I cannot for the life of me understand this trade: Stralman and Colin Stuart (don’t know him) for Wayne “Not Keith” Primeau and a second round pick next year.

Of course I like the pick, when do I not like picks?

The Flames get one of the Leafs best young D and this forward I don’t know. They give up a veteran checker and a second rounder that may or may not result in a player.

The Leafs get a veteran checker (who knows why they need him) and a second rounder that may or may not result in a player. They give up one of their best young D, who I happen to think could be the next Kaberle in five years, and some forward.

How does this make any sense? What value does Primeau have? Virtually none. He may have been more than waiver trash a few years ago (maybe…) but he isn’t now. As for the second round pick, that totally depends on scouting. As yet, the Leafs scouts haven’t shown themselves to be geniuses, but they are certainly better than they used to be (Stralman being a good example). Since I don’t recall Stuart, I’m guessing he wasn’t highly thought of, so it’s okay to get rid of him in my book. But Stralman seemed to me to be coming around nicely. Once again the Leafs management has ignored homegrown D talent in order to trade for mid-aged players with overly large contracts. These trades are much more reasonable than Ferguson’s version (still haunting us to this day) but, for a team that is supposedly rebuilding, they make little sense.

It was always a mystery to me why Stralman kept getting sent down. Yes, he makes turnovers. But I am convinced that you need to give your prospects time to sink or swim (i.e., a season at least) and when you’re rebuilding you can afford to do that.

I believe the Leafs will soon know what they gave up, and Burke will have been fleeced quite handily. Though Stralman is not technically a prospect any more, this still strikes me as one of those insane prospect-for-veteran deals that every Leafs GM seems to be suckered into making.

Disgusting.