Leafs made two BIG trades today!!!

OK, so I haven't blogged about the Leafs in a while, but they made two big trades to shake up the roster. Granted, we're 29th in the league, so honestly, there weren't many trades that would make our team worse, but anyway, I'm so happy that we finally have a roster shake up. Hopefully, we'll start playing better this year, but greater things will be seen next year!

1st trade:
To Calgary: Niklas Hagman, Matt Stajan, Ian White, Jamal Mayers
To Toronto: Dion Phaneuf, Fredrik Sjostrom, Keith Aulie

I actually like this trade. Although we give up a solid D-man (White) and a couple of solid (well, solid in terms of the dearth of talent we actually have) forwards (Hagman and Stajan), I think Phaneuf can develop into a really solid powerplay point guy and a big hitter. I think he'll continue to develop, but I just hope he can handle the Toronto pressure and not become another Bryan McCabe. I also hear Aulie may be a very solid D-man in the future, so in the end, we did lose a good chunk of our offense (and old dudes), but we have young guys coming up, and our D is now really solid for the next few years, so this is a pretty good trade. And hey, we ended up with the best player in the trade (without giving up any good players), so that's usually a good sign!

2nd trade:
To Anaheim: Jason Blake, Vesa Toskala
To Toronto: J-S Giguere

I really like this trade because Giguere can't play any worse than Toskala, and plus, he gives more time for Jonas Gustavsson to develop. Jason Blake wasn't doing anything for us anyway. Giguere definitely has to have some upside than Toskala, so hopefully we'll win a few more games because Toskala is one of the leakiest goalies I've ever seen play. Once again, we picked up the best player in this trade (without giving up any good players), so that's another good sign!


I believe this is definitely a great day for the Toronto Maple Leafs. We got rid of some unproductive players, we're younger, our future is more solid with Phaneuf and Aulie, and Gustavsson will have proper development while Giguere bridges the gap. Hopefully we'll turn the corner and head towards the playoffs in a few years!