Hockey Trade Rumors

Here is a list of players that will hopefully improve next year and what they might improve to.

O’neill – He had a bad year last year and hopefully with Maurice and more ice time he will return to being a 30 goal scorer.

These are just my thoughts and nothing more, I invite you to comment however you want.

My prediction of ups and downs in the 2006-2007 season will be that the Leafs open up going 3-7 in their first 10 games. Raycroft will immediately be nailed with “we should’ve kept Rask” comments but he will bounce back in the following 20 games while suddenly giving a 50/50 split with Aubin or Telqvist (I think it will be Aubin). After 30 games the Leafs will be around 16-14 and floating in and around 7th, 8th and 9th spot in the conference.

With all of the players on the leafs who are hopefully becoming better next year, it is hard to choose what you think the lines should be. But here are 2 different line-ups that I think could both work.

It still may be a little bit early to view the full rosters of certain NHL teams, but when looking at the situations that certain teams are in, whether it be financially stricken due to the cap, or in binds with certain contracts and arbitration, one can suspect the upcoming rosters of some teams in the upcoming season. Being a Leaf fan, it seems only necessary that I analyze and then come up with some type of realistic expectation for the Leafs to accomplish.

The 2006-2007 season is coming up soon and the leafs have 4 defencemen that will start in that season(Kaberle, Mccabe, Kubina, Gill) which means they need 2 more. It is obvious that they will go to their farm group but who will they pick, only 2 out of 6. The six players are Ian White, Carlo Coliaicovo, Jay Harrison, Andy Wozniewski, Steffan Kronwall, Brendan Bell. Let’s sort through these players and as we do that we will decide if they should be on the team or not.

JFJ has not been shy about making moves as the Leafs GM. Pre Lockout, he and Pat Quinn stated they would go for a serious Cup run and trade away some of their future for a chance to win the Cup. After losing out on the Sergie Gonchar sweepstakes, the rookie GM made traded for Brian Leetch to solidify his blue line. The trade still resonates more in New York then Toronto.

According to rumorsnhl.blogspot.com the leafs may make a deal with the Blackhawks for Kyle Calder and Brandon Bochenski.

With the exception of signing Matt Stajan to a reported multi year deal, JFJ likely will not be tinkering with the Maple Leafs line-up any further this off-season.

Tellqvist remains a quesion mark in Toronto.

Steen Sundin Wellwood

Tucker Peca O’Neil

Ponikarovsky Stajan Antropov

Kilger Pohl Ondrus

Anybody know what happened to Wilm? MAybe we have to many centers but the guy was playing great hockey for us in the home stretch last year (granted so was most of the team) but for the league min, he’s a pretty decent 4th line center giving us a great PK with Peca. Anyways As just another stupidly addicted Leaf fan I’ve spent far too much time thinking about next year so I might as well put out my line ideas.

The Toronto Maple Leafs are the evil empire of the NHL. People either love them or love to hate them. The haters will always find a reason to hate any move the leafs make while the hopeless romantics will praise just about any move they make. But I am more excited for this season then any other and they will make the playoffs this year and here is why….

People have been saying that the Leafs only have 1.8 million left in cap room well they are wrong!

I did the math and it turns out the Buds have about $4,100,000 in cap room.