Leafs' Fletcher seeking free agent with right qualities

Young. Hard working. And oozing with character.

That is the criteria Toronto Maple Leafs general manager Cliff Fletcher plans on using to identify talent when the free agency period begins on July 1.

Last summer, former GM John Ferguson spent US$20-million on 34-year-old Jason Blake. This time around, Toronto is not looking for short-term solutions to fix the hockey club.

Instead, a rebuilding Leafs team is more interested in finding affordable, blue-collar personnel who can provide leadership to what promises to be an inexperienced hockey club.

"We're not looking to bring on players who are 31, 32 or 33 years of age," said Fletcher. "But there's going to be some unrestricted players who are in the 27, 28 or 29 age bracket who, three years from now, when we've hopefully got a good hockey team, can still be a big part of it."

The Leafs have the resources and roster room to be active on the free-agent market.

Last week, Fletcher granted the Montreal Canadiens the exclusive rights to negotiate with Mats Sundin. He then bought out Darcy Tucker's contract on Tuesday and placed Kyle Wellwood and Andrew Raycroft on waivers. Wellwood was claimed by Vancouver yesterday.

The potential exodus of four roster players will result in a little more than US$10-million in savings, although goaltender Vesa Toskala's salary will jump from US$1.375-million to US$4-million and restricted free-agent forward Matt Stajan could be looking at an increase from the US$1-million he made last season.

With the salary cap expected to increase nearly US$6-million, the Leafs could have the finances to be in play for one of the few marquee free agents available.

But rather than try and replace Sundin's offence with a top-end forward such as Pittsburgh's Marian Hossa, the team seems more interested in hard-nosed grinders like Ryan Malone or Jarkko Ruutu.

"We need quality young players," he said. "We'll be looking for a couple of players to fit in on the bottom two lines. And then we'll be looking at the possibility of getting one top-six forward, which may or may not be available to us. We could also be looking at getting a couple of defencemen."

Though there are some enticing restricted free agents available -- Anaheim's Corey Perry, Colorado's Marek Svatos and Philadelphia's Jeff Carter -- most would cost the Leafs multiple first-round draft picks.

"We can't afford to give away draft picks like that," Fletcher said." We have to build up a reservoir of young talent that finds its way to the NHL."

That reservoir deepened when Toronto selected Luke Schenn fifth overall last week's entry draft.

The Leafs believe the NHL-ready defenceman and 21-year-old Russian prospect Nikolai Kulemin (drafted 44th overall in 2006) have a legitimate chance at cracking the team's roster. Even if they do not, Toronto promises to ice a youth-heavy team this season.

Forward Jiri Tlusty, defenceman Anton Stralman and six other potential Leafs -- Stajan, Alex Steen, Jeremy Williams, Kris Newbury, Carlo Colaiacovo, Ian White -- are 26 years old or younger.

That was part of Fletcher's reasoning behind the trade with St. Louis for veteran forward Jamal Mayers.

"[Mayers] can still play at a high level, he has good speed, and if you're going to have eight, nine or 10 players in your dressing room that are 25 or under, you need that type of leadership."