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As we all found out earlier Sunday morning, the Calgary Flames and Toronto Maple Leafs made their first deal of the year by trading 23 year old centerman Joe Colborne from Toronto, in exchange for a conditional 4th round draft pick from Calgary.
For those unaware of the details of said trade, the 4th round pick becomes a 3rd round selection if Colborne gets 10 goals or 35 points this season and the Flames also make playoffs. It’s evident that the latter part of the condition should secure the Flames moving a 4th round selection for the young centerman, given this years predicted standings for Calgary.
There was really no confusion behind making the move when it came to the Toronto Maple Leafs as it was well known that the team needed to move someone from their current roster in order to stay cap compliant, and JM Liles was receiving no real interest. The Leafs, accordingly, had no other choice but to trade Colborne who didn’t fit into a line with the big club and couldn’t be sent down in fear of losing him off waivers. Now, did the Flames do the Leafs a favour by acquiring Colborne, or did the Leafs make a mistake by moving him for a 4th?
For me, it’s plain simple – Toronto made a move out of necessity and as a result they can ice the team they wanted. However, with that being said, the Calgary Flames benefited quite nicely from this transaction as acquiring a 6’5, 215lbs centerman with potential is worth far more than a 4th round selection. It doesn’t hurt that Colborne grew up idolizing the team, either.
“Just looking up to guys like Jarome (Iginla), Joe Nieuwendyk. I was a diehard fan, for sure. They were my heroes. So to have the opportunity to come back and put on the C is pretty special. I’ve grown up since I was three or four years old wanting to play for the Flames.”
As I was going over the trade details and reading all the “analysts” give their two cents, I found the number of Leaf supporters who have written Colborne off, at the tender age of 23 with nothing more than 16 NHL games played, to be quite odd.
I suppose the problem might be how some try and assess Colborne’s worth while trying to come to a decision about him, if at all possible. With a player like Joe, the difficulty is that he’s not really a guy you can look up online, check out his progression in terms of TOI and PPG over his short career and say – Yeah, he’s progressing nicely/poorly. The difference between this young man and other prospects is that what he’s done with his career so far that doesn’t justly translate to an NHL/AHL stat sheet.
When Colborne was initially acquired by the Leafs in 2011, Colborne was a tall and skinny rookie with shy of 70 AHL games under his belt. Unlike many other prospects in the AHL who finds success and are immediately rewarded with extra ice time or the chance to be called up into the NHL, Colborne’s development was set back a few times with injuries to his wrists. Colborne required work to be done to his wrists and as a result would miss time to develop with his team, where some even felt that he dropped off the depth chart.
Upon his return(s), Joe had immediate impacts with the team and there was suddenly hope for the young centerman again. After a decent 2013 camp and preseason, the forward appeared to have gained the trust of coach Randy Carlye. However, with Toronto’s center spots all but secured in addition to not having enough cap space, the team would have no choice but to move the forward to a young team in Calgary who could actually play and develop him.
For Calgary, this was the perfect type of trade scenario for them as not only do they have cap space to bring in extra players, but they would also be hard pressed to say – No, we don’t need a 6’5 center prospect, we’ll pass.
To Calgary’s benefit, Brian Burke knew what Colborne had to offer to a club as he originally brought him into Toronto, and jumped on the opportunity to acquire him. When visiting in Toronto a week or two ago, most(including myself) felt that conversations between Burke and Nonis were likely to do with JM Liles given the understanding that the Leafs needed to move him. Without the addition of Burke to the Flames organization, I find it hard to believe that this deal gets done for the Flames. As a result, Burke has made his first official move with the Flames and it was a very good one in this writer’s opinion.
Although I’ve talked a bit about Colborne during yesterday’s blog, I figured I would give you guys a slightly more formal write up. We’ve already covered that he was a 16th overall selection in 2008 and has 16 NHL games under his belt. We’ve discussed why at the age of 23 that Colborne has not made more of an impact at the NHL so far, but we haven’t really discussed what kind of player he is projected to be if everything goes as planned.
What the Flames will get out of a guy like Joe Colborne is likely a big strong 3rd line centerman who can score. Naturally gifted with smooth hands down low, Colborne has a knack for finding the puck in deep and putting it to the net. Although you won’t find him grinding for the puck in the corners, having someone on his line who can do so will compliment his game quite nicely.
In his early career with the Marlies, Dallas Eakins felt the rookie needed to work on his defensive game and improve upon his +/- play, all while maintaining his offensive production. Although not an task, Colborne did quite well to round out his game and would earn 39 points in 65 games with the Marlies in 2011-12 despite playing the majority of the season injured.
“He’s been one of our top forwards since the lockout ended,” Eakins said. “He’s producing and has added a little physicality to his game. We all know he has skill but I asked him to show more will. I want guys to fight for their ice time. At the start of the season he was getting edged out by other guys. He got to a point where he was ready to dig his heels in and fight for it.”
Under the guidance of Dallas Eakins, Colborne has developed into a strong skating centerman who can play a 200ft game, and is even starting to use his body a little more than he’s been known to. Eakins worked on all aspects of his game including time on the power play and penalty kill, and deserves a lot of credit for the young man’s progression in his hockey career.
While he can still use some work at the faceoff dot(something many rookies have trouble with), Joe appears to be ready for a full NHL season with the Flames and will make it tough on Jay Feaster and Bob Hartley in terms of future player choices.
The more I dig up on the young rookie in terms of his commitment to his game and development, the more I feel that Toronto may have let go of one prospect which they will regret down the road. Although many Toronto fans feel that what they did lose was worth the added cap space given their situation, I truly feel that Dave Nonis may have let this one go a little too early in order to fix his cap problem.
Sure moving a guy who you can accurately assess that he’s not needed in your organization for extra cap space may have been required, but moving Colborne for a conditional 4th round selection was quite the gamble in my opinion. One gamble which might come back to haunt the Leafs who are not exactly deep down the middle, themselves.
With the addition of Colborne into the lineup, and GM Jay Feaster insisting that he was brought in to play right away, many question what this means for players like Sean Monahan who was slatted as playing 2nd or 3rd line center this year. Despite many beliefs that the recent trade means Monahan will be sent down sooner than later, Feaster responded by saying that Colborne does not impact Sean’s status with the Flames.
While I’m sure he wouldn’t say otherwise, this certainly places even more pressure on young Monahan to crack the lineup, given that the Flames will now ice Stajan, Backlund, Colborne, Monahan, for the top three center roles. Although Colborne can be shifted to the wing, I for one would not expect this to be the case this year.
Unfortunately for Sean Monahan, unless Joe Colborne really struggles down the middle early on, I do not feel that Flames fans will see more than nine games from the youngster this year.
That’s all for today folks, thanks for reading!
Calgary Flames Blogger • 
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