Early last week, defenceman Francois Beauchemin was traded by the Toronto Maple Leafs back to the team he came over from a couple years back, the Anaheim Ducks
Word late today that off-season pickup from the Stanley Cup winning Chicago Black Hawks, Kris Versteeg was traded by the Leafs to Philadelphia for a couple of draft picks including a first rounder (can you say pick #25)!
So it begins...the escape from Leafland that appears to happen annually. Once promising hockey players who end up on the Leafs are given their walking papers and sent to teams that are truly more competitive or even Stanley Cup contenders. Slowly, they regain their skill and confidence on their new teams, released from the shackles of being a Toronto Maple Leaf and the pressures that accompanies this curse.
Good luck to those traded away. History tends to favour those traded away from the Leafs and allows them to salvage a somewhat decent hockey career elsewhere! Let's hope to see some more of these trades happen over the next couple of weeks right up to trade deadline day on February 28!
Update-February 18:
The exodus continued earlier today when career Leaf, Tomas Kaberle, finally waived his no-trade clause and was sent to the Boston Bruins for both a young prospect player and draft picks.
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