Shanny Speaks: The Trade, New Leafs, and What’s Next

Talks heated up during the draft a little bit, and Jim Rutherford and I had been going back and forth a little bit before the draft and at the draft, so I had a sense something could happen today and it did.
I had said at the end of the season that there were going to be changes, and for whatever reason we had a lot of talented individuals on this team, but as a group it hadn’t worked. This is about winning, and Phil’s certainly a very talented player, but we knew changes had to come. 

I thank [Kessel] for his six years here – very productive years for him. And that’s why a guy like Jim Rutherford, with a team poised to take a run at the Stanley Cup, had such interest in him. I think it’s a good fit for Phil, but at the same time it stays n our messaging that what we were doing here as a group wasn’t working and we were setting a new direction for our club, building it different. In order to do that, sometimes you have to give up some very talented players to get some assets and picks. It’s our job now to turn those into things of value for this club moving forward.

We made the decision that we had to [retain salary], and that we weren’t going to be able to make that move without retaining some of his salary. So we’ve retained 15%… $1.2M. Would you like to not retain any? Or course, but some of the other people we were talking to were asking for more, and we thought this was the best deal we had.

[Kapanen]’s one of the youngest players that was drafted two years ago. He came over this past year, and played a little bit in the American Hockey League and in the playoffs. Talented guy. Top six forward, we’re hoping. I think he adds to our stable. With a lot of work and a lot of patience and development, we hope that he becomes a productive Leaf at some point.

P.A. Parenteau is coming here on a one year deal with a lot to prove. He’s a motivated guy. I think he’s excited about coming here.

Harrington is somebody that Mark Hunter was very familiar with. A character player.

Hunwick, again, another guy that Mike Babcock was familiar with. A character guy, comes to work every day.

We’ve created a lot of cap space for ourselves, to give us some flexibility going forward. Some of the players we’ve picked up are young guys obviously just starting their careers. It’s our job to help them develop, it’s our jobs to turn the picks into prospects, and our job to turn those prospects into productive Leafs.