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.

Comments

[Dave]

Why isn't the other half of the trade even mentioned? Even if it's "we don't yet know what the Leafs got in return" would be better that simply acting as if trades usually involve movement both ways. Secondly why will it save the Leafs 3 mil? I though Kubina was 5 mil per.

[Craig]

Ya thats it "a bucket of pucks" - lol. Forty points a year and only one year left at $5 million is a steal in this market. Kubina is a legit top four d-man on almost any team in this league and a top two on a third.

[Moron Leaf Fan]

I guess I'm one of those morons, since I think that Colton Orr (how many goals?), Son of Slapshot, and a College grad to boot will not make this team any better. We have no goaltending, no power forward (Chris Neil????) and no proven stud defenceman, so how does this exactly make the Leafs better? Oh I forgot the big mouth GM is building a team that is tougher to play against, not necessarily to win. lol!

[Carlo A]

With Orr, and possibly Neil, the direction isn't necessarily winning, it's ENTERTAINING.. The Leafs are geared to be a WWE 'rasslin act, where winning or losing is immaterial, when compared to the shear entertainment value of the spectacle (fights, bodies flying, and hits).. Now we can see the directive the MLSE board gave Brian Burke: "You can do anything you want, but you MUST sell the Leafs brand, and have the crowds roaring; winning is nice but not necessary so long as the selling and entertaining are satisfied".. You see ?? Winning takes more financial risks than the MLSE board are willing to take.. Well at least Bryan Burke tried enough to travel to Sweden, trying just like MLSE for the past 20 years..

[WeeDram]

I'd prefer Belak; at least he has a sense of humour.

[Matt Young]

FYI Kubina is a much more rounded defenseman compared to Kaberle ...... Kaberle is soft , I will say that he is OK to have on the powerplay but as an all round Dman Kubina is far superior ... He was outstanding in Tampa and I'm sure he will be again , it seems any player who plays on the Leafs under achieves and most find there game once they leave !!

[Mike]

kubina is a good defenseman, what is burke thinking, chris neil? what? ugggh, this is getting ugly

[Aaron]

Looks like the trade for Kubina made for Garnet Excelby, just saw it on TSN twitter.

[John Mullooney]

Looks like Burke slept-in on draft day and was jet-legged for July 1. These guys Burke's acquired since coming to Toronto (Orr, Exelby, May, Neil) aren't tough hockey players, they are useless goons and are an embarrassment to the Leafs and the NHL. I can't believe they will be wearing Leaf jerseys. I'm the biggest Leaf fan in the world, love rough hockey, and enjoy good scrap, but this is beyond silly. The four players mentioned above combined for all of five goals last year, what a joke this is. Someone needs to give Burke's head a shake, I feel like I'm in Neverland.

[Dennis Regan]

Wow!! now we have the start of a real tough-guy team. EXXXX citing. Need a few more heavies though, the good teams have guys who can take heavy checks and walk away from goons. If the leafs where all heavies, then they could start a tag team assault. Five big guys in - five big guys out. The goon-crowd would just love it and the seats would be full as usual. Problem is, hockey guys like myself won't be tuned in to this sport, we'd we watching hockey.

[shuda_gonetobed]

So far, both draft day and the initial day of free agency have been disappointing. The good news is that we took on no bloated contracts such as the Gomez contract and that we have no mess like the Heatley situation. Slow and steady is the way to do this. Looking for a quick fix is likely to get you more Jason Blake's and Lee Stempniak's.

[Baltic Thunder]

Love the acquisition of Mike Komisarek and so saw the writing on the wall. Big Tomas Kaberle fan here and wetting myself at the thought of both those guys as Leafs. BUT we need a reality check here. Who's gonna pair with Vesa Toskala and where's that top six forward that they desparately need? Signing Jonas Gustavsson would be sweet and would allow Burke to totally focus on acquiring that missing forward. Any of Phil Kessel, Kris Versteeg or Ryane Clowe would trulu make this an exciting team that's way better than anyone could have imagined last spring.

[garth]

Burke is buying a bunch of large pylons to take up space on the ice. This is surely going to 'test' the other teams in skating around them. At least we can look forward to the skills competition next year.

[Dante]

I'd really like to see the Leafs sign Malhotra, with an eye to snapping up Rick Nash next season. I've wanted to see Nash playing for the Leafs for years and can't wait until next summer to see what happens! I'd also really like to have Dominic Moore back, because he seems to help Jason Blake be useful.

[kidkawartha]

Ok, people, for the last time, over the last 15 years, the Leafs are definitely the most competitive overall Canadian team, including solely against Canadian teams. Don't believe me? Do some reading for a change.
http://www.pensionplanpuppets.com/2009/4/5/823851/perspective-or-your-team-sucks-too
Got it? So Burke did exactly what he said he would do, and turned the Leaf defence into the most feared in the East overnite and made the team much, much tougher.
In all likelihood our offence is going to take a hit, but we might sign the Monster and have a ton of cap to spend on offence after next year, while waiting for Kadri, Mitchell, et al to finish developing.
We are well on the way, and I am getting truly, truly tired of the endless mindless chattering of Leaf-haters around here, who, day after day, show up to tell the world how they expend energy posting about a team they hate. You are very, very sad people, and when the Cup comes, I expect every single one of you to show up here and apologize profusely. Whatever team it is you actually cheer for, you're about to be intro'd to a world of hurt when you cross our blueline.
You really, desperately need a new crop of commenters, Damien. These ones are the worst-sounding broken record I've ever heard in my life.

[philosoraptor]

Wow, Komisarek, Exelby and an offer for Neil. I thought Burke was after toughness; instead it appears that the Leafs are trying to corner the market on cheap shot artists. It's not easy to be a fan of this team

[kidkawartha]

And as a final cherry on top, Komisarek signed FOR LESS MONEY THAN OTHER OFFERS. Did you catch that, Atchinator? Let me repeat it- he TOOK A PAY CUT TO PLAY FOR TORONTO. Hanson and Bozak VOLUNTARILY CHOSE TO PLAY FOR TORONTO, declining many, many other team's interest.

[SS]

Sad to see Burke going for goons rather than skill. Komisarek is one of the most hated Habs for his dirty play. And Chris Neil? A complete d***he bag. Let's pray that deal doesn't happen

[Kolchak]

Ugh, not Chris Neil! Not Chris Neil!! NOT CHRIS NEIL!!!

[m d'ailleurs]

You guys are fans? of the Leafs?? Except for a few posters you sound like idiots , that expected today we'd end up with a star studded line up? Give your head a shake.I love the acquisition of Komisarek(hits like a truck) will enjoy having a bona fide fighter than can go against anybody,like Godard.I think Exelby is a great pickup and I am curious to know more about Stuart.Of the remaining D I'd like to see Finger gone, he's extraordinary at giving the puck away a la Hall Gill. We keep hearing of a rebuilding process, you guys understand the meaning of the word, right?. IMHO , the team is better today than it was yesterday and I believe that by Sept. we'll have something even better. No, I didn't say they'd win the cup. Philosoraptor-Cheap shot artist prize goes to Kris Draper for the buttend to Jordan Staals face, this from a guy who should know better after being on the receiving end of Lemieux's goonery

[LeafnationFLA]

Very nice! A tough, young, mobile, reasonably big (although offensively challenged) D Force in Toronto with depth will be a necessity vs. the Big Bad Bruins and the newly minted Pronger lead Broad St. Bullies. Also, if you're Gustauvson or Toskala you might be pretty happy knowing a brick wall is forming in front of you. Lastly, Colton Orr muscle gives the Leafs small forwards like Blake, Hagman, Grabovski and Bozak some comfort knowing their backs are covered and they can wheel and deal. Add a big skilled experienced forward like Bertuzzi or Clowe and possibly a D-Man like Beauchemin and this team will achieve some good stuff next year. Kadri and Nash in 2010 will be the needed punch to contend strongly...thats building. Go Burkie!

[John McIntyre]

Burke has a vision for the team. In the short term we will suck, but he is sticking to his guns and molding the team to what he wants. We will see in 4 years what all the leaf haters think then. Cox will be getting carpal tunnel syndrome typing all his anti-fighting rants this year.

[LeafnationFLA]

Wow, Montreal just made a big splash by getting smaller with Cammalleri and Gomez. However they sure beefed up adding the swift footed Gill and the old Spacey Spachek LOL. Boston, Philly and TO are going to feest on the Habless unless they find some true grit.

[ray b]

First things first...Komisarek and Exelby aren't goons and they can skate.They don't rack up penalty minutes as much as they rack up the hits..Something the Leafs didn't do last year is hit anyone...Kubina was finally coming around as a good defenseman and they trade him...Excelby isn't enough..Burke lost out in this deal..

[Conn Smythe]

Moron Leaf fan, check the stats from last year's Leafs - we didn't have trouble scoring goals (I believe we were either 14th or 15 in the league in goals for - even without Mats). Guess what we had the biggest problem with? Keeping pucks out of our net! With the addition of Komisarek and Exelby, we should improve on that total. And the addition of Colton Orr should help the Leafs become a tougher team to play against.

I'm not sure what Orr's plus/minus or point totals have to do with making the Leafs tougher - we certainly didn't sign him for his offensive/defensive ability.