The Toronto Maple Leafs continue to go the NCAA college route to help rebuild their team a bit faster signing University of Vermont forward Brayden Irwin. The 23 year old Toronto native was signed to a two year entry level deal and was a teammate last season of Leafs winger Viktor Stalberg. The 6'5 player finished his fourth season in Vermont picking up 34 points in 39 games. Irwin is the first player signed by Brian Burke from the college ranks this season, Burke signed up Tyler Bozak and Christian Hanson last season, both players are currently playing with the NHL club.
The other night I was enjoying the Leafs game as most fans I'm sure have since the Olympics and a though crossed my mind, what will the Maple Leafs do with Mikhail Grabovski? Tyler Bozak has looked terrific between Phil Kessel and Nikolai Kulemin, a line I like to reference to as the B2K line and how many fans out there know that the kid leads all NHL rookies who have played in at least 20 games this season in points per game.
Thats right more the Tavares, Duchene and Bergfors and currently sits in 12th place in rookie scoring two points from moving into 9th. These kind of impressive statistics should all but guarantee Bozak a spot in the middle next season. Then you have the Leafs top prospect Nazem Kadri the 93 point player who finished fourth in scoring in the OHL and currently has 14 points in 5 playoff games to lead the league in playoff scoring at the moment.
The Toronto Maple Leafs are currently the youngest team in the NHL and have played quite well, winning seven of their last nine games as they fight to get out of the 29th spot in the league and have been a thorn on the side of many teams needing the points as they fight for their playoff lives. The Leafs situation gives some food for though of what do the rest of the NHL teams prospects look like, taking every player in the organization that is 25 years of age and under as of today as well under 40 NHL games played lets take a look at a team by team breakdown of the clubs Top 5 Prospects.
The big talk lately is all about the Toronto Maple Leafs trading away this years and next years first round draft pick to the Boston Bruins, some fans have accepted this, some fans are not sure what to think and others are mad as hell based on the Leafs current position in the NHL.
I have decided to do some research on a team by team basis to see which teams in the NHL have drafted the best first rounders between the 1996-2006 season whether they are on the team that drafted them or have been traded it does not change the fact that they are still first round selections.
On September 19, 2009 the Toronto Maple Leafs traded away their first and second round picks in the 2010 draft along with their 2011 first round pick to acquire 36 goal scorer Phil Kessel from the Boston Bruins. Leafs Nation for the most part jumped for joy as the team had acquired a 21 year old sniper and top six forward for the squad.
The Toronto Sports papers, radio stations and Canadian Sports stations had tons of praise and were quick to pat Leafs GM Brian Burke for making a bold move since the drafts over the next two years were predicted to be weak, comments on more of a positive manner were posted all over the internet on blogs and sports websites, fans texted their non Leaf friends to let them know watch out the Leafs were finally moving in the right direction.....fast forward to March 8, 2010 and pandemonium has broken out all over the same places in less then 6 months, terrible trade, the Leafs continue to throw away their draft picks, Kessel will never be a guy the team can build around, Burke made a big mistake are some of the comments that are being made now. Take a CHILL Leafs Nation.
After taking a few days to take a good hard look at the Toronto Maple Leafs trades on deadline day March 3 , 2010 I have come to the conclusion that for what we had to do, we came out just fine, I know many Leafs fans are thinking what is this guy talking about. We Stink!, fair enough but with the players we had we sat in 29th place in the NHL and after the trades we still sit in 29th place in the league are we worse? Are we better? Time will tell.
The one thing we do know is that Burke traded a bunch of UFAs that the team did not want to keep and got back mostly picks that with some good scouting, not always a Leafs strong point, maybe just maybe we can find a gem in the later rounds.
The trade deadline is March 3rd and Maple Leaf fans across the country and around the globe have started talking up a storm about who could go where and who we can get in return as they seem to do every season at the deadline.
This season has a little different twist then previous years since the lockout as Brian Burke tries his best to continue to steer this franchise in the right direction, after Burke pulled off the Kessel trade earlier this season and the Phaneuf trade earlier this year, Maple Leaf fans await to see what will the Leafs GM do next?
