It wasn’t long ago that the Leafs defence was a subject of ridicule throughout the NHL. Aki Berg probably summed it up best, a guy who once cut from the team is not even playing in the NHL. And who can forget Cory Cross?
Things have changed.
The Leafs got serious about drafting and developing defenceman and it’s finally paying dividends. With the added depth of off-season signings, and a bunch of guys about to come back from injury, soon Toronto will have a pile of NHL defenceman and nowhere to put them.
With Mcabe, Kaberle, Kubina and Gill filling out the top four, who else do you play? Ian White has been near-sensational playing over 20 minutes a game, and Colaiacovo has all the tools of a star but spends most of his time injured. After that, in no particular order, are Harrison, Bell, Kronwall and Wozneiski... All showing they can fill a bigger role than 6th or 7th D-man.
What do the Leafs do? Is it time to trade some of these guys? Ian White is probably the best trade bait right now. Do you package him with a few players and try for a blockbuster?
(This post was written by The Muppet - the third entry in the search for a new BoO Leaf member. The first two can be read here and here.)
No comments:
Post a Comment