Anaheim Ducks get: David Steckel, 31, C

Leafs get: Ryan Lasch, RW/LW; 7th Round Pick

Before I knew who Steckel was, I was really upset when the Leafs traded a 4th round pick for him back in October of 2011. This is because I looked at his hockey-reference.com profile and not his NHL.com profile and I failed to see that in 2010-11, he was as good as any 3rd / 4th liner at face-offs. I also believe that the bad lottery ticket that is a 4th round pick is still more valuable to a rebuilding team than as 4th line face-off expert who offers little else beyond “size” (he is 6’6″).

Steckel has hardly been so dominant in the dot this year. He is also playing the fewest minutes of his career right now as, just like Mike Brown, the Leafs can’t seem to find enough minutes for him. Steckel is basically a situational face-off guy this year, and he isn’t doing that well at it. Colton Orr has played more than him.

So to get a 7th round pick and a player sounds like a pretty good deal on paper. However, Lasch is an undrafted career minor leaguer, who has spent stints in the AHL, the ECHL, the Swedish Elite League, and a league I don’t even recognize, over the last few seasons. Basically, nobody wants him. He is presumably being traded to the Leafs because of a contract dispute or something. (He has played for the A, the ECHL and the SEL this season, so it seems reasonable to assume he was demoted from the A to the ECHL and then fled for the SEL. But I could be way off). What I am trying to say is that I don’t think Lasch + a 7th rounder equals a 4th round pick, so the Leafs don’t seem to have acquired back what they gave up for him in the first place. Therefore I am slightly disappointed.

That being said, Steckel was hardly endearing himself to other teams with his 7 minutes per game and his mediocre face-off percentage, and he was an unrestricted free agent this summer. So at least the Leafs got something. One never knows if the two assets they acquired could later be used to acquire better assets.