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

Departures
Pavel Kubina, Anton Stralman, Tim Stapleton, Brad May, Martin Gerber, Curtis Joseph, Boyd Devereaux, Justin Pogge

Arrivals
Phil Kessel, Tyler Bozak, Wayne Primeau, Colton Orr, Rickard Wallin, Mike Komisarek, Francois Beauchemin, Garnet Exelby, Jonas Gusstavsson, Jay Rosehill

Forwards
Brian Burke wanted to mold his team in his image. He did that this past summer. He added some much needed size and toughness with Wayne Primeau and Colton Orr. Those two will provide space for the skilled young guys, Nikolai Kulemin, Mikhail Grabovski, Viktor Stalberg and Tyler Bozak. The costly Phil Kessel trade give the Leafs a legitimate top-six sniper. It remains to be seen how Kessel will cope with the Toronto media scrutiny. Jason Blake returned to a more reasonable 25 goals last season and should be about the same this year. Alexei Ponikarovsky is a perennial 20 goal scorer. Overall this group of forwards is much more talented and tough than last year’s squad.

Defenseman
The Leafs have eight quality NHL defensemen. Tomas Kaberle will have more time and space thanks to the toughness up front. Francois Beauchemin gives the Leafs the shot from the point they lacked after shipping out Bryan McCabe last fall. Mike Komisarek and Garnet Exelby will have the opposition constantly looking over their shoulders as they head into the corners. Luke Schenn was good as an 18-year-old, he’s going to be even better this season playing beside Komisarek. He won’t have to drop the gloves as often as he did last season either.

Goalies
Vesa Toskala is healthy after shutting down his season back at the trade deadline last year. Gone is the once future of the franchise, Justin Pogge. In come a “Monster” in Jonas Gustavsson. Gustavsson had a minor heart procedure but has looked good in his limited action this fall. The Swedish netminder will push Toskala for the number one job.

Strengths
- This team won’t be pushed around this season. Something Burke felt happened a lot last year. They are bigger, stronger and a lot meaner as every player knows what Burke likes and they want to keep their spot on the roster.

- After finishing last in both defensive categories last year Burke addressed his needs and the Leafs are much better from the net out. New goaltending coach Francios Allaire will help Gustavsson quickly adapt to the North American style.

Weaknesses
- Special teams were awful last year. On paper the team should be better this season. However, with their new found toughness a slew of extra penalties is sure to follow. They will have to be more disciplined and markedly better a killing penalties if they want to stay in games.

- They have added some skilled players but only Kessel has proven himself and he’s out until late November. Jason Blake isn’t more than a 25 goal scorer same with Poni. It will have to be scoring by committee if the Leafs want to be successful.

Analysis
They will be more entertaining to watch this season. Intimidation will be the name of the game once the season starts this Thursday. If Toskala can regain his form of two years ago or if Gustavsson steals the show the Leafs could contend for one of the final playoff spots. But, a lack of scoring will keep them on out of the playoffs for a record fifth straight year, sixth if you count the lockout.

Prediction: 12th in the East

Blog topics have swirled over the last months and the majority of my efforts have been towards my most favourite of topics – Warrior Hockey.  Unfortunately for the reader, this topic will have to wait until I can obtain enough information. It seems the proprietors of this fine firm have made it purposely hard to solve exactly what happened between the Innovative and Warrior phase.  I could however give you the ‘what I think is right’ view, but really if you wanted to read Scotty’s blog you wouldn’t be here.  And, (are you allowed to start a sentence with ‘And’ in a blog?) after all I try to keep the utmost level of quality for all my blogs (cough).

To most beer guzzling, Doug Gilmour craving, Leafs fans he may present a solid alternative

Jason Blake on the other hand, is a smallish, quick forward with the seemingly perfect skill set to excel in the new(ish) NHL.  At times bringing back the determination and playmaking ability of past greats. His attitude diminishes him of any aforementioned praise.  For those not quickly flipping the channel on whistles, it is quickly visible. The ego of this self assured superstar is surely of more value than the assist of his line mate whom may have actually assisted on the goal he’s just assured the ref was in fact #55.  It’s unfortunate that I have such strong words of someone who has battled the most relentless of diseases but the hockey views of the public should solely be based on the employee who cashes his four plus million in salary.  I suppose I could be out of line again as we all have in the past when assessing those in the public sport spectrum, but again if you have this vice that propels you to put yourself in front of your teammates who’s effort should equal your own for statistics, should you not be subject to further scrutiny?  After all I’m a Red Wings fan and yet it takes a shift or two of the great 55 to realize he’s there for his own accolades. Wait maybe just one.

What a terrible topic.  I should be ashamed of these views.  Where are my rose colored glasses?  Ahhh there they are, right beside my revenant Warrior Kronic.

Perhaps next week’s topics will provide positive entertainment; Datsyuk vs. Turco, 50 in 39, Mrs. Hockey, +124, Gongshow Hockey, Onrait and O’toole, or maybe Scott Vankoughnett’s top 10 reasons for forgetting about me when he has extra tickets to the Winter Classic.  All in all, it will be classic.

For OpenIceHockey.com, I’m Matt Monks