Leafs send Belak to the Panthers

The Toronto Maple Leafs have traded forward Wade Belak to the Florida Panthers for a 2008 fifth round pick.

The 6-foot-5, 221-pound forward has one goal and 66 penalty minutes in 30 games this season, his seventh with the Leafs.

"I'm happy," Belak told TSN. "I has a good run in Toronto and I'm unrestricted this summer and I didn't know what plans the team had in the future."

A career enforcer, he has eight goals, 29 points and 1,096 penalty minutes in 425 career NHL games.

Leafs Send Gill to the Penguins

The Toronto Maple Leafs have traded defenceman Hal Gill to the Pittsburgh Penguins for a second-round pick in 2008 and a fifth round pick in 2009.

Gill, 32, signed a $6.3 million, three-year contract with the Maple Leafs in 2006.
An eighth-round pick of Boston in 1993, Gill recorded two goals and 18 assists in 63 games with Toronto this season.

The 32-year-old native of Massachusetts has collected 28 tallies, 137 points and 731 penalty minutes in 771 career contests with the Bruins and Maple Leafs.

Leafs trade Kilger for Draft Pick

The Toronto Maple Leafs traded forward Chad to the Florida Panthers for a 2008 third round draft pick.

Kilger, 31, has 10 goals and 17 points in 53 games this season.

In 714 career NHL games with Toronto, Anaheim, Winnipeg, Phoenix, Chicago and Montreal, Kilger has 218 points and 373 penalty minutes.

Kilger was originally selected fourth overall by Anaheim in the 1995 draft.

Fabian Brunnstrom, the next Daniel Alfredsson?

Fabian Brunnstrom may not turn out to be the next Daniel Alfredsson, but apparently a ton of NHL teams aren't willing to take a chance on being wrong about him.In fact, one assistant GM reckons every team in the NHL is probably after Brunnstrom, a little-known 22-year-old rookie for Farjestad in the Swedish Elite League. That's because Brunnstrom is just now developing into a legitimate NHL prospect and now that European players are subject to the same draft rules as North Americans under the new collective bargaining agreement, he is an unrestricted free agent (take a look here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dXFfDtNCOOg for a small sample of his skill level).

"He's the first of a lot of players from Europe you're going to see in this situation," said the assistant GM. "It used to be you waited for European players. Lots of times you would draft them and keep them over there for four or five years to see how they develop. Well, you can't do that anymore.

"Brunnstrom, a 6-foot-1, 195-pound forward, is a classic late bloomer. Last season he was playing First Division in Sweden, which is two steps under the Elite League and was a star at that level, which prompted Farjestad to sign him this season. He skates very well and his three goals and 13 points in 21 games are probably not a clear indication of how good he is offensively.

One scout said it's doubtful Brunnstrom could step in and play on an NHL team's top two lines right now, but he is seen as a good prospect with a lot of upside. And remember, there are a number of hockey executives who still wake up in a cold sweat over not paying more attention to Alfredsson, who was drafted 133rd overall by the Ottawa Senators as a 21-year-old in 1994.

"He's coming pretty much from nowhere," said Farjestad GM Hakan Loob. "Mentally, he has grown strong in the past year, but he has the potential to become mentally stronger. He looks like he has been in the Elite League for a couple of years the way he moves the puck and skates and everything like that.

"Loob did acknowledge that Brunnstrom has faltered a little after a fast start, so rushing him into the NHL would not be a wise idea."If they treat him the right way, I think he's got a good future ahead of him," Loob said. "But if he's thrown into the NHL too soon, he might not do anything."

NHL's version of Rip Van Winkle By MARC SKULNICK

Let's face it, as satisfying as last night's win over Montreal was, it doesn't change a darn thing about Cliff Fletcher's task at hand: overhauling this sad-sack collection of professional hockey players. This is a team from a bygone era; back when big hulking forwards like Nik Antropov didn't need to be as fleet of foot as they do now. When a defenceman like Bryan McCabe could get away with a cheeky hook, or clutch and grab his opponent and not be penalized for it. The game of hockey has passed this team by, they are the NHL's version of Rip Van Winkle.
The players who refuse to wave their no-trade clause, claiming loyalty to the team, need to wake up and realize that it's precisely this selfishness (under the guise of loyalty) that is preventing this team from shedding the very players that can help it turn this disaster around. Darcy Tucker needs to suck it up and accept that long-rumored deal to Calgary, Mats Sundin has to accept that a trade to Anaheim would yield a prospect/draft pick bonanza that could set up the Leafs for years to come. Bryan McCabe needs to be appreciative that any other team would even be willing to take on his salary and be thankful for the fresh opportunity (before another own-goal or miscue turns his Leaf tenure into a Larry Murphy-esque boo-fest).
It's time for the Robbie Earls and Anton Stralmans to start leaving their mark on this team, and as long as the veteran dead weight (Mats Sundin not withstanding) is dragging them down, this simply cannot happen...

Eight is enough - By TERRY KOSHAN, SUN MEDIA

If there were no cracks in Mats Sundin's steadfast desire to remain a Maple Leaf past the trade deadline later this month, a few had to begin to form in that closely cropped head of his last night.

But if that happened, the Toronto captain was not about to acknowledge as much publicly, even after the Leafs were trounced 8-0 by the Florida Panthers in their worst loss since falling to the Ottawa Senators by the same score in October of 2005.

"No, it doesn't matter," Sundin, who had reporters waiting for him 50 minutes after the final buzzer, said when asked if one game would make him reconsider his wish to stay with the Leafs.
After such a brutal setback in such a crucial match, however, one has to wonder whether anything will spur Sundin to go to interim general manager Cliff Fletcher and tell him the no-trade clause in his contract can be forgotten in the days leading up to the Feb. 26 trade deadline.
"Everybody who wore that sweater (last night) should be ashamed," Sundin said. "It was embarrassing. I don't have an answer for a game like that."

It's hard to believe that coach Paul Maurice was speaking after the morning skate about how the Leafs had improved defensively in the past couple of weeks. If there was any hope for a push to playoff spot after what clearly was a fluke win against Ottawa on Saturday, it disappeared about as quickly as the fans at the Air Canada Centre, who began streaming for the exits after the second period.

They had just witnessed a stunning and complete collapse by a Leafs team that had outshot the Panthers 13-7 in the first period and were in the game despite being down 1-0. But when the Panthers' Nathan Horton scored 10 seconds into the second period after a Kyle Wellwood miscue (Wellwood had three shifts the rest of the game), the Leafs began to crumble. Defenceman Hal Gill played the puck like a ticking bomb a few minutes later and had it stripped from his stick by Brett McLean. Within the blink of an eye, Olli Jokinen had scored his 200th NHL goal.

"That game got away from us when the puck was dropped to start the second period," Maurice said. "We resorted to pond hockey. Our top-end guys were drastically off and our bottom guys could not help us survive it, but they should not have to. I did not expect that game."
Richard Zednik had a hat trick and Cory Murphy, Steve Montador and McLean also scored. Tomas Vokoun made 24 saves.

With scouts from 14 NHL clubs watching, the Leafs did not play for their coach. And remember, this was against a Panthers team that had just two more points than Toronto, and dressed people such as David Brine, Tanner Glass and Kamil Kreps. Most households could not name them.

Maurice, purple with rage after the Gill giveaway, called a timeout, during which he screamed at his players. For all the good it did, Maurice might as well have turned around and unloaded on the empty platinum seats behind the bench. Murphy scored Florida's fourth goal on its 15th shot less than five minutes later, chasing Vesa Toskala.

Even with 27 games to go, Maurice has to be thinking of his own future. The new GM that eventually is hired undoubtedly will want his own coach, and won't get much of an argument from a Maple Leaf Sports and Entertainment Ltd. board that likely will not have seen the playoffs with Maurice running the show.

At this point in a lost season, it's hard to say what the players are playing for. It was not pride last night.

"We have a lot of guys trying to do everything by themselves and we are not a team that can do that," Gill said. "We are little bit shell-shocked."

Toronto Sun Cover February 6, 2008