It's a textbook case of getting dimes on the dollar. It's the worst trade in Toronto since Vincer Carter was traded for, well, a sack of nothing. Worse then the Roger Clemens trade. It's even worse then trading for Doug Gilmour a couple years back.
As a Leafs fan, it's pretty much a final straw for me this season.
And, hopefully, the last move made by John Furguson Jr (We'll get to that later).
By trading Mikael Tellqvist to Phoenix for Tyson Nash, the Leafs have made maybe the most confusing move I've seen all year. Gone is a solid, if expensive, #3 goalie for an enforcer, a guy who'll be hard pressed to make the fourth line, if he even cracks the lineup at all (He hasn't even played an NHL game all year).
I don't get it. The Leafs need better scoring - I hate to say it, but if they can get a solid forward for Steen, I'd be okay with it - not some guy who can't score (despite his only youtube clip : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h0VFIU8fW_Y ) and won't even play.
Have I said that enough times? This guy is going right to the Marlies. They just traded a solid backup, although one that's hard pressed to be a #2 on Toronto's stuffed goalie squad, for a guy who won't even be playing for them. Forget the Vince Carter trade - at least the Raptors ended up with something.
So, what does this do for the Leafs? I don't know - their cap is barely any different (Tellqvist was only getting $525,000 a year) and they have a guy who TSN calls "extremely injury-prone" and only has the potential to be a "fourth line agitator". It doesn't make any sense to me. None. If the Leafs had traded for a draft pick, that would make sense - I guess. If they had traded for - okay, Phoenix doesn't have a heck of a lot - something other then a washed up enforcer, I would get it.
The Leafs were getting rid of a goalie they didn't need to a team that really needed one - they should have been the sellers, they should have been able to land a prospect for him - and they really didn't get anything for him.
Yes, this is a minor move - but it's what seperates good General Managers from the great GMs - John Furgusion went with what he could get, not what he needed (better defence, maybe a scorer).
And by doing that, trading dimes on the dollar, he's left me angry enough to not care about the Leafs for now. When Rob Babcock pulled this kind of stunt he was escorted out of town. The Blue Jays let Gord Ash go after a series of trades crippled them in the late 1990s.
I think it's time for JFJ to join them.
