Check this out from the Montreal Gazzette:
According to various reports, at least four teams — Buffalo, Columbus, Anaheim and New Jersey — have shown serious interest in the veteran.
However check out what his agent has to say:
“As of the draft, we don’t have a no-trade (clause),” agent Rick Curran said. “But it’s almost effectively a no-trade, because unless Tomas wants to go there most general managers that I’m familiar with are not giving up asset value for a one-year player who may not even want to come to my team. Especially with what Brian wants in return.’’
Furthermore:
The challenge, for Burke, is playing matchmaker. He not only has to find a team that is interested in Kaberle, he also has to find a team that Kaberle is interested in. And they hope the two sides can settle on a new contract.
Making this more complicated is the fact that Curran has not provided the Leafs with a list of teams Kaberle would want to play for.
“Why would I do that?” asked Curran. “If Brian wants to trade him during that window of opportunity, that’s his right. I’m not going to dispute that. But I’m not going to do his work for him.
“Let’s keep this in mind: Tomas Kaberle does not want to leave Toronto. Never has. I could give (Burke) a list. But it would have one name on it — the Toronto Maple Leafs.”
“But the day of the draft there could be an announcement that the Toronto Maple Leafs trade Tomas Kaberle to so-and-so, and we could have little or no idea. That could happen.”
Make no mistake about it - Kaberle is the exact kind of d-man the Jackets could use. They want to play an up tempo puck possession style then you MUST have d-men like Kabere.
Forecaster's take:
ASSETS: Possesses tremendous hockey smarts and the ability to find his teammates with excellent passes. A good skater, he loves to join the attack.
FLAWS: Still makes occasional mistakes when pinching in. Could use more strength to better handle big NHL forwards. Doesn't shoot enough.
CAREER POTENTIAL: Elite offensive defenseman.
Kaberle is 32 and is making a very reasonable 4.25 mil next season. He's scored 46, 31 (injury year), 53, 58 and 67 points over the past 5 seasons.
Looks great right?
Unfortunately the down side is he'd likely be a 1 year rental. As we've seen time and time again Columbus is not a destination and I highly doubt he'd be doing backflips at the thought of being traded here - let alone negotiate an immediate extension.
Which then begs the question - why even try?
Well he could be forced to come and end up actually liking the city and team. Of course winning could also turns things into a favorable direction to get him re-signed. Afterall one thing we don't hear much of are players saying they didn't like playing here. They may not like the coach (Fedorov), are homesick (Foote) but more than not you hear good things - at least publicly (Jason Williams, Jason Chimera, Jody Shelley, etc).
Then again I may be being naive.
As stated Kaberle loves Toronto and he'll most certainly want to go to a contender should he be forced to move on from Toronto. I doubt Columbus is in his top 10 let alone his top 25. We need to remove ourselves from our Columbus bubble and really put ourselves in these players footsteps and think "would I want to play there?".
For young players like Stralman who never got a real chance - hell yeah. For a 32 year veteran like Kaberle whom A. doesn't want to leave Toronto and B. if he was forced too he'd want to go to a contender -- well pretty easy to answer that one.
Therein lies the problem. We can't obtain the players we REALLY need and we can't seem to grow them either. Hence the circle of suck we find ourselves in. This is a big reason why Howson has drafted and signed just about every d-men he can get his hands on -- it was a huge organizational weakness when he got here and it's about the only way we are truly going to be able to land a long term solution for that elite puck moving d-man we so desperately need on the backend. We need some of these guys to really develop like yesterday!!
Hypothetically speaking - how much to give for a guranteed 1 year of Kaberle? No chance at all you move the 4th pick for him - you can't sacrifice an asset like that for a 1 year rental. I'd be willing to move a later 1st for him though. Here are a couple of scenarios I'll toss out there - remember Toronto has no picks in the first 3 rounds:
1. Trade down from the 4th overall to a team with two first round picks. Flip one of those for Kaberle.
2. Trade the 34th overall plus a player/prospect for Kaberle.
3. Package the 34th and 55th picks in the 2nd round and move into the late first. Use that pick to flip for Kaberle.
There are some scenarios albeit Howson would have to get creative. Of course none of those address the additional 4.25 million ownership would have to green light to add to the budget.
As much as we need Kaberle I'd give it about 25% chance he is a Blue Jacket. I don't think Howson will be willing to pay the price it would take to land a guy who would most likely bolt by season's end.
I'd give it about a 90% chance he's moved on draft day however.
Somehow, someway Howson is going to have to get his hands on one of these guys if he hopes to play the kind of system he's speaking of. He may have to overpay and he may have to take a player on a short term contract but we need that talent on the blueline.
In terms of Kaberle he may not be able to get what he wants... but he needs to keep trying b/c we need what a player like that brings.
They say goaltending wins championships right? I found it interesting this year that two relatively unproven goalies backstopped their teams to the Stanley Cup Finals.
This year it appeared to be more about offense than defense and goaltending. Another sign that the dead-puck era is truly dead.
An interesting comment from new HC Scott Arniel is that he expects Rick Nash to make players around him better. That is probably my favorite thing to come out of Arniel since the HC announcement.
Let's stop beating around the bush folks - Rick Nash MUST be better than he's been. I don't buy about all this complete player crap or that it's Hitch's system that stymied him -- the dude only scored 67 points last season. Vermette had 65 and Huselius 63 under the same circumstances for pucks sake.
The guy is slated to make 7.5 million next season - that is over 15% of the Jackets total budget (assuming a 48 mil dollar budget). If he wants to get paid like the big boys then he needs to play like the big boys. That means being a complete player. That means bringing it each and every night. That means staying engaged on team happenings even in the offseason (all you had to say about the Arniel hiring is that you trust Howson decision - really? - Not even a phone call or an opinion? The lake house is more important right now I guess). That certainly means scoring more than 67 points.
Here's a stat for you - those 67 points tied Nash for 36th overall in league scoring. He was tied with the likes of Alexandre Burrows, Travis Zajac and Nick Antropov.
All good players but certainly not great and Columbus needs Nash to be great.
I don't want to hear this "he needs a center crap". Guys making that kind of jack need to make those around him better and not vice versa... just like Arniel said.
They say it's a big year for the young guys like Brassard and Mason --- put me in the camp that thinks it's the biggest year for #61.
He's getting paid to wear the CBJ logo but he needs to play like it's the Team Canada one. Only that kind of commitment and sacrifice will elevate his play and the team with him.
-LTL
