The trades between Philadelphia, New Jersey and Nashville that saw the negotiating rights to soon-to-be-UFA Dan Hamhuis go to Philadelphia, Ryan Parent return to Nashville and Jason Arnott return to New Jersey reflect the connections between certain organizations and their former players. These deals, to go along with the surprising Jaroslav Halak deal to St. Louis are the first of what is expected to be a blizzard of deals that occur from now till July 1st. The ever decreasing amount of salary cap room and a rather average crop of free agents are the reasons why more deals are likely to be pulled off. Trading for players with a known salary appears to be more preferable than to get into a bidding war for an unrestricted free agent.

The pipeline between Philadelphia and Nashville has seen Peter Forsberg, Scott Hartnell, Kimmo Timonen and Scottie Upshall move in the past, so any deal between David Poile and Paul Holmgren is to be expected. Arnott’s return to New Jersey is just the latest example of Lou Lamoriello bringing back a player who he either traded or lost in free agency, because he is a known commodity. In the next few weeks, you are likely to see connections like these play out in the world of the Toronto Maple Leafs. GM Brian Burke, Asst. GM Dave Nonis and Special Advisor Cliff Fletcher are affiliated with the hierarchy of a number of organizations and those affiliations should aid the Leafs in making some deals.

In a recent column in the Toronto Star (http://www.thestar.com/sports/hockey/nhl/mapleleafs/article/825947--cox-maple-leafs-have-big-moves-in-mind ), Damien Cox speculated on some of the moves the Leafs are trying to pull off:

Over the next two weeks, the Maple Leafs hope to enhance their roster substantially, thus increasing the chances the club’s absence from post-season play will be halted at a rather ugly seven years.

See, that’s one way to get people to stop talking about the club’s 43-year Stanley Cup drought. Start a new sub-drought of even more dubious distinction.

Not surprisingly, given that he has signed all kinds of free agents over the past 16 months and made the two of the NHL’s biggest trades of last season to bring Phil Kessel and Dion Phaneuf into the fold, president/GM Brian Burke has some extensive hopes and dreams for the next two weeks, a fortnight bisected by the NHL entry draft next Friday and Saturday in Los Angeles.

The draft, of course, opens the Tomas Kaberle trade window. But it would be a mistake to say that a Kaberle trade is all that occupies the Leaf front office.

Unofficially, it’s believed the Leafs have targeted a least three players, and the potential acquisition of some or all of that trio are intertwined with Kaberle’s future.
For starters, Nashville defenceman Dan Hamhuis is a player headed for free agency who the Leafs would very much like to sign.

Second, with everyone in hockey well aware that the Stanley Cup champion Chicago Blackhawks are going to have to make some difficult roster decisions to get their salary cap situation in order for next season, the Leafs are one of a number of teams eyeballing forward Patrick Sharp.

Finally, there’s Florida winger Nathan Horton, a player who most believe will be wearing a different uniform next season. Horton, a former 30-goal scorer whose production has progressively deteriorated over the first three years of his six-year, $24 million deal, has a no-trade clause that kicks in July 1 and is likely the critical issue hastening his way out of south Florida.

Out of the three players that particularly interest the Leafs, the 27-year-old Hamhuis would be the name that surprises some. Annually, it seems, there’s this belief that the Leafs have enough or even too many defencemen, a belief at odds with the club’s absurdly bad defensive record the past two seasons.

More to the point, while the Leafs might like it if there were top forwards available via free agency, pickings are slim, and smart clubs look to add assets even if they don’t necessarily address key needs. Hamhuis is a stay-at-home blueliner used to playing upwards of 20 minutes per game and would give the Leafs flexibility to move Kaberle or even other defencemen they already own.

The names of both Sharp and Horton, meanwhile, have been linked to the Leafs for some time. Sharp, 28, is a solid 25-goal scorer who the Leafs reason might be even more productive if he didn’t have to fight for power-play time with the likes of Jonathan Toews and Patrick Kane. He has two years and $8.3 million left on his current deal.
Horton is more of an enigma, and clearly the Leafs would be hoping that the Welland native would find more fire burning in his belly playing in southern Ontario than in hockey’s hinterland. Then again, Calgary thought the same with Jay Bouwmeester, and that produced middling results.

Both Sharp and Horton represent the kind of top-six forward Burke covets. While the Leafs would have to find some kind of cheap asset to interest the Hawks — trading the club’s 2011 first-rounder with ’09 and ’10 already gone would border on the irresponsible — a deal with Florida would likely involve players and contracts flowing both ways. Perhaps the Panthers might be interested in Mikhail Grabovski, particularly if they deal Stephen Weiss. Or Luke Schenn.

Timing is key to all of this. If, for example, the Leafs can make a deal for either Sharp or Horton, they could either choose to keep Kaberle or use him to acquire different kinds of assets, such as a first-round pick next weekend.

If none of that happens, they’ll be more inclined to pitch harder for Hamhuis, who appears to be the pick of an unrestricted free-agent defence class that also includes Boston’s Johnny Boychuk, Paul Martin of the New Jersey Devils and Phoenix blueliner Zbynek Michalek.

The Jaroslav Halak deal officially opened the annual trade bazaar that surrounds the entry draft. Teams are ready to start making moves.

The Leafs desperately hope to be in the thick of things.

The players listed by Cox are not revelations to the readers of Hockeybuzz, with the exception of Hamhuis. The article is correct that the Leafs interest in signing a free agent defenseman only makes sense if they intend to trade Tomas Kaberle and another blueliner. The trading of Luke Schenn would be a bit shocking since he is one of the few young core players the team possesses. The only way trading Schenn would be acceptable is if he were moved in a deal for an equally young impact forward, like Anaheim’s Bobby Ryan.

The trade of Hamhuis’s rights to Philadelphia probably makes this academic, since the Flyers are likely to sign him(unless the trade was simply a dumping of Parent’s contract). The other players mentioned have long been rumored to have interest from Toronto, especially Sharp, who would give the Leafs the size, two-way ability and character up the middle that they have been sorely missing.

The article indicates that Kaberle could be traded for a first round draft pick, but based on Burke’s recent comments that he needs to make this team competitive immediately, a draft pick in the latter half of the first round will not help Toronto for at least 2 years. It is more likely that Kaberle will be traded for young players and/or prospects that can contribute at the NHL level next season.

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The announcement on Friday of the cancellation of AM640’s Leafs Lunch is a sad day for a lot of hockey fans. The show, which has been hosted by the likes of Hockey Night In Canada’s Jeff Marek, TSN’s Darren Dreger, Sportsnet’s Bill Watters, NHL Network’s Brian Duff, Greg Brady, Bill Hayes, Steve Kouleas and many others has always been a great source of hockey news, not only for the Leafs, but for the entire hockey world. The show was cancelled due to declining ratings, but may return in a “modified form” when training camp begins in September.

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