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CAredwingsfan91

Lecavalier almost a Leaf in 2001

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Allllllllllmost but no soup for the maple leafs.

Sportsnet.ca

November 22, 2007

Unbe-Leaf-able missed chance

Oh, what could have been for the Maple Leafs. In 2001, they were a mere penstroke away from acquiring arguably the biggest offensive threat in the NHL today, Vincent Lecavalier.

Back in '01, Lecavalier and head coach John Tortorella were butting heads and then Lightning GM Rick Dudley decided to explore trade opportunities for his brooding superstar, writes the Ottawa Sun.

The Leafs, then under the direction of GM/coach Pat Quinn and assistant Bill Watters, assembled a package of defenceman Tomas Kaberle, winger Nik Antropov, winger Jonas Hoglund and either Brad Boyes or a first-round draft pick in 2002.

The deal was good enough for Dudley to approach upper management, but ultimately Tampa Bay decided to keep Lecavalier.

"Our scouting staff, Pat Quinn, everybody was so excited at the time because the deal was pretty much done and the media didn't have a sniff of it," Watters told the Sun's Mike Zeisberger last spring. "It was a deal comparable to the one that brought Mats Sundin to Toronto. Vincent would have been the perfect player to support Mats. And after Mats was gone, this was a guy who could step in and take over."

And heres the Ottawa Sun piece.

Ottawa Sun Article

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haha imagine what the leafs' defense would look like without kaberle? obviously the trade would have been a great one had it gone through but its still fun to think about how the leafs defense could be worse than already.

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haha imagine what the leafs' defense would look like without kaberle? obviously the trade would have been a great one had it gone through but its still fun to think about how the leafs defense could be worse than already.

I doubt the blueline would look exactly the same as it is today, minus Kaberle, if that trade went through.

At the time, Kaberle was a 3rd pairing defenceman who ran the powerplay. He was simply too small to play a lot in the old NHL.

Edited by MacK_Attack

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I guess there are a thousand "almost-trades" we don't know about.

Like the Red Wings almost traded Ozzie for....... Patrick Roy..

whoa whoa what? the only one i remember reading about is how yzerman almost got traded to ottawa if i remember correctly.

Edited by CAredwingsfan91

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Spare me, there are trillions of these 'trades' that we never even hear of. The only reason we are reading this now is because it involves the almighty Leafs, and what they could have had, as if its some kind of injustice that the trade never actually happened.

Edited by Yzerfan1999

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Spare me, there are trillions of these 'trades' that we never even hear of. The only reason we are reading this now is because it involves the almighty Leafs, and what they could have had, is if its some kind of injustice that the trade never actually happened.

+1

I'm tired of hearing about the Leafs and what could/should have.

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I guess there are a thousand "almost-trades" we don't know about.

Like the Red Wings almost traded Ozzie for....... Patrick Roy..

It's the Toronto and Ottawa media, its as believeable as George W Bush.

whoa whoa what? the only one i remember reading about is how yzerman almost got traded to ottawa if i remember correctly.

that was for Alexi Yashin, and Im not able to prove this, but im confidant in saying Illitch stopped that one

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