Mar 1, 2017
Leafs add more playoff experience at deadline
For the Toronto Maple Leafs, little news was good news as Wednesday’s trade deadline came and went. Their biggest move ended up being the Brian Boyle deal, but they did also acquired Stanley Cup winner Eric Fehr on deadline day. Lou Lamoriello added playoff experience and veteran leadership to his squad ahead of the final quarter of the season.
LOS ANGELES - For the Toronto Maple Leafs, little news was good news as Wednesday’s trade deadline came and went.
Their big ticket move ended up being the acquisition of veteran forward Brian Boyle on Monday, a reward from Lou Lamoriello and company to help the Maple Leafs make a run into the postseason. The only deal Toronto engaged in before Wednesday’s 3pm et trade window closed was sending defenceman Frank Corrado to the Pittsburgh Penguins in exchange for forward Eric Fehr, defenceman Steve Oleksy and a fourth-round pick. The Toronto Marlies also traded forward Colin Smith to the San Antonio Rampage.
Both Boyle and Fehr project as fourth-line players, and bring with them coveted playoff experience and veteran leadership. Boyle’s 100 playoff games since 2011 is the most in the NHL, and includes back-to-back Stanley Cup Final appearances, while Fehr won a Cup last season with the Penguins. Their addition to the young Maple Leafs was most important for management as they look toward a postseason push.
“You can speak about what you’d like to see happen, you can speak about what position you’re in, but sometimes you have to show it in something tangible,” Lamoriello said Wednesday. “The most important thing right now is we stay on the course, and not think about the end result, and continuing to do the things they’ve been doing, and let that take care of itself.”
Fehr, 31, has one year left on a $2 million contract, and had been placed on waivers by the Penguins on Tuesday. Having already played more than 40 games this season, Fehr will be eligible to be exposed in this summer’s expansion draft. Oleksy, also 31, has spent most of the last three seasons with the American Hockey League affiliates of the Washington Capitals and Penguins. His one-year, $575,000 contract expires at the end of the season. Toronto announced he will be immediately loaned to the Marlies.
Despite having approximately $15 million in cap space available after putting Joffrey Lupul, Nathan Horton and Stephane Robidas on Long-Term Injured Reserve, Lamoriello said the Maple Leafs weren’t tempted to make a bigger splash and expedite their rebuild.
“If there’s some money available, do you just spend it? Is that what you do? You have to have fiscal responsibility. You don’t acquire just to do it,” he said. “We’re not going to get off track what we’ve set out to do, which is to establish a franchise that has the ability to sustain competitiveness over a period of time and we did not want to make any transactions that would get in the way of our [young] players.”
Since being waived on Feb. 2 by Toronto, Corrado has found success with the Marlies, tallying nine points in his last 11 games. Over nearly two seasons with the Maple Leafs, Corrado skated in 41 NHL games, but only two this season. Lamoriello lauded Corrado for being a “good citizen” and for his patience, but after a tumultuous few months Corrado finally gets his fresh start.
Now Lamoreillo and the Maple Leafs are focused on what they have, and improving however they can.
“What we’ve done here is give our younger players the opportunity to be around players who have had that experience, so to help develop that culture of winning,” Lamoriello said. “We don’t want to get in our own way, so whatever we were going to do had to be a part of our process.”