Wayback Wednesday: Raycroft’s Damage

The Acquisition

• “The Luongo Trade” happened a day before, sending Todd Bertuzzi, Alex Auld, and Bryan Allen to Florida for Lukas Krajicek, Roberto Luongo, and a 6th round pick. I don’t know if the Leafs would have been able to jump on this one; Luongo thought he was close to a long term deal with the Panthers hours before the trade, and I don’t think the Leafs had the right assets to top Bertuzzi. Sundin was several years older and at that time wasn’t on the market. Darcy Tucker had a breakout year, but was a step down. Bryan McCabe or Tomas Kaberle could have been strong trade chips, but with them both looking like they could be top-10 defencemen in the post lockout NHL and not much ready behind them, I’m sure there would be hesitance. 
• Two weeks later, Dan Cloutier was traded to the Los Angeles Kings for a 2nd and 3rd round pick. A much lower cost, but an even worse goalie; Cloutier played just 33 games in two seasons with the Kings had had save percentage numbers that would be bad for the Early 80’s.

• Martin Gerber signed with Ottawa on July 1st. Gerber earned his deal (3Y @ 3.7) with the Senators after a couple of years of playing power-backup; sitting behind Jean-Sebastien Giguere in Anaheim’s 2003 run, performing well while filling in during the 03/04 season, dominating in Sweden and at the World Championship during the lockout, and having a respectable year with the Carolina Hurricanes before losing his job to eventual Conn Smythe winner Cam Ward. Oh, and shutting out Canada at the Olympics. Gerber’s deal didn’t fare super well for the Sens; Ray Emery stole his spot in 2006/07, and he was average in 2007/08. Gerber actually ended his contract with the Leafs, where his below average 0.905 was the best goaltending the Leafs had seen in years once they claimed him off re-entry waivers. Overall, a disappointment to the Sens, but would’ve been an improvement here.  
• Ty Conklin followed a few days later, jumping from Edmonton to Columbus. After flaming out his sophomore year in Edmonton, the Oilers walked away from him, leaving the Blue Jackets to sign him to a league minimum deal. He didn’t play solid hockey until 2007/08, bailing out the Penguins with Marc-Andre Fleury injured, and obviously wouldn’t have been in the solution in Toronto. But, at 500k, you can waive that mistake and not stress it.
• At the end of the month, Dominik Hasek returned to the Detroit Red Wings after a year in Ottawa. If there was a reason that Toronto passed on this option, I have to imagine it was injury concern. After all, Hasek had just posted a 0.925 with the Sens, but hadn’t made 50 starts in a season since 2002. As it turns out, Hasek managed to start 56 that year while posting a 0.913 save percentage at the low price of $750,000. With that said, I have to think that he had Detroit specifically in mind – many teams would have taken him at that price to split minutes with someone.
• Last, and probably most importantly, it took Manny Legace until early August to find a team, signing with St. Louis for 1 year at 1.4 million dollars; a “prove your worth” year. Legace had had some solid partial seasons with the Red Wings for about half a decade prior, but there was scepticism that he could succeed on another team. Legace wasn’t particularly mindblowing, posting a 0.907 save percentage over 45 games, but you know what? That’s decent enough. Particularly when you factor in the difference that would have made for the Leafs that year (25 goals fewer with the same amount of Shots against as Raycroft). He actually went up in the first year of his following deal (2 years at 2.15M per) to a 0.911, before falling off the radar. At that point, however, you have Rask just about ready to come into his place, as he did in 2009/10 for the Bruins.