January 7, 2008
Leafs in a World of Hurt
By Darryl Dobbs, TheFourthPeriod.com
There are two types of teams
that poolies like to stay away from: stifling defensive ones
and just plain bad ones.
The Toronto Maple Leafs fall neatly into the latter category.
Over the last several years, fantasy junkies shied away from
the Devils, the Stars and the Wild because of their defensive
system, the general attitude being that offense goes there to
die. They also shied away from Phoenix because they didn’t
boast any stars or any hope. The Coyotes were held in even
more contempt if fantasy leagues carried over into the
postseason.
Well, Toronto is this year’s
Phoenix.
You can turn your fortunes around the long, thorough way – as
Pittsburgh has done successfully and Phoenix, Los Angeles and
Chicago have chosen. Or you identify a weak season early and
turn things around in a year, such as what the Flyers did.
Or, if you are in the Leafs organization, you can identify
early that you will be lucky to finish in ninth place, so you
throw all of what little future that you have at quick fixes
that may or may not push you into eighth. That happened what –
five years ago? Can you imagine a Leaf team with Tuukka Rask
in the farm system, Brad Boyes on the top line taking over for
an injured Steve Sullivan?
The team needs defensive defensemen and a couple of elite
forwards – would Jason Smith help with the former? He was
given to the Oilers for a song. Would Mark Stuart slide nicely
into their corps? Well, when they acquired Owen Nolan back in
2003, they traded Boyes, Alyn McCauley and a first-round pick
that became Mark Stuart. Could the Leafs use Rob Schremp in
their system? Well, he was available for their first-round
pick in 2004…but they sent that pick to the Rangers in the
Brian Leetch deal.
Before the lockout, the Leafs could buy their way to sixth
place and maybe get into the second round. That can’t happen
anymore and the organization is slow to pick up on that fact.
So the team has eroded over the last three years and what you
have now are Mats Sundin, Tomas Kaberle, Vesa Toskala and
three decent prospects. And although Toskala is a solid
goaltender, how good can his numbers be on such a poor team?
Sundin will likely not be around next season, so what happens
then? Will poolies be fighting over players they think might
‘get’ to play on Nik Antropov’s line? That just doesn’t have a
good ring to it.
If you aren’t currently in a keeper league, you probably could
not imagine how difficult it is to trade a Leaf if you own
one. The reactions:
Sundin? Naw, too old.
Antropov? Naw, he could get hurt any game now.
Any other Leaf forward? Why would I want him?
In the system they have Anton Stralman, who may one day (in
seven years) be as good as Kaberle. They have Jiri Tlusty who
may one day be a 75-point two-way winger. They have Justin
Pogge who may one day be as good, but no better than, Toskala.
The longer Toronto takes to have a fire sale, the longer
poolies will take to warm up to this team. As it is, this is
one poolie who would not touch one of these players with a
10-foot pole this year or next.
Meanwhile...
...Montreal sophomore Andrei Kostitsyn has shown
indications that he will be taking over the Montreal offense
in a year or two. He has only been held off the scoresheet
twice in the last 14 contests and he has 15 points in that
span. His brother Sergei was called up 11 games ago and that
seemed to spur both of them on.
...The Avs have just 28 goals in their last 12 games –
ever since their nine-goal outburst December 9. Obviously
hurting from the loss of Joe Sakic and Ryan Smyth, Paul
Stastny has just five points in that span and Milan Hejduk has
four.
Stop the bleeding! Pick up Dobber’s Midseason Fantasy Guide –
released January 5 – right now and turn your fantasy team
around! Only at www.dobberhockey.com
