Leafs trade for Holland, Staubitz

[yave1964]

  The Leafs made a deal this morning with the Anaheim ducks for Brad Staubitz and Peter Holland, giving up prospect Jesse Blacker and two picks.

 

  I like the deal, I understand Blacker is a medium range prospect who translates to a stay at home third pair guy in the NHL, the one pick was a seventh rounder, the best thing the Ducks gave up was the other pick, a conditional second or third rounder.

 

  Staubitz is nothing 230 games in the NHL, 10 goals and 521 PIMs, actually he is a perfect Carlyle player.

 

  The key obviously is Holland a former first rounder, the 15th pick in the draft in 2009. He has been a near point a game center in the AHL but his game has not translated well so far in the NHL. In 29 games in the NHL he has only 7 points.

  The Leafs are in desperate need of centers, Holland came cheap it is a solid under the radar deal. Holland needed a change of scenery and for a second or third round pick and a possible seventh d-man it was well worth the risk. Holland got passed on the depth chart and was looking like a bust, time to see what he can do.

[TropicalFruitGirl26]

Ooooooooo, MORE goons for the Leafs.....

 

Seriously though, if Blacker turns into that decent defenseman, then Anaheim wins this deal easy.

 

I suppose Holland COULD still finally turn into the kind of goal scorer in the NHL as he has generally been in the AHL (just under a point per game, on average), and if that happens, then I'd say the trade was a bit more even...Holland is only 22 after all.

 

Still though, I think the chances that Blacker turns into an ok shut down type D-man before Holland turns into a legitimate, consistant NHL goal scorer are greater...especially if he will be playing on Norfolk and Anaheim teams that already have good players at his position that will allow him to mature at his own pace.

 

Brad Staubitz in the deal is just an unload and a non-factor.

Nothing personally against Brad as a person (I watched him for a few seasons in Minnesota), but as an enforcer, he is just ok...as a hockey player, much to be desired.

About the best thing I could say about him is that he generally doesn't play a 'dirty' game...at least, not that I've seen while he was wearing a Wild jersey and a Canadiens' jersey after that.

 

But he really doesn't make the Leafs "better".

[yave1964]

@TropicalFruitGirl26

  Agreed about Staubitz, it sounds funny to actually say but Staubitz to me is  a poor mans George Parros, lol.

 Blacker versus Holland, IMHO I believe the Ducks prematurely gave up on Holand as they had other and better prospects come along who pushed him down the depth chart. I think Holland is qute capable of having a career as a 2nd/3rd line center.

  Blacker I have studied his statistics and while I know numbers only tell part of the story I don't see much there to get excited about. And as desperate as the Leafs are for d-men usually I don't believe they would have let him go if they felt their was either. Plus the pick, which I think is/could be the key to the deal, either a second or a third depending. Way too early to tell but based off the players involved I believe the Leafs up against the cap and desperate for a center did better than could be expected with Holland but the key in the return will be the pick.

[jammer2]

Ooooooooo, MORE goons for the Leafs.....

 

Seriously though, if Blacker turns into that decent defenseman, then Anaheim wins this deal easy.

 

I suppose Holland COULD still finally turn into the kind of goal scorer in the NHL as he has generally been in the AHL (just under a point per game, on average), and if that happens, then I'd say the trade was a bit more even...Holland is only 22 after all.

 

Still though, I think the chances that Blacker turns into an ok shut down type D-man before Holland turns into a legitimate, consistant NHL goal scorer are greater...especially if he will be playing on Norfolk and Anaheim teams that already have good players at his position that will allow him to mature at his own pace.

 

Brad Staubitz in the deal is just an unload and a non-factor.

Nothing personally against Brad as a person (I watched him for a few seasons in Minnesota), but as an enforcer, he is just ok...as a hockey player, much to be desired.

About the best thing I could say about him is that he generally doesn't play a 'dirty' game...at least, not that I've seen while he was wearing a Wild jersey and a Canadiens' jersey after that.

 

But he really doesn't make the Leafs "better".

 

 

 I agree with most of that post. I watched Holland close last night, I liked his skating stride. He moves well. Apparently he has been working out with Gary Roberts to help gain strength and speed, and it has worked out well from the limited glance at him. Holland strikes me as a top 6 kinda guy, who needs to be surrounded with gifted players to get the most out of his game. He was playing in the top 6 last night, and looked effective. Problem is, when the Leafs get healthy (Bozek comes off the IR on Thursday) he will be bumped to the lower lines, where I suspect he will fail. He's not a defensive type, he's a scoring line type, so kind of a tweener in that respect.

 

 I've  watched a ton of Blacker from his Windsor Spitfire days. He's a quality prospect who can run a power play pretty decent. I suspect he'll be more of a shut down guy in the NHL like you mentioned, but he does have offensive upside. Has pretty good vision out there. Totally agree with you, I think Blacker has a LOT better chance of sticking on the Ducks defense than Holland has of becoming a quality forward for the Leafs.

[jammer2]

@yave1964  I've always been a big Jesse Blacker fan. He's not a dynamic skater by any means, but he gets to where he needs to go. He does have some uptapped offensive potential if put in the right situations. The Leafs have one of the deepest prospect pools in all of hockey in regards to d-men. He got squeezed out due to sheer numbers...he basically plays the same game as Stuart Percy, except Percy is much, much better. There is a chance Blacker could eventually run the Ducks #2 pp unit, he does have that in his game. He's a smart kid, I really hope he sticks, cheering for him big time. He was a big part of our championship teams.

[jammer2]

@TropicalFruitGirl26  Don't recall if I ever mentioned it to you, but I"m a HUGE Richard Panik fan. Another former Spitfire, saw him play a lot of his junior career. A very tough gritty European. Really nice size and skating and good hands. There is an outside chance he turns into a really nice power forward for the Bolts. He needs to be on the top 2 lines, which might be tough in TB, but I really like his upside.

[yave1964]

@jammer2

 

So Holland got passed on the depth chart and so did Blacker, good deal for both teams and all players involved. And within a limited amount of cap room.

[Commander Clueless]

Looks like a decent prospect swap type deal, although the Leafs gave up the higher pick. I guess they are hopeful in Holland's potential...well that, or they just desperately needed a center.

 

At this point in time, getting a center was a must for Toronto. Hopefully it turns out for them long term, but it looks like they are handing out 2nd/3rd rounders like candy at this point.

 

I like Holland so I think it's a reasonable gamble. Still think Blacker can hack it as a solid bottom pairing guy.