The Maple Leafs

[Systemfel]

After doing to much winning I wanted to take on a really tough challenge. So I decided to start a game with the Toronto Maple Leafs of the NHL.

Before the camp, I invited several prospects, including guys like Justin Pogge and Tuukka Rask. I also fired eight scouts, since they all sucked. Guys that were hired to replace those guys were Ross Mahoney and Steve Richmond.

Trying to free up some cap space, I placed both Luke Richardson and Eddie Belfour on waivers.
Luckily Richardson was claimed by the Blackhawks. The Eagle, though, cleared waivers and was temporary assiged to the Marlies as I was looking to add a player or two.

First I set my eyes on Chris Drury in Buffalo, offering both picks and prospects. No avail. The Sabres traded their captain to the Preds for young D prospect Kevin Klein and Finnish goaltender Teemu Lassila, who's currently toiling in the SEL.

Then teams were offering for the Jackets' defenseman Radoslav Suchy. I offered up Alexander Khavanov and a couple of prospects for him.

Jay McKee of Buffalo was also being shopped. Figured I could use him and offered Khavanov and a 3rd for Jay.

A few days later, McKee was also traded to Nashville, joining former teammate Drury in Tennessee.

Suchy was traded to the Pens in exchange for center prospect Jordan Morrison.

So there I stood with a top-six of McCabe, Kaberle, Khavanov, Pilar, Belak and Berg. Not much to brag about there, eh?

It delighted me that Detroit placed grinding winger (and one of my favorite players) Kirk Maltby on the block. I quickly put in an offer including 21-year-old Russian defenseman Maxim Semenov. Kenny Holland accepted and Malts was headed to TO!

Exhibtion Scores
MTL @ TOR: 8-5
OTT @ TOR: 3-6
NYR @ TOR: 4-4
BOS @ TOR: 4-5

Heading towards opening night, this is the line-up I've set:

Darcy Tucker - Mats Sundin - Alexander Steen
Kirk Maltby - Eric Lindros - Jeff O'Neill
Alexei Ponikarovsky - Jason Allison - Nik Antropov
Chad Kilger - Clarke Wilm - Tie Domi

Tomas Kaberle - Bryan McCabe
Alexander Khavanov - Karel Pilar
Aki Berg - Wade Belak

Goal: Ed Belfour, Mikael Tellqvist

Obviously I called up Belfour after failing to aquire Drury. I've had a few trades lined up for Eddie, but I'm leaning towards keeping him. For now, at least... :k-
I assigned both Kyle Wellwood and Matt Stajan to the 'A' to give them more playing time. Pilar hurt his elbow during the Bruins game, so Carlo Colaiacovo got a call-up.

[E5150_ca]

With my experience with the Leafs, you have to keep a very close eye on the AHL team, as msot of the prospects are make or break, depending on how their time in the AHL is.


Good luck though.

[munky]

Belfour cleared waivers? Awesome.

I'm not suprised though, his salary is far too big for most teams to take on and keep a team in front of him.

[Systemfel]

Wrapping up my first 20 games as the Leafs GM...

After starting Belfour in first four games, I tried putting him on waivers again. This time the Jackets felt like picking him up. This freed up $4.6M in cap room, but now I only head Tellqvist in goal. This forced me to call up J.F. Racine from the Marlies to back Telly up.

After waiving Belfour, I got a news item that Eric Lindros would be out for two months with some kind of leg injury. Replacing Lindros in the line-up was rookie winger Roman Kukumberg.

Since I'd lost Lindros, I had to juggle the lines a bit. Allison left the third unit to center Maltby and O'Neill, and Kukumberg became a linemate of Antropov and Ponikarovsky.

Kukumberg was also placed on the second power-play unit with Allison and O'Neill. Time after time, Roman lit the lamp with those guys. So he got promoted to the second line! To make room there, Maltby was put on the third unit.

Trying to spice my power-play a bit, I put O'Neill up with Sundin. This seemed to be such a neat combo, so I put them together on the topline as well. Tucker was put with Kukumberg and Allison (who has yet to get injured! ).

Ever since making those changes, the team has been on a huge roll. We've been all from fourth in the conference to first!

However, when Tellqvist got a small eye injury at practice, I was forced to play J.S. Aubin (who had been called up) for a couple of games. That didn't go very well. Luckily the Canucks were trying to get rid of Dan Cloutier, who was just coming back from his ACL injury. I offered up a 7th rounder, and Dave Nonis accepted the offer. Cloutier now belonged to the Leafs!

Finnish d-man Aki Berg had some sort of knee injury and was to be out for two months, so I threw his lazy arse on waivers. It pleased me that the Devils had rugged rearguard Richard Matvichuk on the block. I sent Lou Lamoriello an offer for him including Frölunda's Finnish defenseman Markus Seikola.
Still waiting for his response, though...

League Leaders

Points
1. Jason Allison, 16 goals, 15 assists for 31 points
2. Mats Sundin, 13 G, 18 A for 31 pts
3. Peter Forsberg, 12 G, 19 A for 31 pts
4. Henrik Zetterberg, 7 G, 24 A for 31 pts
5. Simon Gagne, 9 G, 20 A for 29 pts

Goals
1. Ilya Kovalchuk, 17 goals
2. Allison, 16 G
3. Bill Guerin, 16 G
4. Alexander Ovechkin, 16 G
5. Shane Doan, 14 G

Assists
1. Zetterberg, 29 A
2. Saku Koivu, 22 A
3. Gagne, 20 A
4. Forsberg, 19 A
5. Staal, 18 A

Oh, and just when I finished this write-up, the Devils sent me an e-mail that they had accepted the Matvichuk offer.

[Systemfel]

Something I forgot to write after the first 20 games was that I had sent d-man Alexander Khavanov and prospects Robert Earl and Chad Rau to the Ducks in exchange for the rugged Ruslan Salei. Salei makes $450k less than Khavanov, so I also freed up some valuble cap space that would be useful down the road.

As you can see, I also stated that Jason Allison had been able to stay healthy...obviously I didn't *knock on wood* after writing that. Allison had the same injury that Lindros got. The Allison injury forced me to put the rookie leader in scoring, Alex Steen, on the second line with Kilger and Kukumberg. A month later Steen dislocated a shoulder and would be out for two months. Despite only playing five games, he was name Rookie of the Month for December.

Luckily, Lindros returned to the line-up four days before losing Steen. 'Big E' centered the line with Kukumberg and Kilger, a line that would score six out of eight goals in an OT win against Anaheim in Lindros' comeback.

Rookie winger Roman Kukumberg was named Rookie of the Month for November after scoring 15 points in ten games.

Journeyman defenseman Joe DiPenta, who had been claimed from Anaheim in October, played a few games in the absence of fellow rearguard Tomas Kaberle before got an ACL injury. Joe would be out for five months. The injuries to Steen, Allison, DiPenta and Kaberle were not the only guys to go down with injuries during the second segment. Right-side d-man Bryan McCabe was out for about a week with a shoulder injury and Karel Pilar was missing for nearly three weeks with a wrist injury. Recently waived Wade Belak was called up from the Marlies and so was Brendan Bell. Even Ian White was up for a few games in mid-December.

Some pleasant news: McCabe signed a new contract that would pay him $15M over the next three years. The deal also included a no-trade clause and everyone was very happy to finally get it done. Qualifying offers were made to Bell, White, Stajan, Wellwood, Colaiacovo and Pilar. They all rejected their offers.

Stats Report
* The Leafs are currently in the lead of the Eastern Conference with 64 points, six ahead of the Flyers and 14 ahead of the Lightning.

* Sundin, who has scored a total of 61 points, leads the NHL in scoring. Carolina centerman Eric Staal is second with 54 points.

* Defensemen Kaberle and McCabe are first and second in NHL icetime, averaging almost 30 minutes a night.

* McCabe also leads all defensemen with 38 points in 36 games.

Current Line-up
Tucker - Sundin - O'Neill
Kilger - Lindros - Kukumberg
Maltby - Stajan - Antropov
Ponikarovsky - Lefebvre - Domi

Kaberle - McCabe
Matvichuk - Salei
Colaiacovo - Pilar

Transfers
Agitating winger Guillaume Lefebvre was claimed off waivers from Pittsburgh.
Goaltender Sebastien Caron was obtained the Penguins in exchange for Mikael Tellqvist. The Leafs also received a 2006 2nd rounder.
The Leafs also traded forward Jeremy Williams and a 4th rounder to the Rangers for forward Ryan Hollweg.
Darcy Verot was signed to a two-year, $900k contract.

[timmy_t]

Where's Mariusz Czerkawski?

[Systemfel]

Where's Mariusz Czerkawski?

He's in Boston of course.

[timmy_t]

Oh, ok, roster update...

[Systemfel]

Okay, I'm not gonna play with this team anymore. I thought I'd be taking on a huge challenge, but it turned out it was too easy to manage the Leafs.

[E5150_ca]

Yup, they are wayyyyyyyyyyyy over powered in thes game. Or maybe its a true representation of their skill, and Quinn just sucks.