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Toronto Maple Leafs Blogger •
In baseball, the center of the baseball universe is undoubtedly New York and baseball's model franchise is the New York Yankees, who won their 27th championship Wednesday night and had a ticker tape parade today amongst thousands of adoring fans in New York. There are many reasons for their success but the most important reason is that they have the willingness and ability to spend the boatloads of money necessary to bring the best talent in the league to New York. If the world of hockey were a parallel universe to that of baseball, then the team located in Toronto, the city that is regularly called "the center of the hockey universe" would be similar in stature to the Yankees, winning multiple championships and making the playoffs every year. If the team falls short of their goal, management and ownership proactively attempt to rectify their team's shortcomings by making additions or changes to the roster. Unfortunately, this is not a parallel universe, the Maple Leafs have not won a Stanley Cup in 42 years, they have not made the playoffs in the last four years and until the Brian Burke regime was put in place last November, ownership and management both seemed out to lunch when it came to the success of the team and the quality of the product on the ice.
One difference in the parallel universe theory is that hockey currently operates under a salary cap system and baseball has no salary cap. For a team like the Yankees, if they make a mistake like the signing of Japanese import Kei Igawa, a nearly $40 million free-agent bust that cannot even break a pane of glass with his fastball, they bury him in the minor leagues and forget that he ever exists. In hockey however, the salary cap makes it nearly impossible to dispose of players with ridiculously overpriced contracts like Jason Blake, who is starting his third year of a five-year, $20 million contract. Contracts like that of Blake and other underachievers throughout the NHL hinder the ability of GM’s to make change and improve their teams. The only option currently available is to banish the player to the minors like Napoleon to St. Helena , thus wiping the player’s salary off the team’s cap , but for some unknown reason, the frequency of this occurring is about as often as an appearance of Halley’s Comet. The most notable example is when Hall of Fame GM Lou Lamariello sent former Maple Leaf Alexander Mogilny to their AHL affiliate in Albany, wiping his nearly $3 Million salary off of the books. If Brian Burke did this with players like Blake, he would have the cap room to make trades to improve the team more rapidly or sign talent in the off-season. This is not an unrealistic option and it should be implemented.
Strangely enough, it was Brian Burke at the beginning of the season who uttered that he would not hesitate to send players to the AHL, regardless of what they made if they were not playing well and if players down on the farm were playing better or would help the team improve. As of yet, he has not made good on his threat. It is arguable whether Tyler Bozak or Jiri Tlusty could score more often than the 36-year-old Blake, who has managed one goal in 13 games with Top-6 forward ice time, but it is indisputable that both the 23 year old Bozak and the 21 year old Tlusty have more upside potential to contribute to the long term success of the Toronto Maple Leafs.
Surprisingly, the one team that has rivaled the Leafs for disappointing play so far this season are tonight’s opponents, the Carolina Hurricanes. The Canes, who made the Eastern Conference finals last year, have the same amount of points as the Leafs(7) and have played one more game than Toronto. They are currently last in the league in goals for and goals against, their play has been listless and their star forward, Eric Staal will not be in the lineup tonight. The only lineup change for the Leafs is Jeff Finger being inserted in the lineup in place of Garnett Exelby. John Mitchell has been promoted to the No. 1 line between Phil Kessel and Jason Blake, with Matt Stajan being moved down to the No. 3 line between Niklas Hagman and Lee Stempniak. Jonas Gustavsson gets his 4th start in the last 5 games.
From the desk of Mike “ In Buffalo” Augello
One difference in the parallel universe theory is that hockey currently operates under a salary cap system and baseball has no salary cap. For a team like the Yankees, if they make a mistake like the signing of Japanese import Kei Igawa, a nearly $40 million free-agent bust that cannot even break a pane of glass with his fastball, they bury him in the minor leagues and forget that he ever exists. In hockey however, the salary cap makes it nearly impossible to dispose of players with ridiculously overpriced contracts like Jason Blake, who is starting his third year of a five-year, $20 million contract. Contracts like that of Blake and other underachievers throughout the NHL hinder the ability of GM’s to make change and improve their teams. The only option currently available is to banish the player to the minors like Napoleon to St. Helena , thus wiping the player’s salary off the team’s cap , but for some unknown reason, the frequency of this occurring is about as often as an appearance of Halley’s Comet. The most notable example is when Hall of Fame GM Lou Lamariello sent former Maple Leaf Alexander Mogilny to their AHL affiliate in Albany, wiping his nearly $3 Million salary off of the books. If Brian Burke did this with players like Blake, he would have the cap room to make trades to improve the team more rapidly or sign talent in the off-season. This is not an unrealistic option and it should be implemented.
Strangely enough, it was Brian Burke at the beginning of the season who uttered that he would not hesitate to send players to the AHL, regardless of what they made if they were not playing well and if players down on the farm were playing better or would help the team improve. As of yet, he has not made good on his threat. It is arguable whether Tyler Bozak or Jiri Tlusty could score more often than the 36-year-old Blake, who has managed one goal in 13 games with Top-6 forward ice time, but it is indisputable that both the 23 year old Bozak and the 21 year old Tlusty have more upside potential to contribute to the long term success of the Toronto Maple Leafs.
Surprisingly, the one team that has rivaled the Leafs for disappointing play so far this season are tonight’s opponents, the Carolina Hurricanes. The Canes, who made the Eastern Conference finals last year, have the same amount of points as the Leafs(7) and have played one more game than Toronto. They are currently last in the league in goals for and goals against, their play has been listless and their star forward, Eric Staal will not be in the lineup tonight. The only lineup change for the Leafs is Jeff Finger being inserted in the lineup in place of Garnett Exelby. John Mitchell has been promoted to the No. 1 line between Phil Kessel and Jason Blake, with Matt Stajan being moved down to the No. 3 line between Niklas Hagman and Lee Stempniak. Jonas Gustavsson gets his 4th start in the last 5 games.
From the desk of Mike “ In Buffalo” Augello
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