Good Morning All,

I know Stew already beat me to it, (and congrats to him, but the guy has nothing else to do when he’s home nursing a broken leg), but I want to talk a bit about the big trades the Leafs made on Sunday.

Brian Burke made good on his words that the Leafs are open for business, calling in the Toronto Media Sunday morning to announce two trades. The first, a blockbuster with Calgary where they acquired the big tough stud defenseman Dion Phaneuf, forward Fredrik Sjostrom, and prospect defenseman Keith Aulie. In the process we had to part with Matt Stajan, Ian White, Nik Hagman and Jamal Mayers.

After the trade announcement, media was urged to stick around as they were finalizing the details of a second trade. That trade was with the Anaheim Ducks, to bring in former Stanley Cup winning goaltender J-S Giguere for overpaid and underachieving Vesa Toskala and Jason Blake.

The additions will compliment the Leafs in the future, as Phaneuf is loaded with skill, size and potential, and Giguere provides the Leafs with more stability in net while the young Jonas Gustavsson develops.




However, with the moves the Leafs find themselves in serious offensive trouble. Behind Phil Kessel, the offensive talent is scarce. The need to bring in some bodies is obvious but just what can the Leafs get?

I’ve heard rumblings of Pittsburgh being interested in Alexei Ponikarovsky to play with Evgeni Malkin. What the Leafs should target there is Jordan Staal. He is a solid two-way gritty forward with a scoring touch and he would provide someone for Kessel to play with. Staal is also victim to a third line centre role in Pittsburgh with Crosby and Malkin there. I’m not saying that it will be a one for one swap, but I think if a deal would happen the foundation is there.

Beyond that the Leafs don’t have much else to offer. Who knows if Kaberle is actually “on the block” and Lee Stempniak could fetch something but not much.

It’s time for the young guns to step up. Hanson, Bozak, Kulemin, Stalberg and next year all eyes on Kadri.

Speaking of the young guns, the Toronto Marlies are holding a community practice tonight at Heron Park Arena in Scarborough. And I’ve been invited to go on location and set up the Z103.5 booth. The practice starts at 7pm but you can come by the Z tent from 5pm-9pm and I will be there to hook you up with some sweet prizing. Duke the Dog (Marlies mascot) and from what I hear, the Marlies girls will also be in attendance.



Now not only am I going to be attending this event, I’m actually going to be participating. The Marlies have given me permission to go out on the ice and practice with the team. I’ve been a goalie my whole life and can’t wait to get out there today and hopefully NOT get lit up too bad!

So a big day ahead, I’ll check back in tomorrow with the outcome, and a video will follow on ZTUBE!!

Have a good day!!