Here is LeafsWire’s preview on the upcoming trade deadline. It’s less than a day away from crunch time, and we’re getting real excited! 

Today is the day before trade deadline, and things are really buzzing. We’ve seen some light movement in the past days as GM’s move to gear their teams up for the post-season. Yet, since Burke made his Phaneuf splash several weeks ago, the Leafs have been relatively quiet. It’s almost too quiet. You see, every year around this time the media and rumormongers are going nuts with crazy leaf rumors. Why? There’s a ton of leaf fans, and doing this creates a lot of hits / reads. It’s a damn good business tactic. This year, however, things are really quiet. You keep hearing the same, logical rumors over and over again. Ponikarovsky will be traded, Stempniak and Primeau might be traded, Exelby could be traded. Things that make sense.

If your a Leaf fan at this time, you get excited. Why? Just because of the fact there will be change and improvement on a team that can get no worse. That notion is very exciting. The question then is: Just how much change will be made, and will it be quality change? Well, lets begin shall we:

Who is available?

A few weeks ago we posted this on PuckDrop. It outlined some of the players we thought were untouchable, available, or untradeable. Well, since then Burke has made some trades and that outline looks a little different. For the sake of being quick, we’re only going to revise the available players. Here they are:

• Lee Stempniak (UFA)
• Alex Ponikarovsky (UFA)
• Wayne Primeau (UFA)
• Garnet Exelby (UFA)
• Jeff Finger (3.5Mil/year)
• Rickard Wallin (UFA)
• John Mitchell (RFA)

For sake of creativity, lets say newly acquired (via waivers) Lundmark is available. At this time, we assume Kaberle remains a Leaf past deadline.

What are they worth?

Due to the fact Kaberle is not available, Ponikarovsky becomes our main trading chip. Due to rumors and news articles making the rounds, the consensus is that his worth is at minimum a second rounder +. There have been reports where his value has shot up to a low first, or even a second + decent prospect. Right now, your guess is as good as mine. What isn’t a guess is that Poni won’t be a Leaf past deadline. It’s a fact. Write it down. We think he’ll end up in Atlanta, but could possibly be acquired by New Jersey, Los Angeles or Chicago as well.

Next in terms of worth is Lee Stempniak. He’s a capable winger who can put up decent points, and has a good work ethic and two way game. He’s not a pure scorer, and wont fetch as much as Poni, but his two way play makes him valuable as well. Speculation puts him at a third round pick, or lower but we think he could go for a low second or a third and a prospect. Either deal works well for the Leafs, as Stemper is a UFA and won’t be back next year. We think he’ll end up in Buffalo or even Colorado.

We’ll kill two Leafs with one puck here and tackle Exelby and Primeau next. They’re both UFA’s and provide decent defensive games, and could be useful for a team that needs defensive help and wants to go deep in the playoffs. Exelby and Primeau aren’t spring chickens, or superstars so they wouldn’t garner much return, but speculation puts them at a third or fourth rounder each. Decent return for players that are essentially spare parts on our team. We think they’ll end up in Los Angeles and Vancouver, respectively.

The last three players, Wallin, Mitchell and Finger are a little bit different. Neither is good enough for someone to want to acquire them in a one for one type deal, but they could all be additions into existing deals, except for Finger. His contract is too huge, and he’d have to be part of a multi player deal with multi-millions of dollars changing hands. Where these guys go, or even if they go is not known. This is just pure speculation on our part.

Which players the Leafs could be targeting?

Remember, Brian Burke told everyone the Leafs would be both buyers and sellers this trade deadline. In this case, look for Burke to address certain needs the team has via trade. Something like, a top six center / winger probably isn’t feasible at this point, but our need of PK’ing help or secondary scoring/grit could be met. Someone like Colby Armstrong from Atlanta, Peter Mueller from Phoenix or Drew Stafford from Buffalo. There’s also the chance that Burke could take back massive salary from other teams in exchange for draft picks. Michael Ryder’s name has been thrown around a bit. Maybe a Stempniak for Wolski swap (albeit, with other parts)?

Also, a little note: Enver Lisin was placed on waivers today by the New York Rangers. If we move out some NHL caliber players tomorrow, we could use some more in the lineup for the rest of the season. At just 24, and being touted as a highly skilled player, he might be a fit in Toronto. Try him out in the top six, and see how it goes. He has a cap hit of 790K for one more year after this, then he’s an RFA.

In closing, tomorrow should be an interesting day as many players are available and Burke has promised change, both of the selling and buying variety. Oh yeah, also there is also a Leaf game tonight

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