WHO WILL THE LEAFS BUYOUT?

by Mike Jack, Staff Writer

With the NHL’s player buyout period for contracts starting today (June 15th), many hockey fans are wondering how the Toronto Maple Leafs, who have promised to give the team an extreme makeover, will deal with their four players with no-trade clauses and some of their other high priced players that have generated no trade interest from other teams.

Earlier this week, Toronto not only announced the hiring of new Head Coach, Ron Wilson, but the team has also claimed that the search for a new GM will be put on hold until the 2009 off-season and Interim General Manager, Cliff Fletcher, will likely ride-out the 2008-09 season.

When asked if he’d be looking into buying out any contracts during a trade deadline press conference, Fletcher simply responded “Absolutely.” Fletcher’s hands were a little tied in his effort to rebuild the team on trade deadline day by Bryan McCabe, Pavel Kubina, Darcy Tucker, Tomas Kaberle and Captain Mats Sundin who all had no-trade clauses in their contracts. Mats Sundin’s contract expired at the end of the season, so he’s now an unrestricted free agent and can sign with any team if he doesn’t decide to retire.

Buyouts seem inevitable in Toronto as Fletcher told the press during a press conference after the last game of the Leafs season that “There’s a time in the off season where Kubina can be traded. The other three (Kaberle, Tucker and McCabe) still have no trade clauses, but if they need to be dealt with, they’ll be dealt with.”

However, in several other interviews, when Fletcher was asked which players he’s mostly to keep through the rebuilding process to build the team around, he’s indicated that though every player has a price in trade, Tomas Kaberle is a player he’d like to keep around.

Here’s my list of the Top 5 Toronto Maple Leafs that will likely be bought out in the next two weeks:

5. Pavel Kubina: He has been criticized for not living up to his pay grade since arriving in Toronto as an unrestricted free agent in 2006. Kubina thrived in the last couple months of the season and it may be enough to save his job.

4. Mark Bell: The Leafs never had much interest in obtaining Bell in the first place. He hasn’t lived up to the potential he had in his rookie year. San Jose pretty much dumped Bell in the Leafs’ laps as part of the trade that brought Vesa Toskala to Toronto. A cap hit of $2.167 million per season makes him the 3rd highest paid player on the Leafs despite seeing most of his ice time on the 4th line if he’s even dressed. He only has one year left in his contract, so his effect on the cap if bought out would be minimal and for only two seasons

3. Darcy Tucker: Injury prone Tucker had a horrible season, and seems to be nearing the end of his career due to reoccurring injuries. The only trouble is that the Leafs would have to pay out $1million over 6 seasons. This could hinder the Leafs future more than help it.

2. Andrew Raycroft: $2 million for an unreliable back-up goaltender is ridiculous. Nobody is interested in Raycroft as I’m sure the Leafs would have moved him by now if there was any interest at all. With a minimal cap hit over two seasons, the buyout would definitely be worth it.

1. Bryan McCabe: With a cap hit of $5.75 million, McCabe is the 10th highest paid defenseman despite ranking 68th in points by a defenseman this year. His defensive play is sub-par, and Fletcher had commented that even if McCabe waives his no trade clause, there is no interest in him from other teams with his current price tag. Though his cap hit would be about $1.92 million over 6 seasons, I’m sure the Leafs could get a much better defenseman in free agency to replace him for less than $3 million per season. He’s the most likely to go.