The top level of the Toronto Maple Leafs management team has put away their tackle boxes and fishing vests for another year. Within the next three weeks, the most crucial and anticipated off-season transaction could be made. In the opinion of many, if the Leafs do not move defenseman Tomas Kaberle for a top-six level forward before the August 15th deadline, the off-season will be perceived as a failure.
The likelihood of Kaberle being in Blue and White opening night is fairly remote. The conventional wisdom is that Burke already has a deal in place that would be acceptable, but that he is holding out for a better return. The acquisitions of Kris Versteeg and Colby Armstrong are significant, but those additions alone will not make the Leafs offensive attack strong enough to get the team into playoff contention and the addition of defenseman Brett Lebda makes no sense they move a defenseman before the season.
In a recent column on ESPN.com, Scott Burnside ( http://sports.espn.go.com/nhl/columns/story?columnist=burnside_scott&id=5403991 ) ponders the dilemma in front of GM Brian Burke:
Kaberle is entering the final year of his contract at an affordable cap hit of $4.25 million. But if Burke can't get what he wants -- and there are wildly variant views on just what kind of market there is for the veteran puck-mover -- there has to be worse things than keeping Kaberle and trying to peddle him at the trade deadline if the Leafs are once again out of playoff contention.
With a blue line that would feature Kaberle, Dion Phaneuf, a healthy Mike Komisarek, Luke Schenn and Francois Beauchemin, maybe the Leafs are a playoff team after all. Stranger things have happened.
Burnside obviously has not been paying attention to the whole Kaberle situation. It is virtually guaranteed that if Kaberle is not traded by August 15th, he will never agree to waive his no-trade clause to be a rent-a-player for some contender at the trade deadline. Also, if by some miracle the Leafs are able to convince him move on, the amount they can expect in return at the trade deadline will be significantly less than it would be before the season.
**********
In today’s Toronto Sun, columnist Steve Simmons (http://www.torontosun.com/sports/columnists/steve_simmons/2010/07/24/14817791.html ) discussed the Leafs salary cap situation and how it may affect any future Leaf moves:
The Maple Leafs are not in great shape salary cap-wise, unless they’re willing to bite hard and bury Jeff Finger’s $3.5 million in salary in the minors and do the improbable and find a home for the overpaid Mikhail Grabovski. If they manage those two moves, that would provide them with more than $8 million in total cap room if they wanted to go after another front end player.
Simmons is skeptical that either Finger or Grabovski can be moved or demoted, but Burke has proven when he was able to unload the albatross-like contract of Jason Blake, that there is always move a player. Both players have two years remaining on their contracts, Finger at $3.5 Million and Grabovski at $2.9 Million per season. The salary cap landscape this year may help Toronto in moving them, since a handful of teams will be struggling to get over the floor of the salary cap and a player with a couple years remaining on a contract would be a better option than signing a free agent to a three or four year contract. Grabovski is young enough and has enough offensive ability that teams like Atlanta or the N.Y. Islanders might have interest in him. Finger will be more difficult to move, but the AHL option is always open.
Follow me on Twitter: https://twitter.com/MikeInBuffalo
Toronto Maple Leafs Blogger • 
Join the Discussion:
»