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Leaf Rumours

number17 said:
I don't think Burke even tried to re-sign Poni.

Now, me personally, I'd love to take Poni back at the right price.

But I don't think Burke is interested AT ALL.
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Always loved Poni, but I'm not sure he's the best use of cap space.

If we're going to see what our youngsters truly have to offer, we're gonna have to devote the top spots to them. That means that there are already several spots spoken for, especially if we want Kadri to be playing.

Kulemin Bozak Kessel
Stalberg Kadri xxxxxxxx
Caputi Grabovski Hanson

Eight spots already filled, one spot open for an acquisition of a top tier guy. But of course I think we should try to upgrade by bringing in two top players, so move Hanson down to the 4th line and you can have this:

xxxxxxx Bozak Kessel
xxxxxxx Kadri Kulemin
Stalberg Grabo Caputi

Opens the door for two good players. Maybe you do approach it by trying to get a top flight guy and a second liner. So, maybe you fill those in with Marleau and Poni.

I'd be happy with that, but I'd love it if we could nab two amazing players and really fill out the lines with some skill.
 
I hope Burke has some magic up his sleeve - otherwise Kulemin may very well have played his last game as a Leaf.

Let's get the Kuley rally going.
 
Poni and Schitt are two guys remaining that I cannot stand on the Leafs. One gone, maybe the other soon.
 
Habsy said:
20/20 hindsight? Burke pays the extra million to get Cammalleri and gets Hall/Seguin too.
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20/20 Hindsight?



The Leafs never trade the 2nd round pick to L.A. for Aki Berg, and take Cammaleri with that pick, just like the Kings did.
 
20/20 hindsight, burk still trades picks for Kessel, and releases Toskala.

Realistically speaking though, if the Leafs had Cammi/a healthy Kessel to start the year they don't go 0-8-1 and they don't finish 29th.
 
I disagree. If he knew it would be the #2 pick this year he doesn't do the deal. It just makes absolutely no sense.
 
Sure it makes sense, you might disagree with the reasoning behind it, but there is sense in there. It's simple.

If you believe that Kessel is better than Hall will ever be, you pay the premium to make sure that you get your guy. At the absolute least, you're paying to get a player 4 years further along in his development.

There's plenty of sense at work in a situation like that, but it all boils down to the question I posed earlier. Would Burke be willing to knowingly overpay to get the player he wants. The answer is absolutely, 100% without a doubt, yes.
 
Habsy's right on this one. With some hindsight, Burke absolutely goes harder after Cammalleri and keeps the pick. No he wouldn't trade Kessel for # 2 right now because it would make him look like a fool, but I don't believe he'd make that trade if he knew then what he knows now.

All that being said, it's not that big of a deal because Kessel's still pretty damn good, and young.

If that Columbus pick is on the table, I believe Burke will go after it hard. He would absolutely love to walk into that room with Kessel and a top 4 pick.
 
I don't think he would've done it either, but I don't think Cammalleri/Kessel was an either/or situation. If he landed Cammalleri I think he still would've tried to pry a 22 year old Kessel out of Boston.
 
In hindsight Burke would have still made the trade and would have done more to improve the team, because he wants to win, not tank.
 
Yup, no way Burke would've made the trade knowing what he knows now. And forget about Cammi, he wasn't coming anyway, so he's irrelevant. Which means if we hadn't gotten Kessel, we'd have finished at least as bad as we did, maybe even challenged for first overall.

So no, Burke doesn't pay an extra 1st and 2nd to get a guy who might just be a 4 yr older version of Hall or Seguin, or potentially worse.

But what's done is done. It's not a disaster or anything. I think of it now as Kessel canceling out this year's 1st, so what we really lost was a 2011 1st and 2010 2nd. And Kessel's gonna likely end up as a consistent 40 goal scorer, and that's pretty good.

Now we gotta just get really creative and bring in a couple of stud forwards and all is well in Leafland, seeing as to how I think we're gonna challenge for first in the division next year.

You heard it here first.
 
hockeylover said:
I don't think he would've done it either, but I don't think Cammalleri/Kessel was an either/or situation. If he landed Cammalleri I think he still would've tried to pry a 22 year old Kessel out of Boston.
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I believe he still would have tried as well........but the odds of him agreeing to move two 1st's and a 2nd, is reduced if he's already secured the addition of a scoring winger like Cammalleri.



The one thing I've always been curious about........is if Boston would have accepted.


Kaberle + 2010 2nd + 2011 1st for Kessel.
 
but the odds of him agreeing to move two 1st's and a 2nd, is reduced if he's already secured the addition of a scoring winger like Cammalleri.
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What? Seems like he'd be even more willing to make that deal, as getting Cammalleri AND Kessel theoretically pushes those 1sts and 2nd to a lower position.
 
hockeylover said:
What? Seems like he'd be even more willing to make that deal, as getting Cammalleri AND Kessel theoretically pushes those 1sts and 2nd to a lower position.
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If he's already got Cammalleri, he's got less of a need to add top line scoring......and would be less likely to pay a premium to acquire it.


Without Kessel, we had sweat **** all.........he needed to add scoring punch, and Kessel was about as good as you could ask for....but he came at a steep price. A price Burke was willing to pay because (a) Kessel is a top scoring talent, but also because (b) we had no real scoring punch for our top line, long term.
 
BG said:
I hope Burke has some magic up his sleeve - otherwise Kulemin may very well have played his last game as a Leaf.
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Yeah, Burkie's not going to be intimidated. He'll pull the trigger if he has to.

I'm wondering if the Leafs were a little too effusive in their praise of Kulemin towards the end of the season, lol. The agent is obviously calling their bluff there.
 
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