Steen-Whistle Locked Up

Sources are telling TSN that the Leafs have extended Alex Steen's contract giving him two years at $1.7 million a year. Steen has been rumoured in trades last season in the Pronger sweepstakes and this year as well.


I think this is a great move by the Leafs, as Steen has seen his play improved this year, becoming more physical and growing up a bit more. At times in the season, Steen was playing with Nik Antropov and Mats Sundin, two big bodies who can control the puck great down low, and Steen definitely didn't look out of place while playing with those two. He also seemed to be the spark of the Stajan-Steen-Devereaux line that was a real hit earlier this season.

Another reason I really like this move is because I think Steener is the future of the Leafs, and in my mind he will be the next captain of the Blue & White. If not right after Sundin is gone, then in a couple years. Steen is possibly the only young roster player that has proved himself to be the future of this team, with Wellwood expected to have a breakout 70-point year this year and turning out to being a big floppy cock, and I really don't think Stajan has the ability to be much better than he is now, which is sitting at about average.

Mats Sundin: As Mr. Bone reported, Cliff Fletcher met with Mats Sundin on his future with the team. The news now is that he was expected to make a decision by today on whether he will waive his no trade clause, but it now seems like he will take the weekend to think about it. The bulk of the other moves around the league rely on Mats Sundin's decision on whether he will stay or go, so hopefully he doesn't take too long deciding. Howard Berger says that in tomorrow night's game against the Thrashers that if Mats Sundin is playing, it is very likely that he has rejected to waive his no trade clause, because you don't want to risk injury with a player involved in a trade.

In my mind, if Mats Sundin was not going to waive his no trade clause, he would have specified that two weeks ago to Cliff Fletcher and probably the media. This would've been the end to the talks, and with less than 4 days to go until the deadline and this still being a hot commodity, I think Sundin is gone. I'm really liking the idea of the Ryan-Mikkelson-EDM 1st round pick for Sundin-Stajan-2009 2nd rounder trade, and I think Anaheim is the likely destination for Mats.

Sundin's agent J.P. Barry was in Toronto speaking with Fletcher as many of you already know. Barry is a very well known agent around the league and he is the agent for many big NHL names, including Evgeni Malkin. I think this is a huge deal that Barry was speaking to Fletcher yesterday, and this means to me that the Sundin deal is on the top of his to-do list. A busy agent like Barry would not come to talk to Fletcher if a deal hasn't already been presented to Sundin, and if the possibility of him being traded wasn't there.

I think there is a very good deal (possibly the Anaheim deal) currently awaiting Sundin's approval. With Sundin and agent JP Barry sitting down with Fletcher yesterday, I think the consideration for Sundin is very serious, and TSN says Sundin's decision will come after the weekend, but if I don't see the captain in the lineup tomorrow night, I'm putting my money on a trade being announced within the next 48 hours.


In my last post, I pasted a quote from TSN, and the whole article I had written changed to a different font with italics, sorry for the change, but I tried multiple times to change it back and it would not work.