Why Bobby Ryan shouldn't be a Maple Leaf

Amid the Maple Leafs fan base collective drooling over the prospect of Bobby Ryan becoming a Leaf in the next few days, I'm going to throw caution into the wind and say, I don't want him.



Don't get me wrong I like Bobby Ryan, he's a good hockey player and scored 71 points in 82 games last year while averaging 16m15s at even strength and 2m34s on the power-play. Ryan was in the top 20 for P/60 production (points per 60 minutes) for players who played more then 40 games, he is a very, very good hockey player. But he's not what this team needs right now, especially since we have two (and more) offensively gifted prospects in the prospect pool in Kadri, and Colborne.

If you've read my first post, you will know how I feel about Kadri, so on to Colborne. "Jumbo" Joe Colborne is really starting to look like a top tier prospect who can make a legitimate impact at the NHL level. His production through 6 games so far has him one point behind Matt Frattin, already. With a nice handful of forward prospects in the farm, and junior it seems that the puck wont stop finding the back of the net in Toronto anytime soon. This is true however, at both ends of the rink.

As per James Mirtle's piece, "Brian Burke hits three-year mark with Leafs flying high" in the Globe And Mail, the Leafs have been the third highest scoring team in the NHL since the 2010-11 All Star break. This is remarkable. Phil Kessel has been on a mission since being picked last at the All-Star draft and Joffery Lupul is producing more points then he, probably, ever thought possible at the NHL level. On the other side of the coin, the Leafs have given up 325 goals since the beginning of last year, spanning 107 games, for a 3.04 goals against average, this number will all but guarantee a bottom 5 finish in the GAA race. Knowing this, why would we trade what defensive prospects (rumored a piece Anaheim would want for Ryan) and/or players we have to make our offense more potent? This is what is called trading from a position of weakness to make a strength stronger.