Leafs Add to Front Office

More than 30 years ago, when Dave Poulin was skating for the Dixie Beehives junior club in Mississauga, he couldn’t get a single NHL team interested in drafting him.

Today, he’s found a new home with one of the league’s most historic clubs.

The Star has learned that Poulin, 50, will be announced at 10 a.m. today as the new vice-president of player development for the Maple Leafs, essentially moving into the third slot in the Leaf executive lineup behind president/GM Brian Burke and his right-hand man, Dave Nonis.

Poulin fills a hole in the Leafs front office left by the departure of Joe Nieuwendyk earlier in the summer to become GM of the Dallas Stars. Burke has repeatedly said he expects Nonis will be scooped up by another NHL team as a GM next summer, so the hiring of Poulin fills a need for a succession plan.

A native of Timmins, Poulin eventually parlayed a scholarship at the University of Notre Dame into a tryout with the Philadelphia Flyers after a brief stint in Sweden. It was one of the best signings the Flyers ever made, as Poulin went on to captain the club and won the Selke Trophy as the NHL’s top defensive forward in 1987. In all, he played 13 years in the NHL as an industrious, checking centre, including playing for Boston and Washington.

After retirement, he ran the Fighting Irish hockey program for a decade, and in recent years has split time working for a headhunting firm in Chicago and doing part-time scouting work for the Anaheim Ducks.

SpinPlus video: Wimbledon wrap-up

Kings Moving Up

It used to be that a trade involving Ryan Smyth was front page news. Now, it's an afterthought.

Captain Canada isn't the player he was, but at 33, he was still good enough to get an invite from Steve Yzerman. His move to join the Los Angeles Kings puts him on his fourth team three years, unfortunate for a player who once looked like he was an Edmonton Oiler for life.

Smyth had to waive his no-trade for this deal to happen between the Kings and Avalanche, and apparently didn't resist a la Dany Heatley, who can forget about a deal that would take him to Los Angeles now.

For the Kings, this was their latest move to add experience to an impressive young roster that includes Anze Kopitar, Dustin Brown, Jack Johnson, Alexander Frolov and Drew Doughty. As well as Smyth, the Kings have added Justin Williams at the trade deadline and then signed free agent defenceman Rob Scuderi away from the Stanley Cup champion Pittsburgh Penguins.

After missing post-season play every season since last making it in 2002, the Kings may be poised to make it back to the playoffs. They had 79 points last year in the tough Pacific Division.

Colorado, meanwhile, has been looking to dump contracts for a while now, so they were happy to exchange Smyth's deal ($6.25 cap hit, three years left at $6.5 million, $5.5 million, $4.5 million) for the contracts of defenceman Tom Preissing (two more years at $2.75 million) and rearguard Kyle Quincey (two more years at $550,000).

Defenceman Scott Hannan (two more years at $4.5 million) may be the next Avs player to go as Colorado management looks to shed money. The Avalanche are rebuilding around Paul Stastny and newly drafted Matt Duchene, and this is going to take a while. Attendance in Denver after so many years of sellouts will be interesting to watch.

Monster Update: No Decision Yet, But Field May Be Thinning

LONDON - Brian Burke may continue to push, but The Monster hasn't decided yet.

In fact, agent Joe Resnick said today that Swedish free agent goalie Jonas Gustavsson's situation hasn't changed after meeting with Burke yesterday in Stockholm.

"No, no change," said Resnick. "It's really up to Jonas now. I can't make a decision for him."

The earliest Gustavsson will decide is tomorrow, but it could still drag on into next week. The Colorado Avalanche have already effectively dropped out by getting incumbent Peter Budaj and free agent Craig Anderson under contract.

The Leafs are likely to hang in there, and its not clear whether San Jose or Dallas may yet choose to head in a different direction for goalkeeping help.

Yzerman Already Making Tough Choices

LONDON -The news is good - very good - on the early Olympic decisions of Steve Yzerman.

Yzerman's already making the tough choices that Wayne Gretzky felt he couldn't make back for the Torino effort in 2006, at least partially because Gretzky was hamstrung by the 2004-05 lockout that gave him little evidence upon which to pick a roster.

This time around, Yzerman has shown some good decisiveness and a willingness to say farewell to some fine old warriors. From the '06 team, defenceman Rob Blake, Adam Foote and Wade Redden have not been invited to the Calgary orientation camp, and the same goes for Ed Jovanovski, who was originally named to the Torino team but didn't play because of injury. Bryan McCabe, who did play, was also not invited this time around.

Up front, Kris Draper, Brad Richards and Todd Bertuzzi weren't brought back. Neither was third-string goalie Marty Turco or alternate forward Jason Spezza. Yzerman didn't invite Detroit goalie Chris Osgood, unfortunate but a demonstration he won't favour any Red Wings, nor was centre Marc Savard asked to attend the Calgary camp, probably the biggest name player not to make the grade. 

By contrast, Yzerman did invite veteran Joe Sakic despite the fact he missed last season with an injury, knowing he may well need Sakic in a leadership capacity that he himself filled for Team Canada at the '02 Salt Lake City Games.

That's quite a bit of change in three years.

On the other hand, Yzerman did make some interesting choices of players to invite, including defenceman Francois Beauchemin and Stephane Robidas, and forwards Dan Cleary, Andy McDonald and Milan Lucic.

Meanwhile, you've got to love the invitations that went out to all three Staal brothers. What a story that would be if Eric, Marc and Jordan all made it.

A Big Day For A Scot

LONDON - It was the one step Tim Henman could never make. For Andy Murray, it must look less like a hurdle and more like a skyscraper.

No British male has made it to the Wimbledon's men's final since Bunny Austin in 1938, the year he lost to Don Budge. No Brit has won Wimbledon since Fred Perry in 1936.

Leftie Roger Taylor had a few charges in the 1970s, and then there was Henman. Four times - 1998, ''99, '01 and '02 - he took Great Britain on a wild emotional roller-coaster ride, made it to the semifinals but couldn't break through. Twice he lost to Pete Sampras. Once, against Goran Ivanisevic in '01, Henman was within two points of victory, but lost in a five-setter.

To say the entire hopes of a nation are riding on Murray today in his semifinal clash with American flamethrower Andy Roddick - Roger Federer is on court in the first semi with Tommy Haas now - is not an exaggeration. The newspapers are all over Murray, his fitness regimen, his girlfriend Kim Sears, the long lineups of fans dying to see him play and every other angle imaginable.

Once, he made the mistake of saying he would root for anyone but England in soccer, something a lot of Scots would say, but not a politically correct thought for one hoping to unite the sporting aspirations of the United Kingdom.

That's all been conveniently forgotten now. Murray survived a nailbiter against Switzerland's Stanilaus Wawrinka on Monday in the first full Wimbledon match played indoors and is favoured today against Roddick even though Roddick has twice made the Wimbledon final, losing both times to Federer.

If Murray can do what Henman could never do, it's because he's a better all-around player and because he's become addicted to an extraordinary fitness schedule that has him ingesting 6,000 calories a day just so he can work out for six hours or more. He takes ice baths, uses yoga and has the entire resources of the Lawn Tennis Association behind him.

The day is overcast at the All-England Club with a threat of rain, which means the roof on Centre Court could be closed. Murray said he found those conditions humid when he played under the lid on Monday. The match should commence somewhere around 11 a.m. Toronto time.

Today, of course,  isn't the end of the line by any means. Murray is 22, already No. 3 in the world and he'll have more chances.

But this is a chance to end one British drought, then take dead aim at another.

One More Try

LONDON

Brian Burke will make one more attempt to capture The Monster.

The Maple Leafs GM, fresh of signing Colton Orr and Mike Komisarek as free agents yesterday and making a deal with Atlanta to send Pavel Kubina to the Thrashers in exchange for Garnet Exelby, is meeting with Swedish free agent goalie Jonas (The Monster) Gustavsson today in Stockholm.

With offers in from Dallas, San Jose and Colorado, as well as the Leafs, Gustavsson has been struggling to make a decision as to which of the four will be his first NHL club. He has to sign a one-year entry level salary at the same money with any of the clubs, but he's really looking at a three- to four-year commitment given that he wouldn't be unrestricted again next summer.

Burke has pursued the 24-year-old netminder hard, travelling once to the world championships in Switzerland to meet with him, and then again in a previous trip to Sweden. 

The Leaf GM is in Sweden after taking a trip late Tuesday in hopes of making a face-to-face offer with the Sedin twins or Matthias Ohlund, all of whom had signed with other clubs by the time he landed.

Other free agents on the Leaf radar screen today, with Chris Neil having turned them down to re-sign in Ottawa, are Columbus centre Manny Malhotra and Anaheim blueliner Francois Beauchemin. It's also possible talks have been revived between the Leafs and Bruins over a possible Tomas Kaberle-for-Phil Kessel trade.

Recession, What Recession?

LONDON

One day and $500 million in contracts later, it's worth wondering - what the heck was that all about?

Teams struck early and often yesterday as the NHL free agent season opened creating a blizzard of activity and many new questions about a variety of teams.

At the top of that list would be the Montreal Canadiens, who spent $60 million yesterday to bring in free agents Brian Gionta, Mike Cammalleri and Hal Gill just hours after making a deal with the Rangers to bring in Scott Gomez and his wildly oversized $43.5 million deal which still has five years left to run.

Interestingly, Gomez's salary in the first year of that contract was $10 million. But while the maximum allowable salary under the NHL salary cap is approximately $11.2 million, none of the free agents really approached that figure yesterday. Only Marian Hossa (12 years, $62.8 million with Chicago) got one of those mega-term deals popularized by Detroit. Mattias Ohlund got seven years from Tampa, Marty Havlat got six from Minny but otherwise it was all five years or less.

Hard to say which team really got better. The Habs are doing a North American makeover just like the Leafs but with small, speedy forwards while the Leafs look for size and toughness.

Chicago clearly was looking for players from winning programs with Hossa, Tomas Kopecky and John Madden. Hossa, more durable than Havlat, displaced him with the Hawks and gives Chicago another big body up front.

Then there's the Rangers. They dumped their own tough guy, Colton Orr, to pay Donald Brashear triple the salary, the same Brashear who was basically kicked out of the post-season for his blind-side hit on Blair Betts of the very same Rangers. Then GM Glen Sather gave brittle Marian Gaborik a five-year, $37.5 million deal, a risky deal to a very talented player.

The Rangers may also still be in the picture for Dany Heatley, who appears to be turning himself into a Canadian version of Alexei Yashin. Edmonton, dissed by the likes of Chris Pronger and Michal Nylander in recent years, is now looking like the NHL city players prefer to avoid, not a happy profile to have.

And the Leafs? Orr is a legitimate heavyweight and Brian Burke wanted one, or at least someone to make sure Luke Schenn was always the one coming to the defence of his teammates. Orr's challenge will be to find regular ice time under Ron Wilson. You can bet skating instructor Graeme Townshend will be spending some time with him.

Mike Komisarek is a bit of a puzzle, but he gives the club at least the potential of a blueliner who can actually be reliable in the final minutes of periods and games. He brings a bright, sunny personality with him and will be more of a physical presence in the defensive zone than Pavel Kubina ever was.

And Exelby? At 27, he has one more year on his contract at $1.75 million before unrestricted free agency next summer. Exelby, born in Manitoba but raised in Saskatchewan, is strictly a defensive defenceman but a dangerous open ice hitter.  Forward Colin Stuart, 26, is another big body, likely to spend time with both the Marlies and Leafs next season.

With Schenn, Komisarek, Exelby, the oft-injured Mike Van Ryan and maybe even a youngster like improving Phil Oreskovic, the Leafs have the making of a big, nasty blueline corps.

Plane in Vain

LONDON

The Maple Leafs have signed free agent defenceman Mike Komisarek away from their ancient rivals, the Montreal Canadiens.

Komisarek decided late Tuesday that he wouldn't accept the final offer from the Habs and instead would test the unrestricted free agent waters.

After speculation suggested he was leaning towards the New York Islanders, the American-born blueliner instead inked a five-year deal with the Leafs at $4.5 million per season

The signing cleared the way for the completion of a trade, first reported by The Star, that sends Pavel Kubina and the rights to Tim Stapleton to the Atlanta Thrashers, for hard-hitting defenceman Garnet Exelby and youngster Colin Stuart.

The Leafs have also made an offer to winger Chris Neil. Another target, Mike Cammalleri, has signed with Montreal.

Komisarek was voted to the stating lineup for the Eastern Conference in this year's all-star game, but suffered through an inconsistent season after injuring his shoulder in an early season fight with Boston's Milan Lucic.

He's also expected to be part of the U.S. Olympic squad next winter in January, a team organized by Leaf GM Brian Burke and coached by Leaf bench boss Ron Wilson.

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Brian Burke got over the disappointment of losing the Sedins without even being able to make a bid in a hurry.

The Maple Leafs GM has signed enforcer Colton Orr to a four-year, $4 million contact and has traded defenceman Pavel Kubina to Atlanta, a deal that should free up about $3 million in cap space, The Star has learned. (Update: A trade call is scheduled on the trade, and details over what the Leafs are getting in return have yet to become clear as of 4:45 EST. The deal is still expected to happen, but after the Phil Kessel-for-Tomas Kaberle swap didn't end up materializing on the weekend, no trade is a trade until it actually occurs.)

REUTERS FILE PHOTO

Burke couldn't pull off a twin bill like he did at the 1999 draft.

The Leafs also are negotiating a possible deal with Ottawa free agent winger Chris Neil - more muscle - and are planning a meeting with Toronto-born winger Mike Cammalleri, a 39-goal scorer with Calgary last season.

And to think it's all happening from Sweden.

Burke, you see, flew overnight from Boston to Frankfurt and then on to Stockholm today with bold, ambitious plans to make a face-to-face offer to Henrik and Daniel Sedin today in Sweden but was thwarted in the final minutes before the free agent season opened when the identical Swedish twins signed new five-year deals averaging $6.1 million per season just before noon EST with the Vancouver Canucks.

When Burke's flight hit the tarmac in Stockholm, he got that bad news, and found that defenceman Mattias Ohlund, another potential free agent target, had signed with Tampa Bay.

Armed with lots of MLSE money and acres of precious salary cap space, Burke targeted the 28-year-old identical twins – Henrik is six minutes older than Daniel – as his No. 1 free agency priority. All signs suggested the Sedins would try free agency, but a last ditch offer by Vancouver GM Mike Gillis on Monday apparently was enough to meet their demands.

The Leafs probably would have been willing to go higher on salary, perhaps as high as $7 million per twin, but the talented brothers clearly wanted to stay on the west coast and opted not to entertain other offers. Burke would not have been able to make any overtures to the twins before noon EST.

With defenceman Jay Bouwmeester (six years, $33 million from Calgary) and the Sedins now off the market, the NHL free agent market has been robbed of its star power before it even opened.

It's the second time the Leafs have missed out on Ohlund. They tried to sign him to a restricted free agent offer sheet in 1997, but the Canucks matched the offer. Tampa GM Brian Lawton is clearly looking at Ohlund as a potential mentor for newly drafted Swedish blueliner Victor Hedman, acquired with the second pick in Friday’s NHL draft.

The Leaf GM, meanwhile, could now use the trip to take another shot at convincing Swedish free agent goalie Jonas Gustavsson, who is at home in Sweden right now, to join the Leafs.

“That is going to be an exercise in persistence,” said Burke, who has made two trips to Europe in the past three months to try and convince Gustavsson to pick the Leafs over the Stars, Avalanche and Sharks.

Leaf management had thought that if the Sedins could be signed along with some less expensive depth for the rest of the roster, the Stanley Cup playoffs would be achievable next season.

Burke had clearly hoped his previous relationship with the Sedins – he performed draft day gymnastics to land them for the Canucks in 1999 – would make a difference when it came to luring them as free agents, but he never got the chance to bid on them.

It’s the second round of frustration for Burke in less than a week. He tried mightily to land John Tavares in the NHL draft last weekend but couldn’t convince any of the top teams to part with their picks. He also thought he had a trade in place with Boston that would have brought winger Phil Kessel to the Leafs for Tomas Kaberle in a package deal, but that fell apart.

Burke's biggest successes so far during his seven months as Leaf GM have been the signing of two U.S. college free agents, Christian Hanson and Tyler Bozak.

Joining the crowd at Mt. Murray