NHL Season Preview: Toronto Maple Leafs

Who's In: Vesa Toskala (Trade-SJ), Mark Bell (Trade -SJ), Jason Blake (UFA - NYI), Scott Clemmensen (UFA-NJD)

Who's Out: Mike Peca (UFA-CLB), Jeff O'Neill (UFA), Yanic Perreault (UFA - CHI), J.S. Aubin (UFA -- LAK), Travis Green (Who Cares?)

Who's in Jail: Mark Bell (DUI)

Who Should be in Jail (by Bell's metric): Dany Heatley (Contract Year -- OTT).

What's Changed: Maybe, just maybe, the rebuilding process that was hinted at last season with JFJ's signing of stop-gap, bargain UFA's like Jeff O'Neill and Mike "No Knees" Peca is actually taking place for real in the Center of the Hockey Universe. With the exception of signing, and over-paying for, Jason Blake, the Leafs were relatively quiet this off-season. A quick scan of the roster yields something not seen round those parts in quite the long time, a gaggle of younglings and maturing twentysomethings. More shocking than that is the fact that most of them have been nurtured within the bosom of the Maple Leafs farm system.

Now, I have to say that while I haven't been a fan of many of JFJ's moves since he took over for Pat Quinn, but it may just be that he's been able to perform the kind of stealth rebuild that one has to in a market like Toronto's. The Leafs of the post-lockout NHL haven't been bloody awful, but they haven't been anything to write home about either. But, that said, Ferguson has been able to make just enough headlines and personnel moves in the moment to field a team that wouldn't cause a full-scale revolt against him. Given the circumstances of what he inherited, which was precious little, the best he could do was patch a roster together while waiting for the kids he had in house to develop and restock the farm. So, where he had no goalies of note when he started, he now has two serviceable ones to fight for the starting job while the Goalie of the Future, Tuuka Rask, develops without pressure.

In the meantime, McCabe, Kaberle and Sundin are still around to remind everyone of the pre-lockout Old-Men-Who-Can't-See playoff runs and create the illusion of hope. But, in reality, the success of this year's edition will fall squarely on the shoulders of the padawans who have been growing up these past few seasons at the ACC. The time has come for guys like Matt Stajan, Alex Steen, Nik Antropov and Kyle Wellwood to create an identity of their own, with Paul Maurice doing his best Ewan MacGregor impersonation.

While at the other end of the spectrum, Darcy Tucker will continue to do that which endears himself to any and all that get within range of him and his elbows. What I found fascinating about Sideshow Bob last season was how responsible he was to keep the stupidity to a minimum, given that the Leafs couldn't afford for him to be an idiot every night, especially with the penalty killing unit they had. We'll see if that carries over into this season. Was that the influence of Paul Maurice, reeling in Toronto Goon Squads of Yore, or just some plain old hockey common sense?

Who's on the Hook?: I'd say that JFJ is the one on the hook for this season. His contract is up when the Leafs stop playing and the prospect of his getting re-signed is probably more dependent on that date than anything else. The group he has now is one that he wanted to put together. They've come here in move after move made by him since his tenure started: Hal Gill, Pavel Kubina, Jason Blake, Bates Battaglia, Vesa Toskala, Mark Bell, Andrew Raycroft. If this team falls flat and Sundin is auctioned off at the deadline for futures, then I've a feeling that something may change in Hockey's Hotbed.

The news that Kyle Wellwood's hernia requires re-repairing doesn't help the situation at all. There seems to be a ton of fighting for the bottom of the roster amongst those of the 4th line/3rd pair variety. That is a good sign. But without Wellwood anchoring that 2nd line, the Leafs are going to be hard-pressed to balance their offensive output. So, for the early part of the season it looks like the heavy lifting will have to be done by Mats Sundin's line and the power play, which, all things considered, are pretty good things to be relying on in the short term.

But, Paul Maurice is talking about not only making the playoffs but challenging for the Eastern Conference. If that's his plan, then he better improve on last year's -27 net goals on special teams. I'm not much of a stats guy in general, but that one sticks out to me like George Bush at a Convention of Grammarians. Poor special teams, like the 3rd worst PK in the league and 8 more shorties against than for, point towards the coaching staff and an inability to convince players to make the little sacrifices needed to win games. That'll be Maurice's challenge this season if he wants to seriously improve his team's place in the standings, because I don't see this team being significantly better 5 on 5 unless the aforementioned breakouts occur among those most likely/needed to.

Injuries were a huge story for last year's Leafs and this season has started the same way, with Wellwood's situation as well as the wonky knee of Carlo Colaiacovo. This is not a deep team and for that reason every injury will be met with trepidation and worry.

Where They'll Finish: Since the Leafs are the last of the 5 teams I've had to preview (and by definition I hate making predictions), I've backed myself into the corner by saying that they'll end up 5th in the Northeast, simply by process of elimination. Unfortunately, I think that's unfair, because honestly on any given day I can make a case for any ordering of Montreal, Boston and Toronto at the bottom of the Northeast. Had I done a better job of mapping this out beforehand I would have picked all three to finish '3rd to 5th.' And 8th to 13rth in the Eastern Conference.

Blogs to Watch: Raking Leafs, Budblog, Pension Plan Puppets, Bitter Leaf Fan, The Battle of Ontario.

Gratuitous YouTube Embed: Well, in commemoration of the only non-Sabres blog that has announced my return from summer hiatus as something other than a completely irrelevant thing (which it most certaintly is) I found this pretty high-quality vid detailing the history of the Battle of Ontario. And, you know, if I see that many fights in the 8 games between these clubs this season, that'll go a long way towards helping my prediction of a potential division title by the Sabres come true. So, get to it boys, throw 'em!