FTB - Stomach Churning Edition

It's finally draft day. Greener  is giddy with anticipation as he waits to hear Cliff Fletcher booed mercilessly. Thankfully it's a senators crowd which means that it'll probably sound a lot like "Go Leafs Go".

In other news, Steve wonders what it will take to get the message through McCabe's thick skull that he cannot hold the Leafs' rebuilding process ransom. DGB has a good suggestion that involves the fans letting McCabe know that no one wants him here. Yes, he's been here a long time and he's produced points consistently but since they took away the can opener and Chara rag dolled him he has been more Brianna than Bryan. And of course it's a double standard compared to the free pass I gave Mats and it is a contractual benefit that he negotiated but I want a freaking Stanley Cup and McCabe is standing in the way. This is just an attempt (same as Darcy) to milk more money out of the situation and I hope the Leafs realize this and do not buy him out.

On to the huge news of the day: CBC has unveiled their Theme Song Competition plans. Just kidding, the Leafs traded a third round pick for Jamal Mayers. Mirtle is surprisingly restrained considering this is a move only Leaf fans could rationalize. The move makes smart-ass comments like this one look a little more prescient. So let's get our rationalizing hats on and make this a great deal!

Basically, any draft pick is a toss-up and third rounders are no different. The Leafs could draft Luca Cereda or they could draft Henrik Zetterberg so it's not the end of the world to drop one of 10 picks which is already a pretty good haul without having made any new moves to acquire additional picks.

Jamal Mayers is also a local boy. We all know how much local boys want to play for the blue and white so we can assume that he'll bring the kind of performance that is usually reserved for visiting players. Plus, he played for the World Championship Silver Medal team so he's actually pretty good right?

He grew up with my cousin which made me pause when I read the TSN ticker. I thought Jamal was younger but then I remembered hearing about how this cousin used to party with him in high school. Then I remembered how 'experienced' my cousin actually is and my heart sank a bit. So much for no 30 year olds.

But! He's a great actor. I really liked his work in 40 Year Old Virgin.

Back to seriousness, Jamal Mayers played the third most penalty killing minutes for the Blues' 7th ranked PK last year. His +/- for 60 minutes of PK time was -5.69. To put the into perspective, for the Leafs he would have played the most penalty killing minutes by over half a minute a game and been the fourth best penalty killer by a small fraction. While age is a factor, his skill on the PK not only addresses one of the team's biggest needs but it also brings in a veteran presence that can help mould an effective PK unit as he did in St. Louis.

I'll have a draft post up this afternoon so we can spend the day with that stomach churning anticipation/fear of disaster...enjoy!