Alert! Alert! Toronto has officially cleared Bryan McCabe's salary!!! Toronto! Send your thanks to Cliff Fletcher and co.! The cap waste is gone!!!!
Ok, so maybe McCabe isn't that bad of a defenseman. He did, after all, make it to the NHL.
However, comparing his performance to the amount of money he gets paid, it's pretty sad. McCabe has received the harshest of criticism from just about every hockey expert/professional that you could find. If he doesn't increase his bang for his buck (I don't think I've had a chance to use that cliche in a while), he may find himself out of the NHL.
Now, if McCabe's play returns to it's past dominance, this could turn out to be a great trade for Florida. With all due respect to Mike Van Ryn's talent, McCabe at his high level of play would be much more welcome in Florida. Along with the additions of Keith Ballard and Nick Boynton, the Panthers have the potential to have one of the best top four 'D' men in the league, those three with Jay Bouwmeester.
Toronto also could benefit from this trade. Van Ryn was never meant to be a top 2 defender, and with Pavel Kubina and Tomas Kaberle manning the first pairing, Van Ryn can slide into the second pairing with any one of Jeff Finger, Anton Stralman, or Jonas Frogren. I could see Van Ryn mentoring Stralman, but I wouldn't know for sure how well that would work.
It looks we're having a little swell of action here in late August/early September. Teemu Selanne has already announced his return to Anaheim, which likely spells a trip out of town for Mathieu Schneider. The Meszaros trade to Tampa was Defender Swap 1!, and there have been reports that Ottawa GM Bryan Murray would be willing to sign Mark Parrish or Glen Murray. Personally, I would pick Parrish, who is essentially the poor man's Cory Stillman (who the Senators just lost to Florida as a free agent. Man, are there connections all over the place or what?).
What the heck is Mats Sundin gonna do? And when?
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