Crowded House: Making Space For New Talent - Defense

Jake Gardiner really threw a wrench in things.  The plan coming into this year was undoubtedly to send Gardiner to the AHL where he played only 10 games last season.  Conventional thinking is that young defensemen need professional seasoning before they make the jump to the NHL.

And yet, after 5 NHL games, Gardiner has a pair of assists and is even in the +/- column.  He's looked poised with the puck and his defensive lapses have been manageable and declining of late.  In short, he looks ready.

Dion Phaneuf is lighting it up to start the year and looks like the number one defenseman we hoped we were getting.  He's got 9 point in 7 games, he's +6, and he has clearly improved his defensive game under Ron Wilson.

Over at PPP, Steve Burtch put together a piece on Korbinian Holzer and Juraj Mikus where he looks at the development of a couple of our more unsung prospects.  Holzer in particular looks like he'll be a solid depth defenseman in fairly short order.

Add to this Jesse Blacker's strong play last season in the CHL and good start with the Marlies and Keith Aulie's potential as an NHL defenseman and you've got a crowded house.  Following up on yesterday's look at the center position, I've put together a look at some defensemen who will be pushing for roster spots over the next couple of seasons.

Crowded House: Making Space For New Talent - Centers

Leaf fans, it seems, are always talking about cupboards.  The cupboards were bare when Brian Burke took over, and now they seem to be a little overfull.  For years our organizational depth has been laughable and our prospect pool was almost non-existent but now our management team is faced with a different challenge.  How do we make space for these guys?

Oddly, the Leafs' greatest need is at center and their best depth is at center.  What?

The Leafs need a true number one center, no doubt about it.  Tim Connolly is a good player, as is Grabovski, but neither are ideal longterm fits for Kessel.  Having said this, both are great second line centers.

Bozak and Lombardi are very good third line centers who bring a defensive element.  Lombardi has great speed, Bozak has been strong on faceoffs and has shown this season that he can fill in with Kessel in a pinch.

David Steckel has won better than 61% of his faceoffs so far this season and seems to win all the key draws.  When the game is on the line, you can bet that Steckel will be the one taking the draw.

Those are five NHL centers, and only Grabovski's deal is expiring.  Given the season he put together in 2010-11 and all of the positive accolades he's received from Ron Wilson and Brian Burke, you would expect that the team brass would like to keep him around.

Kaberle to Boston: One Year Later

'Who's getting the first rounder again? You guys? Screw that, we're keeping Kadri.'

Flash forward to 2010. The Boston Bruins have just acquired Nathan Horton from the Florida Panthers and shipped out Dennis Wideman, a player that had a very disappointing 2009-10 season.

This opens up a hole on the Bruins defence and a year ago, as mentioned above, they expressed some serious interest in acquiring Kaberle.

I see no reason why the Bruins wouldn't take a run at Kaberle again. They have picks (ours), and talented forward prospects and Kaberle would look great alongside Chara.

The Bruins would make an ideal trading partner in my mind because of the over-abundance of talented centres the team has. With Savard, Bergeron, Krejci and likely Seguin it looks like talented prospect Joe Colborne will be on the outside looking in for the foreseeable future. This is the guy the Leafs should target.

Colborne has the dimensions Burke likes in his centres. He's 6'5", a good play-maker and a decent skater. Very much in the mould of a guy like Ryan Getzlaf, a player that Burke is intimately familiar with.

Burke wants a top-six forward and a first rounder. Good luck. I think if you can get a talented prospect like Colborne and your own second-rounder back then you have to pull the trigger on that deal. Let's build towards 2011-12.