Report: Leafs close to deal with Sundin

[canadienhater 0]

Averages 70 points a season , Playing with Antronotalent and Ponikasuckski.

Im sorry , he's underated , not overated. I'd take him on the wings any day.

he makes lang look good

[Detroit # 1 Fan 2,204]

he makes lang look good

Thanks for the good laugh dude.

Sundin at his present state , is almost twice the player Lang is

[poolerman 0]

Now Sundin as a WING!!! Centre and stud problem solved

He can play on my wing team anytime!!!!

except for age trade Dats for Sundin straight up but Leafs wouldn't do it.

This guy has size and heart no lang can't afford Bertuzzi with Sundin so get Torres YEAH

A goalie and the cup barring injury would be ours

[canadienhater 0]

Now Sundin as a WING!!! Centre and stud problem solved

He can play on my wing team anytime!!!!

except for age trade Dats for Sundin straight up but Leafs wouldn't do it.

This guy has size and heart no lang can't afford Bertuzzi with Sundin so get Torres YEAH

A goalie and the cup barring injury would be ours

what has sundin won in his career he could not carry gilmours jock

[poolerman 0]

what has sundin won in his career he could not carry gilmours jock

Gilmour had wingers defense and a goalie in Calgary when he won

Sundin has 5-6 NHLer's on the team a mediocore goalie and NO defense apart from kaberle

[Detroit # 1 Fan 2,204]

what has sundin won in his career he could not carry gilmours jock

Sundin could get 100 pts on this team.

What does Gilmour have to do with anything

[MacK_Attack 108]

Gilmour had wingers named Andreychuk, Anderson, Gartner and Clark.

Sundin had wingers named Hoglund, Antropov, Renberg & Bohonos.

If the cap goes up as much as it seems it will, the Leafs will have some coin to go and get a winger. We'll see if they can land one (my gut says Ladislav Nagy ends up as a Leaf when all else fails). Probably Kyle Wellwood or Ponikarovsky will ride the other wing.

[canadienhater 0]

Sundin could get 100 pts on this team.

What does Gilmour have to do with anything

sundin is not even a top 10 center

in no order

zetteberg

datsyuk

crosby

breire

drury

sakic

modano

thorton

spezza

sundin is not even a top 10 center

in no order

zetteberg

datsyuk

crosby

breire

drury

sakic

modano

thorton

spezza

oops leclavier

Gilmour had wingers named Andreychuk, Anderson, Gartner and Clark.

Sundin had wingers named Hoglund, Antropov, Renberg & Bohonos.

If the cap goes up as much as it seems it will, the Leafs will have some coin to go and get a winger. We'll see if they can land one (my gut says Ladislav Nagy ends up as a Leaf when all else fails). Probably Kyle Wellwood or Ponikarovsky will ride the other wing.

he has had good ones before mogliny comes to mind

sundin is not even a top 10 center

in no order

zetteberg

datsyuk

crosby

breire

drury

sakic

modano

thorton

spezza

oops leclavier

he has had good ones before mogliny comes to mind

brad richards

[MacK_Attack 108]

Alex Mogilny had one good hip left when he came to Toronto. He was a fraction of what he used to be. Same with Roberts and Thomas. As well as they played, they were all past their primes, especially in a 1st line role.

[Detroit # 1 Fan 2,204]

sundin is not even a top 10 center

in no order

zetteberg

datsyuk

crosby

breire

drury

sakic

modano

thorton

spezza

Sundin >>> Drury

Sundin = Modano

He is a top 10 center in the league , Chris Drury isnt even close to being one , Langkows a better center then he is. Henrik sedin is better , Marc Savard is better then Drury.

[poolerman 0]

sundin is not even a top 10 center

in no order

zetteberg datsyuk

crosby

breire

drury

sakic

modano

thorton

spezza

oops leclavier

he has had good ones before mogliny comes to mind

brad richards

88888888888888

Sundin over Zetterberg Dats Briere modano Spezza Thornton Drury Richards Gomez

To lead the wings NOW...next year yes....NOt for long term but short term RUN absolutely

Thronton give me pause but he doesn't go to the net like Sundin..Sharks would have beat us with Sundin

[Guest bullocks]

Sundin has had nobody through out basically his hole career on the Leafs. Yet he stays loyal to them unlike 95% of athletes these days. He's also one hell of a hockey player and probably the hardest guy to know off the puck in the game. Or one of them.

[Kp-Wings 3]

They were always around 100 point teams when Quinn ran the ship. He bought whomever they needed to cover up shortfalls in trades and drafting. Can't do it anymore. Quinn missed the playoffs once in 7 years and he got fired. Fergie has missed the playoffs two out of three years and he still has a job. Confusing.

Exactly. Even in Fergusons first year with the Leafs (2003-2004) when they did make the playoffs, half of the team was built off of what Quinn did. I don't remember JFJ making any significant moves that year at all.

Your perseption of JFJ is totally true. I was laughing at some of the moves he made last summer. He majorly overpaid both McCabe and Kubina (and even you said McCabe didn't want to play in Toronto), and signed traffic cone Hal Gill. Not to mention his refusel of signing a decent winger. Instead of bringing in a true first line winger, he signes Mike Peca. As if the Leafs don't have enough guys who can play center. The only winger I remember him signing last year was Bates Battaglia, who is definitly not a first line winger. He's expected guys like Antropov, Ponikarovsky, and Jeff O'Neill to play top line roles, and that's just a poor choice. Maybe 5 years ago O'Neill could have done it, but not now.

And theres the Raycroft trade. I don't know what you thought about it, but I thought it was a total joke giving up Tukka Rask for Raycroft, who was coming off a horrible season in Boston. Toronto is not exactly the ideal place to resurect ones career either, since the media attention and fan pressure is a lot for some people to handle.

The Leafs will never go anywhere with JFJ at the helm. Suprisingly, Grapes has actually supported JFJ, saying his criticism is "unjust". Whether he cracked into the Molson a little early on that particular night remains to be seen, but anyone who knows anything about hockey knows JFJ is a bad GM.

[SweWings 45]

The more I follow the Leafs the more I realize that our scouting department is WOOOOOOOOOW

[MacK_Attack 108]

I swore up and down for weeks after Fergie traded Rask for Raycroft. He threw a Vezina Trophy or two out the window by moving Rask.

Fergie needed somebody to stop-gap between Belfour and the next generation goaltender (be it Pogge or Rask) and he panicked, again. He needed to get a goaltender to call his own, and Raycroft was probably the easiest guy to pry away from his current team.

I still think he dropped the ball, because Manny Legace would've come to Toronto for a million bucks or less and been equal or probably even a little better than Raycroft and the Leafs would've had Rask still in the fold.

I can't stand Raycroft. I can't stand his attitude. He never owes up for his own play, he never admits to being in the wrong. He could give up three soft goals and then say after the game, "Yeah, well I stopped the other 30 shots." Admit you screwed up and be a man about it.

I think Justin Pogge is going to be a fine NHL goaltender, but I think Rask is going to be something special. He has an extra special talent level that isn't seen very often. The Leafs are going to majorly regret letting him go (or, at least regret giving Fergie the kind of freedom to throw away a top prospect for an average goaltender). They should've allowed both to come up in the system to battle each other for the starting goaltenders role. Make sure you're keeping the best one and get something real good for the other via trade.

I think you'll see the Leafs bring in Curtis Joseph again to help "mentor" Raycroft, but one soft goal from Raycroft and the chants of "Cujo! Cujo! Cujo!" will start and Raycroft will be run out of town. Maybe it's for the better.

Chances are if Raycroft flops, Fergie's headin' out the door with him, as he's on a Lame Duck season again (with no club option to bail him out).

Edited June 2, 2007 by MacK_Attack

[Guest Crymson]

Leafs should have traded him at the deadline and re-signed him. But they don't have the balls to do that kind of thing.. Kudos to Mr. Lowe and the Oilers for trading Smyth.

Considering that they were very much in the playoff race, and indeed came one Islanders loss away from the 8th spot in the East, trading their best player would have been utterly inane. I don't think lack of courage has anything to do with it--more like lack of trade stupidity.

Edmonton, meanwhile, had zero chance of making the playoffs.

Seriously, stop it..

the leafs and sundin are totally different tho, thats the only place he wants to play. the leafs knew that, but they wouldnt have the guts to do something like that.

That's because IT'D HAVE BEEN UTTERLY IMBECILIC.

^ Mats Sundin would have waived his no-trade to goto a contender at the deadline and return back to the Leafs. The problem was they thought they'd still make the playoffs.

From where, praytell, do you have such pure insights into Sundin's mind?

Edited June 2, 2007 by Crymson

[SweWings 45]

With the exception of Sundin the Leafs don't have any stability nor do they let their players develop properly in system. Like Rask. I wouldn't be surprised if they trade away White and Steen away for like, crap, sometime during this off-season.

[MacK_Attack 108]

I wouldn't put it past them to trade White at the draft to move up higher in the 1st round....they've put a lot of stock in Stralman and the hype regarding him.

[Kp-Wings 3]

I wouldn't put it past them to trade White at the draft to move up higher in the 1st round....they've put a lot of stock in Stralman and the hype regarding him.

That really makes no sense though. The Draft is (supposidly) very weak this year. So unless there is someone really high on the Leafs radar right now, this move doesn't seem that good.

White is a pretty decent player from what I've seen. Stralman I know nothing about, so I can't say whether he'd be very good or not.

[MacK_Attack 108]

So Rask is supposedly that good huh? Didn't know that

In hindsight signing Legace for a few years might have been the way to go; it's not like he would've done any worse than Raycroft whom was hot/cold all season long, & Manny would've been alot cheaper too.

Most hockey scouts consider Rask the best goaltender in the world outside of the NHL.

Legace would've been a fine stop-gap to either giving Pogge or Rask the reigns, or going out and finding another CuJo or Belfour.

[SweWings 45]

Strålman is showing great potential and he's been good in the SEL.

[MacK_Attack 108]

That's 1 area I could never really understand about hockey; why give up a good young player like White (whom IMHO is the Leafs version of the Red Wings Lebda) just to move up the draft - unless of course this draft is loaded with alot of talent & you're getting a "sure thing"...To me drafting 18 yr olds is a total crap-shoot; ya never know how many will ever make it to the big league.

The Leafs currently have McCabe, Kaberle, Kubina, Gill, Colaiacovo, White, Stralman & Wozniewski (and there's also the possibility of Staffan Kronwall, too) signed for next year. Wozniewski is your 7th defenceman, as he's ideally suited to that role. So you've got to move one guy, and the big-3 aren't tradable and Gill probably isn't, either, even though he had a pretty good year by his standards.

That really makes no sense though. The Draft is (supposidly) very weak this year. So unless there is someone really high on the Leafs radar right now, this move doesn't seem that good.

White is a pretty decent player from what I've seen. Stralman I know nothing about, so I can't say whether he'd be very good or not.

White is good, but he's never going to be much with the Leafs because Kaberle is basically the exact same player (except Kaberle is better all-around) and White will never see much PP time with Kaberle around. Stralman is again a similar player to Kaberle and the Leafs are very high on him, so I think he'll be the one picking up the PP time on the 2nd unit, leaving White in the dark.

The Leafs have a bit of a logjam to deal with on the blueline right now.....nice problem to have, but it probably means that they'll have to move White or Colaiacovo (and I think it'll be White).

[Guest bullocks]

That really makes no sense though. The Draft is (supposidly) very weak this year. So unless there is someone really high on the Leafs radar right now, this move doesn't seem that good.

White is a pretty decent player from what I've seen. Stralman I know nothing about, so I can't say whether he'd be very good or not.

Anton Stralman-D- Maple Leafs May. 12 - 10:01 am et

If you are looking for a deep sleeper in your keeper hockey pool consider Maple Leaf prospect Anton Stralman.

Stralman, who is being compared to Detroit's Nicklas Lidstrom by Swedish GMs, is playing for Sweden Saturday in WHC seminal action against Canada and is close to signing a deal with Toronto for next season. He has made it clear that he will not play in the minors and will return to Sweden if he does not make the Leafs out of training camp. Keep an eye on him Saturday.

Source: Toronto Sun

Although, i think the Lidstrom comparison is a load of crap. He did lead the Swedish Elite League in total ice time last season and was named to the first all-star team.

With the exception of Sundin the Leafs don't have any stability nor do they let their players develop properly in system. Like Rask. I wouldn't be surprised if they trade away White and Steen away for like, crap, sometime during this off-season.

Leafs could have got Pronger last off-season. Edmonton wanted Kaberle, Stajan, and Steen for him. Toronto didn't want to throw in Steen. Then he got off to that f***in slow start this year.

Edited June 4, 2007 by bullocks

[Guest bullocks]

^ Both Stajan, & Steen haven't lived up to their potential (Steen more so)...While the Leafs are set on D their group of forwards are nothing special...Me thinks they better try not to blow all their $$$ on Smyth, or Drury, but maybe to sign a few guys who'll put up good #'s for le$$ - Hartnell, & Nylander come to mind.

Nylander wants $4.5 million per. He's not worth that at all. Hartnall would be interesting, although i kind of want the Wings to sign him. He'll be looking for a decent pay day as well. They do have cap room, so i think their gonna get someone to play with Sundin. Steen started so slow last year but picked it up near the end, Stajan i'm not sure how much hype was behind him to begin with, he's a decent player tho. He's from the Toronto area as well.

[Guest bullocks]

1 guy the Leafs have whom I really like is Wellwood - that kid is a waterbug out there! IMHO he should center their 2nd line; all the Leafs need are 2 wingers (1 for Sundin's line, & 1 for Wellwood's) with decent hands; Kariya, and/or Blake could find their way to T.O. as could Hartnell?

Yah wellwood is amazing. I luv that kid. Well i know their definitely gettin someone for Sundin. I'm not quite sure how much cap space they do have. Blake could very well end up in Toronto. I doubt they'd get harnell tho because they do have tucker, and kariya likes to play in smaller markets.