Leafs 2010-11 depth and musings...

I too was one of those people who expected Kaberle to be traded… but only for a guy like Bobby Ryan, Dustin Brown, Wayne Simmonds, or Brad Richards.

If we could have acquired a player like one of those guys, do we have the depth on D to get by without Kaberle? Probably. As long as no one gets hurt.

Well everyone knows that never happens in the NHL.

We would have all been asking ourselves the same question. Who will replace him?

Who knows, maybe a guy like Luke will step up? I think we’ll see leaps and bounds from him this year. He has one of the crispest breakout passes I’ve ever seen, a ferocious body check, not to mention a great backhand on a shootout. The one time he Wilson used him was in his rookie pre-season and he scored the game winner against St. Louis. Think about it Ron. I know you're reading this.

Though the leafs are unbalanced I think there are some spots open which is nice as it will encourage some competition and guys who were on the team last year aren’t guaranteed a spot this year which is good (see Finger, Mitchell.. even Hanson). Don’t get me wrong Hanson has potential, but he’s got to get on the scoreboard a lot more and use that big body of his.

I figure we need to sign 1-2 forwards still. A LW and a C, but what are available as UFA's are not likely what we need unless Gretz, Mario and Sakic decide to lace em up one more time.

Our forward corps is more than just Kessel like everyone still says. Give it up people, those good for nothings are gone. We have new blood. It's gonna be different.

Versteeg will be given room to blossom into the 1-2 liner he’s always been destined to be. I am eager to see what Kadri, Bozak, Kulemin, and Grabovski can do. I think they have speed and soft hands and big d-men to protect them if needed. Those are six top 6 guys in my opinion.

Next in line.. Armstrong, Caputi, Sjostrom, Mueller, D’Amigo, Hanson, Orr… a decent pack of 7 guys battling for the 3rd-4th lines. D’Amigo perhaps as a surprise similar to O’Reilly with Colorado last season?

Even Irwin had good numbers for NCAA, comparable to Blake Wheeler’s, but I see him in the Marlies to start, same with Brown, Rosehill and Mitchell