My cameraman Joel and I arrived at the ACC only to be ushered into the "media lockdown" in the Hot Stove lounge at the ACC. Every reporter and columnist from every media outlet in Toronto waited patiently for Cliff Fletcher to emerge from the Leafs "situation room" and speak. Hats off to MLSE on trade deadline day. They provided us with some good banana bread and solid coffee.
A sure sign that the times are changing was the sight of ace TSN reporter James Cybulski wearing jeans. Welcome to the dark side C-Bul, glad to see the Connected karma is catching on all around the country.
The last 30 minutes of deadline day were a blur as teams scrambled to get their deals down under the radar. As a proud Sportsnet employee I was geeked to see Daren Millard and the Hockeycentral crew break the Hal Gill to the Penguins deal. That's what I'm talking about!!!
Everyone assembled is stunned at the Marian Hossa deal and the steep cost the Penguins paid the Thrashers to get him.
When interim GM Cliff Fletcher arrived to speak to the media he was all business. Cliff was pleased the team was able to get four draft picks in trading away Wade Belak, Hal Gill and Chad Kilger. Cliff didn't sugar coat anything when he described last year's late run "as a team playing with nothing on the line."
He did say that one of his players with a no-trade clause had agreed to waive it yesterday afternoon. However, after the end of the Sens game he changed his mind and told his agent that he wouldn't waive his clause.
Cliff also was pointed out that all the kids down on the Marlies will get a chance to audition for a job during the remainder of the regular season. However, that doesn't include goalie Justin Pogge. Cliff feels it's best for Pogge to wait until next year before he is given the opportunity to start regular-season games in the NHL.
Cliff fired a shot across the bow of all the remaining players in Toronto. He said he expects the Leafs to be a "drastically different" team to start the 2008-09 season. Fletcher's final words to the media were extremely blunt. He said the Leafs will look at all options in the off-season, and that means trades and buying out contracts.
Of course that means whomever is the Leafs new GM will be a very busy man over the summer.
Back at the network everyone was still buzzing at all the deals that went down today. Some teams paid an extremely steep price to make a deal they feel will put them over the top. Mike Brophy of the Hockey News feels San Jose paid the steepest price to get a potential rental player in Brian Campbell.
That's what makes trade deadline day so damn fun. All the wheeling and dealing and all the debate afterwards about who won and who lost.
My day is now done. Wednesday, it's back to the Air Canada Centre to cover off the pre- and post-game for the Raptors / T-Wolves game.
who do you think won big today and who lost out?