Shedding Tucker's contract shouldn't be the last step

There's one enormous question lingering in the wake of the buyout of Darcy Tucker.

Why?

Not that there can't be a meaningful rationale behind the decision to send Tucker, designated a core athlete by the Maple Leafs just 12 months ago, packing with $6 million in his jeans, $3 million in salary lost and new opportunities should he choose to pursue them.

But was he that bad?

He wasn't overly expensive at $3 million a year, particularly for a club that may be well below the salary cap next season. He'd had one bad season, yes, but that had come on the heels of several good ones. It infuriated him to be compared to Tie Domi as the two players were never even friendly, but the fact was that both men were enormously popular as Leafs despite being nowhere near elite NHLers.

So why buy Tucker out without even giving him a chance to skate in even one practice for Ron Wilson?

It has to be one of two reasons. First, the Leafs think he's just done, unable to skate well enough to be an effective regular in the NHL, and no longer capable of being a physical threat. Being speed-bagged last season by Jarkko Ruutu - a Finn pounding the bejeezus out of a heart-and-soul Canuck! - didn't do much for Tucker's rough-and-tumble image.

The second possibility is that the Leafs' management team decided Tucker was a toxic element in the team's dressing room that had to be cleansed. To be sure, there was a remarkable sense of entitlement last year among the last-place Leafs. Tucker seemed to be a mentor to youngsters like Alex Steen and Kyle Wellwood, and maybe it's no surprise Wellwood's gone, too.

Tucker, who voraciously reads every word written about him, fumed all year long that he wasn't getting enough respect from the media but had to wait until he finally produced a two-goal game in the second half of the season to feel confident enough to get in the face of his tormentors. The man should have been embarrassed to do so even then. It never dawned on him that he should have to perform to be exalted.

But whatever the reason, the Leafs no longer wanted Tucker, and because of his no-trade deal, they couldn't trade him, at least not easily.

So they dumped him and moved on. Tucker might come back and prove he can still play or do damage to the Leafs in a game or two, but so what? By the time the Leafs are a significant force in the Eastern Conference again, Tucker will be retired. Sundin too, and probably Bryan McCabe, who is also designated for reassignment elsewhere in the NHL by the current Leaf management team.

Throw in those players along with John Pohl, Wellwood and Andrew Raycroft, and you have the change that general manager Cliff Fletcher promised.

Right now, this appears to be a team that will be built around Vesa Toskala in net, Nik Antropov, Alexei Ponikarovsky, Jason Blake, Matt Stajan, Steen, Jiri Tlusty and Nikolai Kulemin up front, and Tomas Kaberle, Pavel Kubina, Carlo Colaiacovo, Anton Stralman and Ian White on the back end.

Sadly, there are already some calling for 2008 first-round pick Luke Schenn to be part of the squad next fall, when the reality is that the correct time for Schenn to appear in a Leaf uniform will be for the start of the 2010-11 season - at the earliest - after more grooming in junior and the AHL.

The Leafs, having rushed a long list of young defencemen including Jim Benning, Gary Nylund, Luke Richardson, Drake Berehowsky and Jeff Ware over the years, should know this better than any other team.

So the Leafs, effectively, have been blown up. Logically, they should be looking only for support players this summer, with the big payoff being a dominant forward (John Tavares, Brayden Schenn) or a big-time defenceman (Victor Hedman) a year from now.

That should be the plan. If it isn't, dumping the likes of Tucker will seem more puzzling, or downright pointless.