Two Leaf Tidbits


Maple Leaf scouts expect the unexpected

Leafs to name Phaneuf captain Monday
Maple Leaf scouts expect the unexpected

The joke making the rounds inside the NHL is that the scouts for the Maple Leafs, Flames and Flyers should all get together and play some euchre on June 25, the night of the first round of the NHL entry draft.

Those teams don’t have a first-round pick, so they might as well do something.

Dave Morrison, head amateur scout for the Toronto Maple Leafs, chuckled when he heard that one.

“But who knows, anything can happen,” said Morrison. “Maybe we’ll be dealing a card.”

Morrison was more joking than expecting his boss, GM Brian Burke, to make a deal to move up higher in the draft. The Leafs won’t pick until the third round, 62nd overall. The Leafs have six picks in all. Burke has said it’s not his priority to move up in the draft.

So Morrison and his staff have completed their list of the 210 top prospects as the Leafs rate them and will scratch them off as their names are called until it is finally Toronto’s turn.

“We’ll do it right from the top,” said Morrison, declining to say whether the team rates Tyler Seguin or Taylor Hall as the top prospect. “I’ve worked for Brian before and I’m well aware of what can happen.

“You always have to be prepared. We’ll be prepared for any type of scenario. Brian in the past has been very aggressive. Who knows? We’ll cross right off from No. 1 down.”

The 62nd overall pick has worked out for some teams. St. Louis forward David Backes (2003), Pittsburgh defenceman Kris Letang (2005) and New Jersey defenceman Paul Martin (2000) came out of that slot.

http://www.thestar.com/sports/hockey/nhl/mapleleafs/article/822465–maple-leaf-scouts-expect-the-unexpected

Leafs to name Phaneuf captain Monday

Burke confirms announcement will be part of sweater unveiling

The Toronto Maple Leafs will introduce a new sweater and a new captain on Monday, although neither announcement is a big surprise.

Leafs president and general manager Brian Burke confirmed Friday what has been talked about for months, since he joined the team in a blockbuster trade with the Calgary Flames, that defenceman Dion Phaneuf will be the team’s 17th captain. Phaneuf , 25, was one of four players who served as alternate captains last season.

Phaneuf , forward Fredrik Sjostrom and defence prospect Keith Aulie came to Toronto on Jan. 31 for forwards Matt Stajan , Niklas Hagman and Jamal Mayers and defenceman Ian White. As soon as Phaneuf arrived, the talk started that he would eventually become the Leafs’ captain.

He succeeds Mats Sundin , who left the team after the 2007-08 season. Since then, the Leafs operated without a captain. Last season, Phaneuf and fellow defencemen Tomas Kaberle , Mike Komisarek and François Beauchemin rotated as alternate captains.

Since Kaberle is expected to be traded when the window on the no-trade clause in his contract opens later this month, Beauchemin and Komisarek will probably be the permanent alternate captains.

Now that he has the C on his sweater, Phaneuf will be under more pressure than any other Leaf to improve his on-ice performance. While his leadership was a welcome addition to the Leaf dressing room, Phaneuf finished the season with 32 points in 81 games split between the Leafs and the Flames. It was the lowest total in his five NHL seasons. His salary will rise to $7-million (all currency U.S.) this season, which means much more offensive production will be expected.

No radical changes are expected when the new Leaf sweaters are unveiled on Monday. It is expected the horizontal stripes on the bottom of the jerseys, which were dropped several years ago, will be restored and shoulder patches will be added. The shoulder patch is expected to be an older version of the Maple Leafs logo.

Burke scoffed at a New York Post report that his mentor, New Jersey Devils GM Lou Lamoriello, is the front-runner in the Kaberle sweepstakes. But he allowed that he would not be surprised if Lamoriello pursues Kaberle hard since the Devils’ first-round playoff loss to the Philadelphia Flyers showed they need improvement on defence.

Once again, Burke repeated his insistence that his price for Kaberle is a high-end forward and not necessarily a first-round draft pick. Under the terms of Kaberle’s contract, Burke can trade him from June
25, the day of the entry draft, to Aug. 15.

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/sports/hockey/leafs-to-name-phaneuf-captain-monday/article1601382/?cmpid=rss1