HAGMAN, FINGER & CUJO: WHAT WILL THE MAPLE LEAFS DO NEXT?

by Mike Jack, Mike Jack's Hockey Articles

Yesterday, the Toronto Maple Leafs signed winger, Niklas Hagman, defenseman, Jeff Finger and goaltender Curtis Joseph on the first day of the NHL free agent signing period.

Coach Ron Wilson has said Hagman will most likely play on a checking line with Jamal Mayers who was acquired in a trade with the St. Louis Blues just before the draft. Hagman scored 27 goals last season with the Dallas Star. He was signed for a reasonable $3 million per season.

Finger, who played with Colorado last season, will play a defensive role and be paired with an offensive defenseman (Kaberle, Kubina or McCabe) on one of the teams top two pairing. Finger will be paid $3.5 million each season for the next four years. It seems like his contract is based on what Toronto GM, Cliff Fletcher thinks he can do, and not what he's done already which may be similar to what happened when Bryan McCabe was signed a few years ago, and that didn't really work out. Unlike McCabe though, Finger's proven that he's very skilled defensively. The risk is predicting the amount of offense he'll provide. Fletcher seems to think he's going to improve quite a bit.

Joseph was the Leafs starting goaltender from 1998 to 2002, and now returns to back up Vesa Toskala. He left Toronto for a chance to win the Stanley Cup with Detroit, but ended up riding the pine when Dominik Hasek signed with Detroit soon after. Joseph signed with Toronto for only $700,000. He proved last season with Calgary that he can be effective in a back-up role despite being 41 years old. He's a way better goalie than Andrew Raycroft and they're paying him $1.5million less. That makes Raycroft's buy out cap hit of nearly $740,000 this season worth it. Now that the Leafs have gotten rid of most of their old players, CuJo will provide a veteran presence and mentor Toronto’s younger goalies. The best part is that CuJo fans can now reuse and recycle their old Toronto CuJo jerseys, thus saving the planet.

So, what’s Toronto’s next move?

In a July 1^st press conference, Fletcher said they'd sign another defenseman in the next couple days. I think the best fit of the remaining UFA defensemen is Steve Montador. They should be able to get him for less than $3 million and he’s only 28 years old.

If the Leafs do sign another defensemen though, they'll have eight defenseman signed (Tomas Kaberle, Pavel Kubina, McCabe, Finger, Anton Stralman, Ian White and Carlo Colaiacovo). I think that means that either Kubina, McCabe or maybe even Colaiacovo will be traded. Now that Brian Campbell, Mark Streit, Wade Redden, Michal Rozsival, Brooks Orpik and Ron Hainsey are all signed, teams looking for an offensive defenseman may be willing to dish out the dollars for McCabe or Kubina.

McCabe said he'd waiver his no trade clause to go to New York because that's where his wife is from, but the Rangers just signed Redden and Rozsival and the Islanders signed Streit. The Islanders do still have nearly $19 million in cap space though, and may want another offensive defenseman. Since it’s clear that Toronto know longer wants him, McCabe may be willing to settle for somewhere close to New York like New Jersey, Philadelphia or Buffalo.

Kubina may have earned another chance with the Leafs after scoring 40 points last season, but at 31, he's now the fifth oldest Leaf and one of seven Leafs that are 30+. Kubina’s contract only allows him to be traded before August 15^th.

Colaiacovo could be gone for the same reason that Kyle Wellwood left, he's hurt often. If Kubina or McCabe go, he'd be a good sixth or seventh defenseman though. If Luke Schenn, the 5^th overall pick in the 2008 draft, makes a push in camp, he may too take Colaiacovo's spot.

Now, that most of the really good UFA forwards have been signed, I think the Leafs might resign Mats Sundin (pictured backed when he had hair). They have $10.8 million in cap space, and it seems like Fletcher is going to stand firm on his $7 million offer. That's a descent raise from the $5.5 million he made last year but obviously a lot less than Vancouver's offer of $10 million per season. That would make him the highest paid player in the league. I don't think anyone will match that, so he'll probably either go to the Canucks or the Leafs. I think Sundin will be willing to take a pay cut to be where he wants to be just like Marian Hossa did. I don't think he'll sign until August though. Sundin has also received offers from the Canadiens and the Rangers.

I think the Leafs will give Jason Blake another shot. He'll be 35 this season, but he had some stuff to deal with next year like cancer. He could still be a top scorer. It looks like the Leafs may be keeping Mark Bell around too. I think that huge hit on Daniel Alfredsson at the end of the year saved his career.

Besides Fletcher’s promise to sign another defenseman soon, any other moves the Leafs perform this off season will depend on whether or not they trade Kubina or McCabe and whether or not Sundin decides to sign back with Toronto.< These situations may not be resolved for another month. Toronto has just enough cap space right now to sign Sundin and a top six defenseman. If Kubina or McCabe are dealt or if Sundin signs elsewhere, they’ll have some more cap room to bring in a two or three younger second or third line UFA forwards like Josef Vasicek, Antti Meittinen, Matt Cooke and/or Jason Williams.