenders. Nobody will touch Emery.

McCabe you can trade at a reduced return in order to get a team to swallow his contract. Raycroft is not going to L.A., not after the performance he put on there last night. The biggest problem is that the top paid players, the ones they need to move, are all on no-trade or no-movement clauses. The scary part is that the current group of veterans has completely given up and mailed it in. But if they traded those off and dressed some hungry kids, I think they would probably win a few more games and might get out of Stamkos territory. If they're in this deep, I want Stamkos or Doughty.

G - Martin Brodeur G - Rick DiPietro G - Tomas Vokoun D - Andrei Markov D - Zdeno Chara D - Tomas Kaberle D - Sergei Gonchar D - Brian Campbell D - Kimmo Timonen F - Sidney Crosby F - Vincent Lecavalier F - Daniel Alfredsson F - Alex Ovechkin F - Mike Richards F - Eric Staal F - Martin St. Louis F - Scott Gomez F - Dany Heatley F - Marian Hossa F - Ilya Kovalchuk F - Jason Spezza http://www.nhl.com/allstar/2008/east_roster.html

85% of the guys you mentioned that the Leafs should trade are untradable because of Fergie's vast overpayments. They need to trade Sundin to the highest bidder, that's the most important thing to do. Anything beyond that is a bonus. They'll be in the Stamkos race, so adding him is probably the best thing they can do at this point, and then stay bad and try and get Tavares. The LAST thing they should try to do is turn this thing around in one year.

Personally, I think Sundin will go to Anaheim for a package that includes Edmonton's 1st rounder.

Ah yes, so I guess I've now been labeled a brainless Leafs homer?

I think McCabe would probably get close to $5 million on the open market, just like Souray did. They're basically identical players. McCabe's a huge weapon on the powerplay and can log huge minutes. He just makes mistakes at the worst possible times. That said, he was playing the best hockey I can recall him playing before he got hurt. He'd get the same amount again because there's always teams looking to improve their powerplay because it's so vital.