I just said to someone the other day how nice it has been since Cliff arrived to not have to hear Toronto’s greatest hockey mind Richard Peddie give us his 2 cents on the ways of the hockey world. I guess then I tempted fate and caused someone like our good pal Lance Hornby to get some nuggets from old Dickie.

and I swear I am not making this up:

“Cliff has made us a younger team and I’m looking forward to meeting (top draft picks) Luke Schenn and Nikolai Kulemin this week at the prospects camp. Sometimes, it’s a sixth-rounder and not a first-rounder that surprises you. But we want to hold on to our young guys.”

“I really like hiring Ron Wilson and both Cliff and I agreed a while ago that Joe was one of the best (newcomers) anyone could get. I think we have one of the deepest front office teams now.”

“But of course, it all depends on what happens during this season.”

I feel so much better now knowing that Richard is actually going to meet Luke Schenn and Nikolai Kulemin. Is he going to get pictures with each to add to his infamous collection in his office? Or just stick with autograhs?

His quote about being surprised by sixth rounders as opposed to first rounders is the work of sure genius.

I am also happy to hear that he and Cliff decided on Joe Nieuwendyk I mean given his track record of hiring guys……

Clearly from Richard all the way down to Joe, the Leafs are now the deepest front office ( I hope you can sense the sarcasm cause I am laying it on pretty thick!)

As for his last comment, what depends on what happens during this season? Come on Richard, we all know very few are really going to be judged based on what happens this season. Cliff has done what others before him wouldn’t (or couldn’t). If this teams competes hard most nights irrespective of outcome, the team will have improved dramatically.

Do us all a favor, stick to what you are REALLY good at, making your bosses lots of money. Let the sports people do what they do best, worry about the on ice/court product…please.

Nice piece in the National Post (yes they do have a sports section!) which you can find here.

Here are the key take away’s:

On Jonas Frogen:

“The necessary paperwork still needs to be filed and the appropriate monies paid to buy the release of the stay-at-home defenceman, who skated for his national side at the 2008 world championships in Quebec and Halifax.”

and on McCabe,:

“We not shopping the guy, we are not waiting to hear offers,” Fletcher said. “We are going to sit down with Bryan next month and see if there is a resolution to this situation. But it will all be done very amicably.”

“I think Bryan understands where we’re coming from,” Fletcher said. “We are not looking for offers because he has expressed his position that he is not interested in being traded right now, and so we are not going to waste another team’s time.”

One thing about Cliff, he is pretty direct. Unlike JFJ who can’t confirm or deny that he has a pulse.

Gotta hand it to the the folks at GlobeSports for breaking this one…Cliff has said he is trying to sign a Euopean D who hasn’t been in the nhl…well TIM WHARNSBY in tomorrow’s paper breaks the cone of silence here.

How do we know this guy who was Born Aug 28 1980 is Height 6.02 — Weight 194 — Shoots L who was
Selected by Calgary Flames round 8 #206 overall 1998 NHL Entry Draft

Regular Season Playoffs
Season Team Lge GP G A Pts PIM GP G A Pts PIM
1998-99 Farjestads BK Karlstad SEL 22 0 0 0 2 – – – – –
2000-01 Farjestads BK Karlstad SEL 49 3 0 3 10 16 0 0 0 4
2001-02 Farjestads BK Karlstad SEL 50 3 6 9 18 10 0 0 0 4
2002-03 Farjestads BK Karlstad SEL 50 1 7 8 48 14 0 0 0 16
2003-04 Farjestads BK Karlstad SEL 47 5 5 10 38 17 2 0 2 6
2004-05 Farjestads BK Karlstad SEL 34 1 0 1 26 15 0 2 2 2
2005-06 Farjestads BK Karlstad SEL 46 3 3 6 84 17 1 1 2 6
2006-07 Farjestads BK Karlstad SEL 53 4 4 8 40
2007-08 Farjestads BK Karlstad SEL 47 0 1 1 38 12 0 1 1 12

He sliced Jason Spezza in the IIHF World Hockey Championship this past spring that lead to Canada’s sprint to bringing home gold. He took a penalty with a few minutes to go in the game with it all tied up. Canada scored and off we went to the Gold Medal game.

Article also claims that Joe Nieuwendyk is going to be announced any day!