After finally recovering and getting some spare time, we’re ready to give our take on the deal and how it has affected us thus far. It’s a little late, but we’ve yet to voice our enthusiasm.

Last Sunday, after an embarrassing loss to the Canucks, Brian Burke pressed the TNT detonator. In one large swoop, he purged six players and gained back four. Let break down each trade:

Toronto / Calgary:

Toronto receives:

D Dion Phaneuf
F Fredrik Sjostrom
D Keith Aulie

Calgary receives:

F Matt Stajan
F Niklas Hagman
F Jamal Mayers
D Ian White

Toronto gets a hard hitting, physical defenseman with a booming slapshot, a PK specialist with speed, and highly touted defense prospect. In return, Calgary receives a decent finesse scorer, a solid two way center, and grinder and an offensive minded, but somewhat small defenseman.

Burke explained on the radio that the trade went down like this: he asked for Phaneuf, Sutter wanted Hagman and White, Burke then wanted Aulie, Sutter asked for Stajan, Burke pushed for Sjostrom and Sutter wanted Mayers. That’s how it went down. So now, the deal looks like this:

Phaneuf <-> White, Hagman
Aulie <-> Stajan
Sjostrom <-> Mayers

When you break it down, it looks like a steal in all aspects for the Leafs. Sure Hagman and White were decent, and cheap but they weren’t superstars like Phaneuf. They were also both quite soft, something Burke loathes in his players. Sjostrom overs Mayers is a blatantly obvious addition, and Stajan for Aulie looks good right now but we’ll see in the long run.

Toronto / Anaheim:

Toronto receives:

G J.S. Giguere

Anaheim receives:

F Jason Blake
G Vesa Toskala

This is a trade I’m sure all of Leafs Nation enjoyed hands down. We get rid of Blake and Toskala, both of whom played horribly for the better parts of their Toronto careers. They were scapegoats, and rightfully so. When we all found out we had shipped them BOTH off in the same trade, we all breathed a collective sigh of relief, and hey, that Giguere guy isn’t too bad either. In Giggy, the Leafs get a goalie who has a burning passion  to win his starting job back, and brings both playoff experience and hardware (Conn Smythe, etc). This trade is relatively even in terms of salary, with the Leafs being off the hook for less this year, but gaining an extra two million for next year. Not a bad trade off for a real goalie.

Week in Review:

Since we didn’t post any game blogs for the past week we’ve decided to roll our thoughts into this small little segment. In all, four games were played and the record stands at 2-2. Not bad, considering we played three of the hottest teams in the NHL. The first game was a gem, with Phaneuf setting the physical tone early and Giguere providing solid goaltending. The shutout against NJ was a surprise, but one all of Leafs Nation enjoyed. The next game, the second in the home and home with the Devils, saw Gustavsson getting the net back. This puzzled several people, wondering why Wilson had not elected to go with the hot hand in net. The game started well, with the Leafs coming out to a 3-1 lead. But as they often do, things fell apart late in the third and we surrender three quick goals, and were awarded a loss. The next game was against Ottawa, who were riding a lengthy winning streak. Again, the Leafs came out hard landing an early lead. This time, with JS Giguere in net they were able to keep it. They kept chipping in goals, notably Schenn with a deuce and shut out the Sens 5 – 0.  Their next opponent would be the best in the west, no pun intended. San Jose rolled into town and the Leafs were able to keep pace initially, but ended up falling 3-2 to the Sharks. Truth be told, didn’t watch much of this game since I was at work, but I was excited when I got a text saying Kadri was playing. Pretty good NHL debut, excited to see what he’s able to do with a little more seasoning.

New Player Gradings:

Dion Phaneuf: Phaneuf had a solid outing in his first week with the Buds. 4 GP, 2 assists, 5 PIMs and 12 shots. (He had one fight, and no penalties) His presence energizes, and he has brought a sense of intimidation to our blueline for the long run. For this week, Phaneuf gets a B+.

J.S. Giguere: Giguere was very impressive in his first three starts for the Leafs. 3 GP, 3 GA, .965 SAVE% and 1.01 GAA. Miraculous, isn’t it? For his first three starts, Giguere gets an A.

Brendan Burke:

The news of Brendan’s death hit all of Leaf Nation, especially his father Brian, very hard. We send our prayers and condolences to the Burke family. Brendan was a great kid, and he died way too young. Rest in peace.

- – -

Tomorrow we’re in St. Louis to take on the Blues. We’ll have pre and post game coverage, so remember to check us out on gameday!

As always, you can find us on Twitter here.

Feeling sick or sad? Watch this, it helped me when I was sick!