Burke Makes His Mark

Years from now when Brian Burke is no longer in control of the Maple Leafs, January 31, 2010 will be a day that many look back on as one of the defining moments during the president and GM's tenure. Only time will tell whether it's looked upon fondly or negatively but one thing is for certain: the man has officially put his stamp on this hockey club.

As you know by now, the Toronto Maple Leafs have acquired defenseman Dion Phaneuf, forward Fredrik Sjostrom and prospect Keith Aulie from the Calgary Flames for forwards Matt Stajan, Jamal Mayers and Niklas Hagman and defenseman Ian White. In the second blockbuster of the day, the Leafs sent goalie Vesa Toskala and forward Jason Blake to the Anaheim ducks in exchange for goalie J.S. Giguere.

Yes, quite a day for Burke, his staff and the Leafs organization.

After three outstanding seasons to open his career, Phaneuf has struggled for the better part of the past year and a half. Two years ago at this time, the former first round pick seemed to be a lock for a spot on Canada's blueline for the 2010 Olympic team. Yet last month when Steve Yzerman announced the team's roster, few batted an eye lash when Phaneuf was left off the club. Not only had his play fallen off the past few seasons, we started to hear rumblings around Calgary that Phaneuf was a malcontent and someone who wasn't all that fun to have around the dressing room. He was booed on several occasions in Calgary this season, but only because so much more had been expected from the blueliner.

Only a couple of years ago, Phaneuf was a defenseman that teams would love to build around for the future. While he's struggled let's not forget that fact. The Leafs aren't acquiring an over the hill veteran who has little left in the tank. This is a player that can turn his career around at any minute and be very productive for quite some time.

So who do you give up in order to get a 24 year old franchise defenseman? Two second line forwards (who would be third liners on most teams), a fourth liner (who wanted out of town in the first place) and an overachieving defenseman.

The key piece in this trade going the Flames way is Ian White, make no mistake about it. After being a healthy scratch to begin last season, White took his lumps, waited his turn, even played forward and quickly became the Leafs most steady defenseman on many nights. He was second on the team in average ice-time before the trade at 23:47 per game. White showed the ability to play on all situations and was slowly becoming a leader in the dressing room. His game doesn't come without his flaws (there were times where he misread plays on odd man rushes and had trouble filling up passing lanes) but this is the only piece that the Leafs are going to miss. Having said all that, Phaneuf's abilities are unmatched by White. While White has become a solid blueliner, he will never have the impact on a game that Phaneuf can have. He's not a physical presence nor does he have the shot or skill to help the powerplay the way Phaneuf can.

Hagman and Stajan are both solid players but quite frankly, they are replaceable. Stajan, the Mississauga native, started out as a shy kid who was just happy to play for his hometown team, but he became a great spokesman for the team and a solid citizen to represent the hockey club in the community. Too much was expected from Stajan who was skilled enough to be considered a solid NHL player, but never a star. He will be a nice addition to a Calgary team that's in need of a shake up themselves but he's not a piece to build around.

Christian Hanson and Viktor Stalberg are both capable of playing in the NHL right now and neither are significant down grades on what you're giving up in the trade.

It doesn't take a hockey expert to figure out that the Leafs were going nowhere with this group of forwards. Sure, you're eliminating 46 goals from your forwards in the two trades but Burke deducted that these simply weren't the players that were going to help the team win games. Routinely, the Leafs have out shot their opponents in games that they have lost. Stajan, Hagman and Blake were eating up salary and weren't big enough contributors to warrant those salaries. Their value over a replacement player from the minors (borrowing from the baseball metric VORP) certainly isn't substantial enough, if any, to keep in favour of younger players with more upside down the road.

The addition of Keith Aulie is icing on the cake. A fourth round pick in the 2007 draft by the Flames, Aulie is a physical presence on the blueline standing at 6'5. The former Brandon Wheat King was apart of the Canadian goal medal winning team at last year's World Junior Championships. It's another piece for the future that the Leafs add without having to mortgage any of their own. That's definitely something new for this franchise.

The other trade with Anaheim is simply a business move. Vesa Toskala's days were numbered in Toronto as were Giguere's in Anaheim. Combined, Toskala and Blake each make $7 million this season, the same total as Giguere's alone. Sure, Francois Allaire was Anaheim's goaltending coach for a number of years and Giguere might turn his career around but this move was made to help both teams rid themselves of contracts they weren't happy with.

The one bonus for Toronto: while Toskala's contract comes off the books at the end of this season, Blake's doesn't come off until 2012. Giguere has one more year on his deal meaning the Leafs have more breathing room cap wise in 2011. It was rumoured earlier on in the day that a first round pick would be headed Toronto's way in the deal, but that was a bunch of baloney from the start. There's no way Ducks GM Bob Murray is that stupid. As happy as he was to rid himself of the Giguere contract, he was never going to give up a first round pick to do so.

As bad as Giguere has been this season, he's still not as bad as Toskala. Giggy is a better insurance plan if Jonas Gustavsson isn't the right goalie for the Leafs.

If I told you at the beginning of this season that the Leafs would add a player of Dion Phaneuf's calibre without having to give up Phil Kessel, Tomas Kaberle, Luke Schenn or Nazem Kadri, you'd say I was crazy. However, Brian Burke has done it. The Leafs have been irrelevant for a month and a half now after falling out of the playoff picture completely. If these deals don't make Toronto a better hockey club, they certainly have given the team a much needed spark. At the very least Burke is making things interesting, but he's doing so with the intent of making his team better. We all love trades, so at least he's given us something to talk about.

18 years ago this month, the Leafs and Flames swung a blockbuster trade that shaped the faces of each franchise for many years that followed. It marked the beginning of the dismantling of a Calgary team that had some excellent years in the 80's. On the other side, it was the building block that sparked a rebirth of the Maple Leafs in Toronto and Doug Gilmour was the centre piece in the turn around of the hockey team. We might be looking back on this "Phaneuf" trade several years from now as we do that "Gilmour" trade: the moment in which the Leafs were brought back to respectability.

Time will tell.