Two Years Ago in Toronto...

[torontogm]

On Feb 5, 2009 I was hired to run the Leafs, and remain grateful for the opportunity to join this fantastic league. The club was 4-8-1 at the time (I don’t count the tie with Buffalo that day as mine because I did not submit the lines – I was still trying to figure out how to download the client files when the game was played)... I lost my first 9 games as a GM (thanks Roger for finally letting me win in my 10th game), maybe it was my less-than-stellar NsHL line-up.

The first lines I submitted lost to Philly 3-1:

C Jozef Stumpel (released Sept 19, 2009)
C Matthew Stajan (traded July 19, 2009 to Nashville for TOR 2 2010 [reacquired], NJ 5 2010, NSH 4 2011)
C Kyle Wellwood (traded March 11, 2009 with TOR 3 2009 for Denis Grebeshkov D)
C Jarkko Immonen (released to play in Europe Oct 9, 2010)
LW Sergei Samsonov (traded March 13, 2010 to Calgary with Blake Comeau RW/LW, TOR 2 2011 for Ryan Callahan RW/LW, Christian Hansen RW/C, John Moore D, MTL 1 2010)
LW Jochen Hecht
LW Chad Kilger (traded Dec 21, 2009 to Washington with Shawn Landolt C, Staffan Kronwall D for TOR 5 2010)
LW Alexei Ponikarovsky
RW Darcy Tucker (traded Oct 26, 2009 to Atlanta for Matt Cullen C)
RW Andrew Brunette (traded Apr 10, 2009 to Tampa for TB 6 2009)
RW Ales Kotalik (traded July 30, 2009 to Ottawa for Noah Clarke LW and OTT 3 2010)
RW Steve Downie
D Brendan Bell (released to play in Europe Oct 9, 2010)
D Carlo Colaiacovo
D Mike Rathje (traded Feb 6, 2010 to Minnesota for Adam Henrique C)
D Staffan Kronwall (see Chad Kilger)
D Jay Harrison
D Aaron Ward (traded March 30, 2009 to New York Rangers for NYR 4 2009)
G Miikka Kiprusoff
G Mikael Tellqvist (released October 8, 2009)

Only Jochen Hecht, Alexei Ponikarovsky, Carlo Colaiacovo, and Miikka Kirprusoff have remained regulars throughout my tenure. Steve Downie RW spent parts of the past 2 years in the minors, but after a re-rate is a regular contributor, and Jay Harrison has spent last season and this season as a top defenseman for the Marlies.

I never set out to be so trade-happy...

[CalgaryGM]

You've done a fine job Jade, much better than your real life counter part. Go Leafs (except against the my Flames of course!!)

[torontogm]

Thanks Andrew... loved the job Burke did in Vancouver making them gritty and competitive, and he did a nice job adding a few missing pieces to get the Ducks a cup, but honestly I have no idea what he's doing Toronto, and I'm not sure he does either. Maybe he should send Kessel to the minors... (too soon to joke about this? ;P )

[CalgaryGM]

I'm laughing!!

[FlyersGM]

I think Burke thought he could fix the team by overpaying average to crap players (Phaneuf, Komisarek, Beauchemin, Armstrong). At this rate he's basically doing exactly what Cliff Fletcher did, the only difference is you EXPECT Fletcher to do an awful job.