Maple Leafs Shake Things Up Before Trade Deadline | 
No one is questioning Brian Burke’s ability to make trades in a salary cap era now.
Burke acquired Dion Phaneuf, Fredrik Sjostrom, and prospect defenceman Keith Aulie from the Calgary Flames in exchange for forwards Matt Stajan, Niklas Hagman, Jamal Mayers and defenceman Ian White n Sunday afternoon.
In another breaking move an hour later, Burke worked his magic to trade the much maligned Jason Blake and Vesa Toskala to the Anaheim Ducks for JS Giguere.
The Calgary deal was the most talked about however, and Burke had nothing but good things to say about Phaneuf.
“[Phaneuf] is a warrior. He’s got a cannon for a shot,” he said at his press conference Sunday. “He plays the game hard and I want players who play the game hard because they’re hard to play against.”
In having one of the worst powerplays in the league, Phaneuf will bring in a big time presence on the blue line, and has booming shot; something the Leafs have been missing since Bryan McCabe was traded.
Now the worries turn to who is going to score goals for the Leafs. Granted, they still have Phil Kessel and Alexi Ponikarovsky, but besides that, the kitchen cupboard is pretty bare.
According to coach Ron Wilson, John Mitchell should now jump up into the second line center role, and Rickard Wallin will slide into the third line role, most likely alongside the newcomer Sjostrom.
Sjostrom has played 46 games with one goal and five assists for Calgary this season. His specialty is his defensive play and penalty killing; something the Leafs are in dire need of.
Aulie was drafted in the fourth round, 116th overall of the 2007 NHL Entry Draft. The six-foot-six defenceman is playing with the Abbotsford Heat of the AHL. He was a member of the Team Canada world junior team that won gold in Ottawa last year.
The cap hit overall was fairly even after both trades.
In the Anaheim deal, the Leafs gained $2-million in salary for dumping Jason Blake. However in the Calgary deal, the Leafs took on about $0.317-million in salary.
Overall, it was an exciting day for Leaf fans as many changes have been made to the lineup. Calgary has also set themselves up to make a solid run to the playoffs, adding plenty of secondary scoring with Hagman and Stajan.
The revamped Calgary team will be on display tomorrow, as they’re home to the Philadelphia Flyers. The new-look Leafs take to the ice on Tuesday at home against the New Jersey Devils
Topics: Brian Burke, Calgary Flames, Dion Phaneuf, Jason Blake, JS Giguere, Matt Stajan, Niklas Hagman, Ron Wilson, Toronto Maple Leafs
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I feel that players who are getting bumped from potential playoff-run teams to the bottom of the barrel are going to play under their potential once they join their new team and facing the heartbreak of missing another Stanley Cup opportunity. Unless Giguere and Phaneuf can pull up the Leafs marginal playoff hopes, I feel that Calgary got the sweet end of the deal, but Anaheim will suffer.
It’s a win/win deal for Calgary and Toronto. The Flames get some secondary offense to replace aging players on the second line in Conroy and Langkow who will likely be shifted into a more defensive minded third or fourth line role. They also do not lose or gain much on defence with White replacing Phaneuf… if you take this year as is you can argue that White has outplayed Phaneuf. The Leafs in turn get the star power of a Phaneuf who is much better than his play this year has shown and who seemingly has had his issues with the current coaching staff of the Flames.
As for the Anaheim deal, personally I am not a fan of Giguere (or Leafs goaltending consultant Francois Allaire for that matter) but for Burke to unload the Blake salary in the process of still making an improvement on the goaltending in Toronto — well it makes me wonder what he has on Murray to be able to make that move. Although realistically in the end you can say that Anaheim traded an overpaid goalie who will sit on the bench and really do less for them than the overpaid Blake who can contribute still on any given night (just apparently not every night).
All in all they all win.
Just my two cents.
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