Leafs Should make some Deals...They Need Bobby Ryan and they need him NOW!!!

Rumours are the in thing for sportscasters to speculate about. As I heard earlier, without them, many would be out of a job. One of the hottest ones out there has been that the Anaheim Ducks are about to blow things up and deal one of their young studs in an effort to change their fortunes and maybe even start looking at the future since they got off to such a terrible start this year.

Their 3 headed monster of Corey Perry, Ryan Getzlaf and Bobby Ryan have been largely inconsistent this season considering the fact that their top point producer is 41 year old Teemu Selanne (who seems to just keep on going and going). Ryan seems to be getting the most attention as teams are apparently lining up to try and pry him away from the Ducks, hoping he is the missing piece of the puzzle for their team to go on a nice long playoff run.

It's not as if  he is an aging player as he was drafted right behind Sidney Crosby 2nd overall, in 2005. He can still produce points and some highlight reel goals and he's just 23 years old so many teams are looking at him as a potential cornerstone for their future....if the price is right.

I'm here to tell you that the Leafs need to make a deal to get him and they need to do it now. They are coming off of a tough loss to the Sabres (where the Monster had a couple of softies get behind him) and then a no-show the next night against the Rangers at home in a 3-0 whitewash and their top offensive guys seem to be in a rut right now as both Kessel and Lupul have gone 3 straight games being held pointless.

The rumours suggest that the Leafs are offering up Luke Schenn (about time), Nazem Kadri (logical since he has never been one of Ron Wilson's favorites) and a draft pick to Anaheim for Ryan. I wouldn't stop there however as this should really be the first of at least 2, maybe 3 moves that they need to make to secure themselves of that elusive playoff spot.

With several players about to return to active duty in the coming weeks, the Leafs are now in a position of depth at every position which they should use to get younger, cheaper and better. Liles, Armstrong and Bozak are all either about to return or well on their way to returning, which has already forced the team to demote a couple of young players who probably didn't deserve to be sent down in Matt Frattin and Jake Gardiner.

As well, Joe Colborne showed enough (to me anyway) in his short time up here, that he is ready to be that 2nd or 3rd line center in the NHL now as he has the hands, the body and the vision to become the eventual top line center that this team has been dying to find since Sundin was here.

If they could somehow get Ryan out of Anaheim, then their next focus should be to try to finally get that top line center (a stop gap until Colborne is ready to take over that spot). I would suggest that the best player available may very well be Eric Staal out of Carolina and, of course, to even attempt to get him would cost just as much, if not more then getting Bobby Ryan.

I would suggest that if Anaheim were to deal Ryan for Schenn, Kadri and a pair of 2nd round picks then that would leave some cookies in the cupboard for a run at Staal. Here is what I would offer for Staal; Nik Kulemen, Tyler Bozak, Jake Gardiner, this years first round pick as well as a conditional pick based upon if the Leafs win the Cup in the next 3 years or not (which could turn into another 1st round pick).

The team would take on such a dramatic change that it would take a good 10 games to sort out everything but with these lines, I think we would have a much better team;

Kessel-Staal-Lupol
Ryan-Grabovski-MacArthur
Frattin-Connolly-Lombardi
Armstrong-Steckel-Brown

Crabb and Boyce as the extra forwards and Rosehill Demoted/Released

Phaneuf-Aulie
Fransen-Liles
Komisarek-Gunnarsson

Korbinian Holzer would become the 7th Defenceman in a pinch and there are several others on that Marlies team that are pushing to make the big team already.

With Reimer an Gustavsson giving the team decent goaltending, it's entirely possible that this team could do some serious damage in the Playoffs. Who knows, it might even make people hate the Leafs even more if they actually won the whole damned things for once....