Where Are They Now? Episode One

One of the storylines of the summer and early season has been the massive turnover among the Leafs' roster. What could be more fun than tracking how they are doing in their newfound homes? Lots of things but this is a hockey blog so I am constrained. Normally, this kind of exercise would end in tears so don't blame me if you feel some good old seasonal affective disorder coming on when you reach the end:

Bryan McCabe

#24 / Defenseman / Florida Panthers

Height: 6-2

Weight: 220

Born: Jun 08, 1975

Here is Public Enemy # 1 with the stunned look that Leaf fans became accustomed to seeing at least once or twice a game when the referees' whistle blew. McCabe started off hot with nine points in his first nine but he's slowed down to three in his last eleven. No surprise that he is putting up points. That +7 can probably be attributed to having Craig Anderson playing like Patrick Roy.

More players after the jump!

Wade Belak

#3 / Right Wing / Nashville Predators

Height: 6-5

Weight: 221

Born: Jul 03, 1976

Not surprisingly, Belak isn't putting up any points. He has been in a couple of good fights including a rematch with Cam Janssen where Wade once again defended Kaberle's honour. If Nashville was smart they'd be using him to sell the game. 

Hal Gill

#2 / Defenseman / Pittsburgh Penguins

Height: 6-7

Weight: 250

Born: Apr 06, 1975

 The USS Hal Gill is in dry dock getting repairs right now but until his injury he was providing his usual steady defence while frustrating fans that expect a behemoth like him to be more physical.

Brendan Bell

#9 / Defenseman / Ottawa Senators

Height: 6-1

Weight: 205

Born: Mar 31, 1983

Remember that guy we got for Bell? Played in an All-Star game and then wasn't any good? Well, it doesn't look like we lost much. Why did I include him? Just to make a crack about the senators taking the Leafs' sloppy seconds.

 

Chad Kilger

#19 / Left Wing / Florida Panthers

Height: 6-4

Weight: 224

Born: Nov 27, 1976

In one of the bizzarest moves, we saw Kilger sent off the Florida for a draft pick and then disappear off the face of the planet. Damien Cox suggested that there was a character-killing story behind his leave of absence and that it would eventually come out. Of course, God forbid a reporter do some work and find out what the deal with Chad was although rumours abound and tend to jive with Steve Simmons' assertion that  hot female masseuse + fit alpha males = trouble.

Update: I forgot Wellwood.

 

Kyle Wellwood

#42 / Center / Vancouver Canucks

Height: 5-10

Weight: 180

Born: May 16, 1983

There's Wellwood and his freakish stats. All I want the Wellwoodhavers admit are the following things which are essentially common sense but apparently not to everyone:

• Wellwood never would have woken up without the second realization that he had passed waivers because he was out of shape and lazy.
• Wellwood would have immediately undermined Wilson's regime of accountability after a summer of not working out which followed a previous summer of being fat and lazy.
• He has a career shooting percentage of 11.3%. Look at his numbers this year! There is no way in hell that he can keep shooting at a 35.3% clip.
• He has 4-3-7 in 18GP after going a ridiculous 8-1-9 in the first eight games of the year.
• He better keep producing on the powerplay where 7 of his 12 goals have come because he still struggles to create offence at even strength.
• So far he has 10 games without a shot because he does not compete anywhere near hard enough.

So there you go. We'll obviously keep track of Wellwood as the year goes on. The 32 point pace that he has been on for the last 18 games is a much closer representation of the player that Wellwood has decided that he wants to be than the 92 point player that the anti-Leafs Brigade thought had escaped Toronto.

This will get a lot longer once the draft picks that went out develop into car salesmen or NHLers. Of course, I won't go any further back in time because then it gets ugly.