In Case You Forgot, the Maple Leafs Play Here

The Toronto Maple Leafs won't play a meaningful hockey game for another three months, yet we've already begun steeling ourselves against the impeding overexposure. During the past few weeks, Canada's sports media have begun ramping up their hockey-related coverage. We were horrified to discover, for instance, that TSN ran an hour-long "preview" of NHL free agency last week; we were equally appalled to find ourselves watching it in its entirety.

Not surprisingly, the Maple Leafs have been busy so far, and been subjected to the usual media scrutiny. After taking Luke Schenn fifth overall in the NHL entry draft, Cliff Fletcher—ostensibly brought in as a temporary general manager but whose position is beginning to look a lot more permanent—began the unenviable task of overhauling a bad hockey team, not to mention dealing with some of the gargantuan contracts his predecessor doled out during his disastrous five-year tenure. One of Fletcher’s first moves, and perhaps his most necessary one, was ridding the team of Andrew Raycroft, who was so awful during his time in Toronto he made fans forget about Trevor Kidd's various misdeeds. He also succeeded in buying out the bloated contract belonging to one Darcy Tucker, who retained his popularity in spite of diminishing returns on the ice. Both players were immediately snapped up by the Colorado Avalanche; we're assuming they'll enjoy career years in 2008/09. Fletcher also brought in a few minor free agents. One of them, Jeff Finger, was signed to a four-year, $15-million contract which had Damien Cox of the Toronto Star gnashing his teeth about the state of our local hockey team. Call us way-too-easily-satiated, but that made us like Jeff Finger immediately.

As for Mats Sundin...well, at this point we're not even sure if Sundin knows what's happening next year. Apparently he's mulling over at least four concrete offers, including one from the Maple Leafs. The Vancouver Canucks have reportedly offered Sundin $20 million over two years, which is frankly crazy money for an aging athlete, even one who’s still near the top of his game. Leaf fans seem to be getting used to the idea of seeing their captain in another team's colours next year, although we're still hoping against hope he'll be back in Toronto. Whatever happens, either to Sundin or to anyone else whose name is even vaguely associated with the Maple Leafs, you can be certain it'll be examined from every conceivable angle by every conceivable media outlet in the GTA.

Including this one. Consider yourselves warned.

Photo by Danielle Scott.