LOOKING FOR THE BEST SPORTS HANDICAPPERS ONLINE? WE\u2019VE GOT YOUR BACK CLICK HERE \u2014\u2013><\/strong><\/a><\/p>\nThe Leafs also acquired former Conn Smythe and Stanley Cup winning goaltender, Jean-Sebastiane Giguere from the Anaheim Ducks in a separate deal.<\/p>\n
So what does this mean for the largest hockey market in the world? Well, they got a lot younger, losing about four years in average.<\/p>\n
They only had to give up a bunch of mid-level players that hadn\u2019t been playing up to their potential. Had GM Brian Burke had to give up more of his draft picks (he\u2019s already given up his next two first rounders \u2013 which could end up being very high picks) there would certainly be some serious backlash.<\/p>\n
But the only major risk the Leafs took was to take on the contract of Phaneuf for the next four years, at around $6.5 million a season. Phaneuf has shown signs of brilliance in Calgary, but his development has been stunted in the past few years. Phaneuf\u2019s thunderous open-ice hits and his blast of a shot on the point make him a big asset at times. But he can be a\u00a0big<\/em> liability defensively.<\/p>\nBut the Leafs did get rid of some of their own liabilities \u2013 most notably goaltender Vesa Toskala who got shipped to Anaheim. Toskala\u2019s shaky, inconsistent play had become symbolic of all that had gone wrong in Leafs Nation.<\/p>\n
Regardless, ever since the salary cap came in a few years ago, there have rarely, if ever, been such big trades in the NHL \u2013 especially in the middle of January, months before the trade deadline. So at the very least, the Toronto Maple Leafs have brought a little bit of excitement to the pre-Olympic hockey landscape.
\n<\/strong><\/p>\nSPORTSBOOK.COM PROMOS \u2013 JOIN and GET up to $100 FREE \u2013 10% New Member Bonus on your first deposit. $20 Mobile Free Play \u2013 Stay on the go and in the dough with Sportsbook.com Mobile. Bet now! Join Now<\/h3>\n
<\/strong>
\nJason `Boneyard` Perry, born and raised in the forests and ice of British Columbia, Canada, is a universal sports fan, writing with an eternally black eye and bloody fist.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Calgary Flames have traded defenceman Dion Phaneuf, forward Fredrik Sjostrom, and prospect defenceman Keith Aulie to the Toronto Maple Leafs in exchange for forwards Matt Stajan, Niklas Hagman, Jamal Mayers and defenceman Ian White…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":68,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1141],"tags":[23618,23563,23562,23614,23621,23626,23625,23622,23620,23623,22934,23616,23615,23617,23624,23619],"class_list":["post-18775","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sports","tag-calgary-flames","tag-dion-phaneuf","tag-flames-trade","tag-flames-trade-phaneuf-to-maple-leafs","tag-fredrik-sjostrom","tag-ian-white","tag-jamal-mayers","tag-keith-aulie","tag-maple-leafs-trade","tag-matt-stajan","tag-nhl-headlines","tag-nhl-hockey-news","tag-nhl-trade-news","tag-nhl-trade-rumors","tag-niklas-hagman","tag-toronto-maple-leafs"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18775","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/68"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18775"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18775\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":108618,"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18775\/revisions\/108618"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18775"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18775"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18775"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}