At the trade deadline earlier this year, the Toronto Maple Leafs shipped veteran forward Chad Kilger to the Florida Panthers in exchange for a third round draft pick. Kilger never reported to the Panthers, and requested time off for “personal reasons.” After the period of time that the Panthers gave Kilger was up, and he had still not reported, they suspended him. Although he is still technically a member of the Florida Panthers, his future is in serious jeopardy.
Fast-forward to the current day. The Leafs and Panthers are at it once again, working on a trade. This time it is Bryan McCabe being shipped for Mike Van Ryn. Cliff Fletcher let it be known early in the off-seaon that McCabe was available to be traded, even going as far as stating that McCabe was not “in the future plans,” despite the fact that he is under contract for the next 3 seasons (The contract is also known as “JFJ’s biggest mistake”).
Did Fletcher have this deal in place at the end of the season, but the media never picked up on it until late July? It sure seems like it to me. After the media picked up on it, it became the worst kept secret in Leafland since the Raycroft buyout. There were a few teams that hinted interest in McCabe (Ottawa, Montreal, Buffalo), but by the time they found out, it was probably too late. McCabe was already packing his bags and halfway out the door by that time.
I don’t think the league had anything to do with it, making the Leafs trade McCabe to the Panthers because they practically stole a third round pick from them, I think Fletcher just did it out of good nature. He wanted to get rid of McCabe, gave Jacques Martin a quick call, found out that he was interested and hammered out a deal, qucik snap. Fletcher probably didn’t even hear offers from other teams.
That’s how I think it went down. Right or not, justice has been served for the botched Kilger/Draft pick trade from earlier this year.