Taking inventory

Things are coming together.

With the addition of Alexander Khavanov, and the signing of Aki Berg and Wade Belak, the Leafs have made their case for the defence. Include Bryan McCabe, Thomas Kaberle, Ken Klee and Carlo Colaiacovo and Toronto's core of blueliners stacks up.

Rosters are starting to take shape across the league as cap wiggle shrinks. Yesterday, 11 players filed for salary arbitration; today, clubs return the favour. Tomorrow, arbitration cases are scheduled for hearings that begin in one week.

Now that you've marked up your calendar, a glance around the NHL reveals some revamped rosters:

Pittsburgh is an obvious start, where they were swooning over Sidney Crosby yesterday. Add Sergei Gonchar, Zigmund Palffy, Mark Recchi, Jocelyn Thibault and a healthy (crossing fingers) Mario Lemieux - that first-line power play is gonna be good.

The Flyers also look like winners after they added Peter Forsberg, Derian Hatcher and Mike Rathje. In Philly, they're talking about a new Legion of Doom (reg.req'd), this time patrolling the blue line.

But back to the Maple Leafs. They certainly have the depth on defence and, assuming Eric Lindros is coming (we can assume this, right?) Toronto is big and strong up the middle with Captain Mats and Jason Allison. Shift to the wing, however, and things get a little sketchy.

What about the losers? They're crying in St. Louis over Chris Pronger's departure. In Colorado, Pierre Turgeon, Andrew Brunette and Patrice Briesbois were brought in to replace Peter Forsberg, Paul Kariya and Adam Foote.

Sorry Blues and Avs fans, according to Red Wings GM Ken Holland the NHL is now all about parity.

"The playing field is level," Holland said.

What do you think? Take a browse through the new look NHL rosters around the league. Who's on the rise? Who will take steps back? Will the Maple Leafs contend? Click the comments link below and send us your opinion.

Around the league:

Steve Moore has spoken. In a lengthy interview, he spoke about his reaction to Todd Bertuzzi's reinstatement and his desire to return to the NHL.

The Panthers are still talking with Alexander Mogilny, and while other teams are reportedly interested, the ex-Leaf likes what he sees in Florida.

Comments

[D. Cockton]

I think John Ferguson is getting a bum wrap. If we end up with Lindros, Allsion, and Sundin as our centers with O'Neil and Carter anchoring the forwards we will be a far better team then the last season we played. Bottom line...we'll still have huge cap room for next season when we get a younger stronger crop of free agents.

I hope Allison and Lindros prove themselves to be fit and as capable as we all hope they are. Ideally next season our only need will be an all-star blue liner.

[Ken66]

Leafs are going down this year especially if they sign Lindros. Any team that has Tucker and Domi as their 2nd line wingers cannot make the playoffs. I just don't understand what they are thinking, yeah, its a good call to try to sign one injured player (Allison) but to try to sign 2?? And anyways, Lindros has had 8 concussions and cannot even be brought in as an "injured" player with a salary that doesn't count against the cap. The only reason they are doing this move is for publicity that they signed a "hometown boy" geez, don't they have enough of those on the team???

Frankly its stupid that there are still a couple of good wingers out there that could be signed at around $2million (Bondra, Selanne, Mogliny). Its pathetic that in the most multicultural city in North America, they only know to sign Toronto boys but not international talent.

[kyou]

Please do not delude yourself to thinking that Toronto can or will get themselves a star free agent next summer. Why?? because this is the new nhl and teams cannot to "go for it" this year and not worry about the future. Assets for the future are the most valuable things a team can have in this new nhl. Therefore.
If a team figures they cannot sign their upcoming free agent this year, they will try to trade them in the middle of the season. They will not let them become free agents and leave without anything!!! (i.e. they will did what St. Louis did with Pronger) and in that scenario you know that the Leafs don't have any young players they can trade with.
And although there will still be a couple of free agents left, even though the Leafs may have cap room so do half the other teams in the nhl and so it will be just as hard to get a star player next year as this year.

[CALIF Leaf fan]

Looks like the Lindros signing will happen. So the centers look fine but I'm also worried about the lack of wingers. They need to sign Carter and a scoring winger (we used to have a guy named Alex, he'd be nice). Lots of questions this year: Will Allison and Lindros be healthy? Will Kaberle and Antropov ever step up to their potential? Will Eddie still be good? If these are yes answers, then we're in the playoffs. If not, at least we'll be able to manhandle other teams - which will be fun to watch.

[Brian Vincent]

Their blue line situation is now completed and perhaps Toronto has the best blue line corp in a long time. Goaltending should be good as long as Belfour's back holds up.

However, work needs to be done on their forward lines. The first line looks good with Tucker, Sundin, and O'Neill but a right winger is needed to compliment Ponikarovsky (who I think will break out this year) and Jason Allison. A good pick-up would be Anson Carter or Teemu Selanne.

The signing of Eric Lindros and put Matt Stajan (who I think will also break out this year) and Domi on his line would give Toronto an excellent third line. Also, both the second and third lines need equal ice time with Allison and Lindros trading places frequently. On the fourth line, Chad Kilger, Nik Antropov, and Nathan Perrott/Wade Belak make up a solid checking line.

The presence of Tie Domi, Nathan Perrott, Darcy Tucker and Wade Belak provide the grittiness needed to tell other teams that hits to the star players especially Allison and Lindros will not be tolerated and should provide an adequate deterrant.