Andy Strickland has this on hanky’s site :
“Are the Toronto Maple Leafs planning on placing forward Jamal Mayers on waivers? There could be a few teams interested in placing a claim on a guy who could add a veteran presence as well as some toughness. ”
Given the source take it with a grain of salt. Andy isn’t batting much better tha. Vernon Wells when it comes to rumors of late.
In any event it raises two questions, first, at what point does Brian Burke have to abandon ship so to speak on this year and start trying to get a return on his invetmets? And second what does it say about a guy who’s role is to bring toughness and veteran leadership to a team badly in need of both when he is waived?
Stay at home Berger, our resident statistician(now we know what he does when he’s not watching hockey at home, studies math and the scrabble list of approved words) has taken to givin us ship of fools regular updates on just how much of a long shot the playoffs are to team maple leafs. Given stay at homes ominious outlook, one has to ask when will Burke have to start looking at next year and the draft in which he doesn’t have any early draft picks. I know, it’s November 6th. I know, most of the new guys aren’t tradeable. I am not suggesting the time is now, the question is, barring the 10 game winning streak, when? When does it make sense to bring kids up and send vets down if not out?
By the way, speaking of stay at home Berger, get ready for this when the Leafs do finally put together a nice string, he will then say, despite a streak of x number of games where the leafs earned y number of points, they hve failed to make up any ground in the race for the playoffs as the teams ahead of them played z number of three point games and remain so many points ahead……. Bank on it. You gotta believe he rubs his kids noses in every mistake they have ever made.
Back to mayers. He, at the time was the one deal that cliff Fletcher made that really made me mad. In retrospect it wasn’t the worst of cliff’s second era. However it hasn’t been a good deal at all. Recall Brian burke’s first move? Bringing in Brad May. A move to provide much of what Mayers was brought in for. Now, a team that is in need of leadership is going to throw a guy who is supposedly a leader over board? Strange indeed. As much as I am not thrilled with his play, I would have thought the intangibles make it worth it. If this I true, a big if, I guess they weren’t.
Bet on this, if he gets waived, lay a few bucks on the team that picks him up, they will likely win the Stanley Cup, he will play a key role down the stretch; always happens….
Pardon the spelling typing on my iPhone
Tsm
