| Arrivals | Departures |
| Mike Morrison off waivers | Billy Thompson down to Bingo I presume |
| Tyler Arnason from Chicago | Brandon Bochenski, 2nd rnd in 2006 |
Toronto
| Arrivals | Departures |
| Not paying him = relief | Mariusz Czerkawski to Boston - off waivers |
| Luke Richardson (2.1 million, UFA) from Columbus | 5th rnd in 2006 (possible 4th in 2007 if Leafs make the playoffs) |
| Aleksander Suglobov from Jersey's farm team | Ken Klee (1.9 million, UFA) |
UPDATE at 2pm: 1 hour to go Muck! Make it happen!
UPDATE at 2:55pm: Morrison is the key acquisition! Muckler's right not to change the room. No - make a deal! No - stay put - Havlat and Hasek will be back! No - Carolina and the Rangers have improved - we need to too!
UPDATE at 3:17pm: Muckler finally joins in the fun.
Arnason for Bochenski
ReplyDeleteAlso, Brad Norton.
What the hell are the Leafs thinking? That should make a trade for a clue.
Supposedly Chicago wasn't too keen on giving Arnason a qualifying offer - a raise from 1.2mil current salary.
ReplyDeleteSweet offensive pick-up (+5 on the Hawks?). Be nice to get a guy that can take clutch draws - Arnason's face off % is lower than the Sens notoriously shitty 50%.
ReplyDeleteHe's apparently a handful though. Hopefully he gets inspired by the winners around him rather than becoming poison in the locker room.
ReplyDeleteIf they can get another line firing though, the Sens are gonna be pretty damn hard to stop.
Can anyone tell me what Arnason brings to the Senators that Vermette and Eaves don't? I like Arnason as a player but he isn't what Ottawa needs. The last thing Ottawa needed was a skilled, soft, unproven forward with little or no playoff experience and certainly no playoff success. They really needed a veteren or someone who could provide some grit and leadership. This team is no better than yesterday. This is Ottawa best chance to make a playoff run but they failed once again to address their most glaring needs. I'm putting Carolina as the team to beat in the East now. They have a much better mix of experience, youthful energy, grit and skill.
ReplyDeleteRecchi has got grit and experience and has done exactly zero with it this year.
ReplyDeleteTML is full of leadership and grit and experience and they're looking at .700-.800 hockey if they want to make the playoffs this year.
Arnason is not much of a player on the Hawks but he looks like the type that could breakout under a new coach and with a winning team. He might be another Bochenski, but he might be ready now, and he might make Muckler look like a genius.
Call me crazy but I don't call 24 goals and 57 points doing nothing. If he were traded to Ottawa he would be the teams second most important forward (after Alfredsson) going into the playoffs. Spezza and Heatley have just had far too many dissapearing acts over the past 2 months and if I were a Senators fan I would be worried about that come playoff time. I'd be worried about the same thing from Arnason. I am not worried about that from Recchi.
ReplyDeleteToronto has 2 more games against Montreal. If they win those two they have closed the gap to just 2 points and that is not insurmountable. The bigger challenge will be catching the Thrashers but they have been so inconsistant this year they could easily go on a six game losing streak and if that happens the Leafs are right back in the playoff hunt. The Leafs fell from six points up to six points back in fewer than 20 games there is no reason to believe that the reverse isn't possible.
Recchi has grit?
ReplyDeleteTML is full of leadership and grit this year?
Roberts, Peca, Shanahan, Simon, Conroy, Draper, Brind'Amour, Smyth, Mellanby ... etc.
That's gamebreaking grit and that's the type of player OTT needed.
Regardless, Arnason was a good pickup. Bochenski was riding Spezza's coat tail anyways. I don't think he'll amount to much. Way more up side to Arnason.
Ok, crazy.
ReplyDeleteOttawa traded a little of the future for a little of now without losing any of the now they already had. They picked up a backup to their backup goalie and extra depth on defense. For basically free.
I'll take my team over your dream anyday.
Arnason has way more upside?
ReplyDelete2002-03: 19g, 39 points
2003-04: 22g, 55 points
2005-06: 13g, 41 points
To me it looks like Arnason is becoming a 20 goal, 50 point guy. It sounds like you have another Todd White on your hands. I think that would be a pretty good comparison really except that White probably gives more consistant effort than Arnason. Not a bad player, but nothing special and not what Ottawa really needed. He is the same kind of player that Ottawa has an abundance of.
Seeing that Olie signed,Arnason is a good trade.Carolina is good but not the same without Cole so I hope the Leafs meet them in the first round even tho golf seems more likely for the blue team.
ReplyDeleteAt least Ottawa has enough "grit to make the playoffs!
...here's a quote from John Ferguson responding to his lack of activity before the deadline: "We like where we're situated both this season going forward and next season and beyond."
ReplyDeleteCan any of you leaf fans tell me what's he's smoking?
Ottawa has enough grit? Arnason doesn't much more grit to the team? Ottawa is a flashy talented team; they don't necessarily rely on grit to win games.
ReplyDeleteI think Recchi would be a better fit for the Sens but I think it would have cost them to much and maybe his leadership wouldn't have been good in the dressing room as well. Arnason will be a steady player, won't make the team anymore of a Stanley Cup contender. Not sure why they picked up Morrison though unless they are having doubts about Hasek and Emery. Hasek is the guy that’s going to win them the Cup. Emery well he has the talent to be that backup but do the Sens have that much confidence in him? Morrison, well he isn’t anything special. No better than Emery, unproven goalie, not sure why they did that but they didn't give up anyone for it.
I'm picking Carolina to come out of the East this year. They have the best mix of players and have played well without many blips in the year. It will be interesting to see how Cole being out and Recchi stepping in will fare out.
Carolina's a solid team, no question.
ReplyDeleteActually though, Atlanta is the only team in the East I'd like the Sens to avoid. The Sens have played them soft so far this year and the Hossa/Heatley thing could be a bit of a distraction.
If Tampa had picked up a goaltender and/or some Leafs with experience beating the Sens in the playoffs, I might be worried.
JFJ, well, he said a lot of the same things during the summer when the FA market opened up and he didn't do much. There were some really defensive posts on the Leaf's official site by their pet 'columnist' to the effect that 'you're not the GM, don't judge him'. Look at that site now: http://www.mapleleafs.com/news/news.asp?story_id=1926 and even he's admitting the team's screwed.
ReplyDeleteBasically, the point is that TML execs will never, ever tell the press anything, no matter how flagrantly they have to lie. Remember, this is the home of the 'upper-body injury/no comment' press conference.
And I think all of that adds up to 1/3 of an answer to wavetank.
Well JFJ can't come out and say the team is screwed. First off his team would just die a quicker death than they are already dying. Secondly, if he does that it doesn't look good on MLSE and they're share price or what not will go down (Not sure if they are traded on a market) Your boss has to be positive even through the roughest times, or else you lose all credibility with the public.
ReplyDeleteCome off-season JFJ will more than likely start a fire sale unless he can pull off some moves.
The thing is, as impatient as most Leafs fans are (too to see the team win/make the playoffs), I think most of them are now ready to see them start over.
ReplyDeleteThe same could be said about Ottawa 5-0.If the Sens fail in the early rounds,I think the fans will expect a change of direction as well.Because of the salary cap we fans will have to get used to players coming and going,but if the team doesn't produce we should demand change just as quickly.It's fine to be a loyal fan but we are also the customer.I think the NHL is getting it,we should too.
ReplyDeleteI don't buy the argument that Leaf fans won't tolerate a rebuilding period. They tolerated the 80's - what's a few years out of contention?
ReplyDeleteThe idea that Leaf fans are too impatient for a youth movement seems to go hand in hand with the notion that all Leaf fans are blind, naive and hopelessly sold on the belief that the team is a contender. Like most Leaf stereotypes, it's nonsense. Most Leaf fans I know are well aware of the bind their team is in and are content with the fact that this team is going nowhere. Give them the choice between the current mediocrity and a rebuild and I think the vast majority will choose the latter.