This Week in Leafs History: Transaction List

July 31, 2008 by RobDM
Filed under Ex Leafs

Sundin decision around August 1st, Schenn & DiDomenico at Team Canada Camp

July 29, 2008 by CW
Filed under Daily Round-Up

Player Profile: Alex Steen

July 29, 2008 by MrT
Filed under Miscellaneous

2 Comments

TMLfans Members’ Scouting Report

Alex Steen is the son of former Winnipeg Jets star Thomas Steen and was born in that city. He spent much of his childhood in the enviable position of being allowed to hang around the rink with his father’s teammates, many of whom he lists as the people who have most influence his life. When Thomas’ playing career drew to a close the family returned to Europe, spending most of their time in Steen’s native Sweden where young Alex began to hone is skills.

By 2001, Alex had earned a position on Västra Frölunda HC of the SEL and was selected 24th overall in the first round of the 2002 NHL Entry draft by the Toronto Maple Leafs. He played another two years with Frölunda, followed by a one year stint with MODO before arrive in at the Leafs’ camp immediately after the lockout. During this time he also represented Sweden in the World Junior Under 18 Championships and then twice in the World Junior Championships. He has since played (once, in 2007) for their National Team, but was forced to decline their invitation to be part of the 2008 team due to a lingering injury from his NHL season. He will likely continue to be a regular member of their national roster for many years to come.

Steen cracked the Maple Leafs roster directly out of camp in 2005. In his rookie season he scored 18 goals and totaled 45 points, paired mostly with fellow rookie Matt Stajan. In the two seasons since then his scoring production has fallen off a little (35 pts in 2006-07, 42 pts in 2007-08), but that can be largely attributed to Paul Maurice’s development decision to use him primarily in a shut-down/defensive role where he saw very limited powerplay time . When the Leafs’ injury situation saw Alex elevated to the top line and given regular powerplay shifts towards the end of the 2007-08 season, there was a noticeable boost to his production.

Steen, a natural center, has been used as a left winger for the Leafs. He possesses excellent speed, great acceleration, and is a very intelligent player who seems to have embraced his role as a two-way player, making him a very valuable asset on both sides of the puck. At this (still-early) stage in his development he is able to play in any situation, against any type of opposition, and acquit himself remarkably well.

He is not shy about playing a physical game when necessary, using his speed to quickly close on a player and then relying on his size and strength to contain him. He is becoming very good along the boards and is able to cycle down low and protect the puck against larger defencemen for much longer periods of time than he was able to in the past.

Some suggest that Alex’s greatest “problem” at present is that he is too cautious. thinks too much, and is too committed to the defensive side of the puck. While he has excellent vision and top level passing skills, he tends to make only the “safe” play and this has limited his offensive potential thus far (though it has also likely endeared him to his coaches). He will also sometimes miss an opportunity by over-analyzing the situation before making the play, by which time the other team will often have recovered their positioning. Fortunately, he will also recognize this and make a safe play rather than trying to force a play that no longer exists.

Steen has taken regular shifts on the Leafs’ penalty killing units for the last couple of years and is also frequently relied upon to match up at even strength against the other team’s top line where his defensive positioning and great anticipation have allowed him to excel. He has a strong work ethic and very rarely takes a shift off.

With the team now in a rebuilding phase and with three solid years of honing his defensive and two-way skills under his belt, Leafs fans are hoping that he may finally be given the opportunity to assert himself in a more offensive role — perhaps on the first line — this year where he can gain some confidence and more consistently demonstrate the scoring flair of which, to date, we’ve only seen the occasional glimpse.

Having spent three years in a stall immediately adjacent to Mats Sundin’s stall in the dressing room, Alex has also begun to show signs of leadership and many suspect that he will be one of the players given the “A” to wear this season. Several of our members believe he has future captain potential. Our members rate him as one of the more valuable assets on the roster and believe that he will be part of the core of the Maple Leafs roster for many years to come.

Member-Recommended Links

Our members recommend the following images and clips:

YouTube tribute to Steen’s rookie campaign.
A tribute in pictures (stills).
A great goal against the Canucks.
Another great goal as a member of Team Sweden.
Steen’s shoot-out game-winning goal against the Devils.
Yet another one, this time against the Devils.
Highlights from the Jan. 4, 2007 game against the Bruins when Steen scored his first career hat-trick.
Link to a pdf of the 2008 season review written by Alan Ryder (HockeyAnalytics.com) where he rates Steen as the best defensive LW of the season.
There’s a good video profile on Steen currently running on LeafsTV; but it has not yet been posted on the Leafs’ website. I’ll add the link if and when it is.

Forum Thread

Join our forum discussion on this player.

Career Stats

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On This Date: Leafs trade Bernie Parent

July 27, 2008 by RobDM
Filed under Ex Leafs

5 Comments

On July 27, 1973, the Maple Leafs traded the rights to goaltender Bernie Parent to the Philadelphia Flyers, plus a second-round draft pick (Larry Goodenough) in exchange for a first-round draft choice (Bob Neely) and goalie Doug Favell.

The deal turned out to be one of the most lopsided trades against Toronto’s favour in the team’s history. Parent would go on to win a pair of Stanley Cups with the Flyers and was inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame in 1984.

Two years earlier the Leafs had obtained Parent from Philadelphia in exchange for netminder Bruce Gamble and centre Mike “Shaky” Walton”. However a contract dispute over a difference of $8,000 left Parent fuming with Harold Ballard, and the 28-year-old backstop would go on to sign an enormous $750,000, five-year deal with the Miami Screaming Eagles of the WHA. Unfortunately, the Eagles franchise never took flight and became the only WHA team in league history to never play a game. Parent wound up playing one season for the Philadelphia Blazers of the fledgling league. By the time Parent was ready to return to the NHL, the bridge between him and Ballard had been burned, forcing the Leafs’ hand in the eventual trade.

Parent became the first goalie in NHL history to post consecutive seasons of 40 or more wins, a feat since matched by Martin Brodeur and Miikka Kiprusoff.

Meanwhile Favell posted a mediocre 26-26-16 record in just over two seasons for the Leafs before being sold to the Colorado Rockies prior to the start of the 1976-77 campaign as Toronto paved the way for rookie Mike Palmateer to becoming the team’s starting goalie.

Left-winger Neely registered 89 points in 261 career games for the Leafs.

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Off The Post – McCabe, “Fans First” Game, Finger

July 24, 2008 by RobDM
Filed under Off The Post

6 Comments

Off The Post – July 24, 2008

A resolution to the impasse with Leafs defenceman Bryan McCabe might not come to fruition until training camp is well underway. McCabe is adamant about not waving his no-trade clause while it’s clear that general manager Cliff Fletcher wishes to move his highest paid defenceman as part of his rebuilding movement. A buyout is not feasible at McCabe’s $5.75 million salary over the next three seasons.

The 33-year-old defenceman has endured some criticism over his refusal to lift his no-movement clause, not unlike the manner that his team’s captain, Sundin, absorbed much verbal jabs upon rejecting a potential deal at last spring’s trade deadline. While Sundin rightly had many defenders among level-headed media pundits and Leafs fans alike, all of whom pointed out that Sundin was merely exercising a right granted to him in a contract offered to him by management, McCabe appears to have fewer supporters and will likely see a diminishing number of allies the longer the stalemate progresses, which is unjust. McCabe is more often that not vilified for poor decisions with the puck in his own end and appears more of a liability than an asset now that teams have been able to shut down his once-lethal power-play point shot. He remains an adequate NHL defenceman at best, but clearly playing below the standard that his $5.75 million annual paycheque dictates.

Nevertheless, the circumstances under which he signed his contract, including the no-trade provision, are identical to those under which Sundin inked his deal. Thus, observers who are quick to absolve Sundin of any insinuation of disloyalty to the team must also be as willing to grant the same courtesy to McCabe – regardless of the level of his on-ice performance, and regardless of how many goals he accidentally scores into his own goal.

***

Elsewhere, Toronto fans have been treated to the addition of an extra pre-season game to be held at Air Canada Centre, which will be played September 22 against the Buffalo Sabres. Leafs GM Cliff Fletcher announced that – in partnership with Coca Cola Zero – the game will be free of charge. Tickets were dispensed among scores of fans present at ACC for the announcement, with the remaining tickets to be distributed among a series of promotions and contests.

While the game will be meaningless in terms of standings, at the very least an opportunity is presented for die-hard Toronto fans to take in a game in person, since much of the Leafs season ticket base is comprised of corporate seat-holders, with any remaining seats being priced outside of an affordable price range for the average patron. As a result, many Leafs home games are played under an aura of almost funereal silence, despite consistent sellouts in excess of the official rink capacity of 18,819. The corporate mindset ofthe patrons in the lower bowl of the ACC, the sub-par on-ice product, and the pacifist nature of Toronto sports fans are all contributing factors in the low-decibel crowds observed at 40 Bay Street. Those with vivid memories will recall that this is the same city in which the Toronto Blue Jays’ designated hitter Dave Winfield took an initiative to entice the home crowd to get louder with his “Winfield Wants Noise” campaign when the team was winning the first of its two World Series, back in 1992.

Leafs defenceman Carlo Colaiacovo is looking forward to playing in front of thousands of true-blue hockey fans. “As an athlete and as a player, you enjoy playing in front of that type of atmosphere, where you have that ’seventh man’ on the ice and you really take advantage of home ice,” he said.

Forward John Mitchell, who had 12 points in 19 playoff games for the AHL Marlies last year and is expected to compete for one of the Leafs forward positions, concurs that having fewer corporate suits in the stands for one game will create a much more hockey-friendly aura about the building. “I think you’ll see a lot of the avid fans, maybe not a lot of businessmen coming to the game, but more just the crazy fans that want to get into the game, fill the seats and get this place rocking!”

Finally, it does seem appropriate that the sponsor of the “Fans First Game” is Coca Cola Zero, given that the number of calories in the product is equal to the number of championships delivered by the franchise in the past forty-one years.

***

Flames captain Jarome Iginla and two-time Olympic gold medalist Cassie Campbell conducted their week-long hockey school in Calgary earlier this month. Iginla recalls his battles against newly-signed Leafs defenceman Jeff Finger, against whom he faced during several divisional games between Calgary and Finger’s former team the Colorado Avalanche.

“He battles and he competes with an edge,” assessed Iginla. “He’s a younger guy and moves the puck well. What I remember playing against him, we got into a few battles in front of the net and competing down low and stuff….and you could tell he likes to play that game and likes to compete. It’s something that we went at, a little bit.

“Every team needs a certain amount of puck-moving and feisty guys and in-your-face guys. It happened, being out on a scoring line for us, that we happened to see a lot of the competitive, feisty in-your-face style guys, and I’ve seen my share of him already!”

Meanwhile, Campbell sees the gap between the North American womens’ teams and the European womens’ teams closing very quickly as a result of last April’s World Championships held in China, during which Finland earned a bronze medal and the surprising Swiss finished fourth.

“I think have definitely changed,” she said. ”We had a lot of upsets in China. Switzerland upset Sweden, Finland upset the U.S., and the U.S. upset Canada twice. There was some great hockey, I think it was the best World Championships that I’ve ever seen, as far as competition. I think it’s unfortunate that Canada lost, but I know they’ll regroup and focus for next year. But I honestly think it’s a four or five team race in 2010 and I don’t think there’s a guarantee of a Canada-U.S. final anymore.”

***

Rob Del Mundo is the author of Off The Post, a regular column at TMLfans.ca

Tags: Bryan McCabe, Cassie Campbell, Jarome Iginla, Jeff Finger, Toronto Maple Leafs

Player Profile: Vesa Toskala

July 24, 2008 by MrT
Filed under Miscellaneous

3 Comments

TMLfans Members’ Scouting Report

Vesa Toskala was the San Jose Sharks’ 4th round (90th overall) selection in the 1995 NHL Entry draft and is yet another in a line of highly talented goaltenders to come through their system under the watchful eye of Warren Strelow.

Strelow, who passed away in April 2007, was the highly regarded goaltending coach who has also been credited (at least in part) with the successful development of Mikka Kiprusoff (later traded to the Flames) and Evgeny Nobokov (the Sharks’ current #1 goalie). When with the Devils, he also worked extensively with future Hall of Famer Martin Brodeur.

Toskala is a late-bloomer and did not begin to play regularly in the NHL until the 2005-06 season. He spent his first four post-draft years honing his craft in his native Finland, then a year in the SEL, and then finally a couple of years in the Sharks’ farm system before being called up as Nabokov’s backup.

Vesa is a butterfly style goalie with extremely sharp reflexes, a lightning-fast glove hand, and very good rebound control. He makes up for his smaller stature with exceptionally quick lateral movement, although on occasion he will over-commit to the shooter and find himself out of position for a rebound. Fortunately, his sheer athleticism will often allow him to recover in time to make a spectacular, acrobatic save. He has a reputation for never giving up on a puck.

Vesa is an excellent skater and increasingly proficient puck-handler (he scored a goal in the SEL and has averaged nearly one assist in every ten games in the last two seasons). It is an area of his game that he continues to work hard on in an effort to provide additional support for his defencemen.

Having gained a spot as the Sharks’ back-up goaltender in the 2005-06 season, Toskala proceeded to mount a charge on #1 goalie Evgeni Nabokov. An early spring injury to Nabokov and stellar play from Toskala saw him take over the starter’s role in the ‘06 playoffs where he sported a sterling .910 SV% and 2.45GAA (including one shut-out) but the team was bounced in the 2nd round by that year’s Cinderella team, the Edmonton Oilers.

In the subsequent season he spit the goaltending duties with Nabokov until an early spring groin injury forced him out of the line-up. Nabokov’s play improved during Vesa’s enforced layoff and was strong enough that he would be pegged to lead the Sharks into that year’s playoffs (where they were narrowly defeated in the 2nd round by the Red Wings).

With Nabokov earning a $5M salary on a long term contract and the much lower priced Toskala only a year away from the end of his final RFA deal and a huge pay increase, Vesa was the victim of the numbers game when the Sharks elected to trade him to the Maple Leafs — along with under-performing forward Mark Bell — on the eve of the 2007 NHL Entry draft in exchange for the Leafs’ 1st and 2nd round draft picks, as well as a 2009 5th round pick.

Vesa was John Ferguson Jr’s second attempt to resolve Toronto’s woes between the pipes. In the previous season, the Leafs’ GM had traded one of the franchise’s two top goaltending prospects, Tuukka Rask, to the Bruins in exchange for former Calder-winner Andrew Raycroft. Raycroft played the lion’s share of the games for the Leafs in the 2006-07 season — including posting a new team record for wins in a single season — but there were serious concerns with his propensity to give up very soft goals at the most inopportune moments, as well as with his poor save percentage and goals-against average.

Toskala’s first few months with the Leafs saw him share the goaltending duties evenly with Raycroft, in part because the Finn initially struggled to adjust (as most goaltenders do) to the shooters in his new Eastern Conference, and to learn to work with his defence corps that was also struggling and beset with injuries. However, by early December Toskala had adapted well enough to the team and conference that he was already clearly the better goaltender and had captured the #1 role on the team.

The Leafs did well for the following six weeks until a groin strain knocked Vesa out of the line-up…at which point a terrible string of losses with Raycroft (and even Clemmensen!) in net all but eliminated the Blue & White from playoff contention. Upon Toskala’s return, the team surged back into the hunt and played exceptionally well for the final 20 or 30 games of the season, only narrowly missing the cut.

With Toskala having firmly establishd himself as the #1 goaltender for the Leafs, interim Leafs GM Cliff Fletcher bought out the remaining year of Raycroft’s contract, signed UFA veteran goaltender Curtis Joseph top a one-year deal as a back-up, and appears perfectly happy to go forward with Vesa as his undisputed starter — at least until Justin Pogge is able to establish himself.

Many TMLfans members consider Toskala to be within the top 10 current NHL goaltenders and one of the most valuable assets that the Leafs possess. This has led to an interesting division of opinion in forum discussions. Some feel that the Leafs should hold on to Toskala since a team cannot ever become a serious contender without elite level goaltending. Others feel that by virtue of his play, he will single-handedly improve the Leafs’ results in the upcoming season and thus hamper any chances the team might have of landing one of the highly desirable top draft picks in the 2009 Entry draft. That, in conjunction with the expected high return that could be had for him in a trade, has some fans urging the Leafs to move him as part of their rebuilding process.

Member-Recommended Links

Our members recommend the following images and clips:

A YouTube highlight real from the 2007-08 season.
Another YouTube tribute, with lots of great highlights and some photos.
Vesa absolutely robs Brett McLean of the Panthers.
Vesa absolutely robs Jason Arnott of the Preds. The save is at the 4:30 mark of the clip, but the entire video includes some outstanding saves.
Vesa absolute robs Shane Doan of the Coyotes.
Vesa absolutely robs Brandon Bochenski of the Ducks.
Vesa robs pretty much everyone on the Lightning roster…and showcases some rarely-seen double-pad slides!
Vesa makes yet another amazing reaction save.
Vesa scores a goal during SEL play.
A fun piece on Vesa’s fashion sense.
Vesa likes to kid around a bit during post-game interviews (at the 5:00 mark of this clip)

Forum Thread

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Career Stats

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This Week in Leafs History: Transaction List

Sundin decision around August 1st, Schenn & DiDomenico at Team Canada Camp

Leafs NHL News

Marlies & Leafs Prospects News

NHL News & Rumours

Player Profile: Alex Steen

TMLfans Members’ Scouting Report

Member-Recommended Links

Forum Thread

Career Stats

On This Date: Leafs trade Bernie Parent

Off The Post – McCabe, “Fans First” Game, Finger

Player Profile: Vesa Toskala

TMLfans Members’ Scouting Report

Member-Recommended Links

Forum Thread

Career Stats

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