[nyrcrisfer]

Well it's been a busy offseason in Toronto. After a "rebuilding" year last season the team decided the time had come to move up the standings. Out went a lot of youth and in came a group of vets who know what it takes to win in the CPHL.

The last move of the offseason came on Monday morning when the Leafs dealt with the Florida Panthers. The deal saw Chris Drury, Nick Schultz and Derick Brassard leave Toronto. All 3 were acquired this offseason but never got the chance to make their Leafs debut. Coming to Toronto is top line center Patrick Marleau.

The Leafs, clearly afraid of having too many future UFA's on board, felt that now was the time to deal Drury. He was a great fit in the Leafs lineup but Marleau will be even better. In Marleau the Leafs get a legit top line player who's just entering his prime and has a nice contract by CPHL standards.

In order to make that upgrade Nick Schultz and Derick Brassard had to move on. The Leafs are high on both, especially Brassard, but couldn't pass up the opportunity to get Marleau.

With that the Leafs are ready to roll in 2006-2007. An overview of the offseason:
Coming to Toronto: Patrick Marleau, Mike Fisher, Wayne Primeau, Jarko Ruutu, Ryan Smyth, Matt Cooke, Matt Pettinger, Patrice Brisebois, Matt Greene, Jay McKee, Marty Turco, and Bates Battaglia.

Leaving Toronto: Manny Malhotra, Justin Papineau, Rem Murray, Oleg Saprykin, Vitali Yachmenev, Tie Domi, Andrei Kostsitsyn, Brad May, Darcy Tucker, Jamie Heward, Dennis Seidenberg, Fedor Tyutin, Jim Vandermeer, Manny Fernandez, Jiri Fischer, Dom Moore, Francois Beauchemin, Pascal Leclaire, Ryan Stoa, and 4 of the 5 first round picks the Leafs had in June.

And a few more names came and went, most notably Tomas Kaberle, Chris Drury, Derick Brassard.

The 06-07 Leafs will look like this on opening night:
Fisher-Datsyuk-Torres
Smyth-Marleau-Bouchard
Ruutu-Cooke-Pettinger
Veilleux-Avery-Primeau
Ortmeyer

Redden-Morris
Smith-McKee
Pitkanen-Carle
Brisebois-Greene

Turco
Lundqvist