Year End Report: Toronto Maple Leafs

Believe it or not, the Toronto Maple Leafs' 2009-2010 season started off with hope, ambition, and expectations from its loyal fans. However, things turned very ugly, very early, starting the season with eight straight losses. It was the worst nightmare coming true for all Leaf fans. Things would get better, but not by much.

After re-tooling his defense and making a blockbuster trade for RW Phil Kessel in the offseason, Maple Leafs General Manager, Brian Burke, was poised to see an overall improvement from his team. The Toronto Maple Leafs would show flashes of strong play, but their lack of depth and talent was exposed as the season wore on.

This would lead to an incredible re-tooling of the Toronto Maple Leafs by Brian Burke and his staff. Burke shipped out forwards Niklas Hagman, Alexi Ponikarovsky, Matt Stajan, Jason Blake, Lee Stempniak, Jamal Mayers, defenseman Ian White, and goaltender Vesa Toskala. This would bring some low draft picks, D Dion Phaneuf, LW Fredrik Sjostrom, D Keith Aulie, C Luca Caputi, and G Jean-Sebastien Giguere, effectively making Toronto the youngest team in the league.

Currently sitting last in the Eastern Conference, and second last in the NHL, the only objective of the Maple Leafs now is to climb up the standings as high as possible, and continue to develop their young players.

THE OFFENSE
The majority of Toronto's offense has come from Kessel, Hagman, and Ponikarovsky, but with only Kessel sticking around, many young players have been given the opportunity to step up and show the Leafs what they have to offer.

The offensive ability of Phil Kessel has never been questioned. Even playing on a lowly Leafs team, Kessel has still managed to net 28 goals and 51 points in 61 games. At 22 years of age, he is undoubtedly Toronto's best forward and will be for a long time. As the Leafs get better around him, Kessel will prove himself to be one of the league's premier scoring threats.

Luca Caputi, coming to Toronto from the Penguins in the Ponikarovsky trade, has looked very comfortable and has shown flashes of brilliance, scoring 5 points in 10 games as a Leaf. He will be given the opportunity to earn a full-time roster spot next season.

Now considered Toronto's best two-way forward, Nikolai Kulemin has shown that he can tangle with the NHL's best players. His size and defensive abilities have been on display as of late, while also contributing 32 points in 69 games.

Along with these young forwards, Toronto's future does look promising. Nazem Kadri has had another impressive year with the London Knights, while Viktor Stalberg, Tyler Bozak, John Mitchell, Fredrik Sjostrom, Colton Orr, Christian Hanson, and Andre Deveaux all look to be good assets for Toronto.

THE DEFENSE
The past year has seen Burke almost completely rebuild Toronto's defense, starting with the free agent signings of Mike Komisarek and Francois Beauchemin. Burke then promoted Carl Gunnarsson from the minors when Komisarek went down with an injury. Next was another blockbuster trade, sending the steady Ian White to Calgary for all-star Dion Phaneuf. This was a bold move on Burke's part, but Toronto's defense is ultimately a lot tougher and talented.

With these moves, Toronto will undoubtedly head into next season with one of the best defense groups in the league. Especially if Schenn continues to develop and Kaberle sticks around. Kaberle, Phaneuf, Beauchemin, Komisarek, Schenn, and Gunnarsson look like a very capable group that should continue to improve for years to come.

THE GOALIES
As the season started to wind down, it was clear that Toskala was lacking the confidence and motivation needed to be Toronto's number one goaltender. A change was the best thing for both Toskala and the Maple Leafs. In what some might call a genius trade by Burke, he shipped Toskala and Jason Blake to the Anaheim Ducks for goalie J.S. Giguere.

With rookie Jonas Gustavsson and veteran Giguere now sharing the load, the Leafs have looked much more improved in the goaltending position. Unless Burke is planning another big move, this will most likely be the goaltending tandem for the Maple Leafs next season. It would seem that Gustavsson is Toronto's goalie of the future, pending a contract renewal this summer by Burke.

THE SCOOP
Just like I said with the Edmonton Oilers, it has been a very tough season for the Toronto Maple Leafs and its fans. What started as a fools optimism, turned into a swift realization of what the Leafs really were, a team of hard workers that lacked superstar talent in all positions.

As Burke moulds this team into his own, you can bet he will do what he can to make the Leafs a winner. Even though Toronto will not have their first round draft picks for the next two years, there are a lot of good things for Leaf fans to look forward to.

They have a couple young stars to build around in Kessel and Phaneuf, some very capable veterans in Kaberle and Beauchemin, a veteran goalie who has a Stanley Cup ring, and most importantly a decent group of young players on the cusp of moving up to the next level. Future success for the Leafs will depend on whether or not Kadri, Kulemin, Caputi, Bozak, Mitchell, Schenn, Gunnarsson, Sjostrom, Stalberg, Hanson, and Deveaux can continue to work hard and develop their skills.