The Toronto Maple Leafs Get Giggy With It

Charlie Klein

This past weekend has been an interesting one in the NHL as 12 players are headed to new teams following deals made between the Calgary Flames, Toronto Maple Leafs, Anaheim Ducks and the New York Rangers.

The biggest trade of yet has to be the deal that Toronto made to land defenseman Dion Phaneuf. Brian Burke is usually pretty good at pulling of the blockbuster deals that grab the headlines this time of year and the acquisition of Phaneuf is yet another example of this talent. Phaneuf, 24, now joins a team that has displayed a distinct capacity for failing to hold a lead. He becomes the big defensive presence that Burke likes to have on all of his teams (vis a vis Chris Pronger when Burke was the GM of the Anaheim Ducks). Phaneuf is not having his best season but is a fantastically talented player that ought to help the Leafs right away. Fredrik Sjostrom will be a stout penalty killer for the Leafs and Keith Aulie is another one of Burke's big defensemen that he likes to have on his teams. Calgary, for their trouble, received Matt Stajan, Jamal Mayers, Ian White, and Niklas Hagman. Not a bad haul for Phaneuf, Sjostrom, and Aulie but one that will certainly underwhelm those in the Calgary area of Alberta.

But Brian Burke was not done yet. Of the many achilles heals of the Toronto Maple Leafs has been their lack of consistent goalie play from Vesa Toskala and Jonas Gustavsson. Burke was able to trade Toskala and the disappointing Jason Blake to Anaheim for goalie Jean-Sebastien Giguere. This is a great move for both parties. The Leafs add a venus fly trap in net that will be able to offer them the consistent play they need to try and not be quite so bad every night out there. The Ducks by dealing Giguere and extending starter Jonas Hiller have solidified their goalie situation making it clear who the starter and backup are. They also add Jason Blake who could perform better with a change of scenery.

The New York Rangers threw themselves into the mix today by trading Christopher Higgins and Ales Kotalik to the Calgary Flames for Olli Jokinen and Brandon Prust. This deal simply put is a my frustration for your frustration type of transaction. Kotalik and Higgins represent further busts added by general manager Glen Sather. Higgins, brought in from the Montreal Canadiens in exchange for Scott Gomez, failed miserably to finish around the net. Kotalik was a healthy scratch in eight of his last nine games in a Rangers shirt, following his relegation to the fourth line as he failed to produce the results the Rangers expected of him after they signed him to a three year, nine million dollar contract. Sather is bringing in Olli Jokinen in an attempt to find the appropriate centerman for the Rangers sole source of offense Marian Gaborik. Whether the change of scenery will exact positive results from Jokinen remains to be seen.

The Maple Leafs are the clear winners in the latest batch of trade deadline transactions. Burke is trying to change the acronym TML from standing for The Miserable Losers back to what the Maple Leafs used to represent back in the day. And from man to man, best of luck to ya Burkie.