Faceoff Factor

McCabe making maple syrup in Toronto

Mike Wilson | National Hockey League

Jun 30, 03:39 PM | Hype this story!

Topping news around the National Hockey League lately has been the recent activity of GMs trying to get out of no-trade clauses that were reached with their players. The front running story for this has been the on-going struggle between the Toronto Maple Leafs and one of their top defenseman, Bryan McCabe.

Two years ago, McCabe signed a 5-year contract extension with the Leafs. The contract stated that McCabe would remain in Toronto until the 2011-12 season, after which he would become an unrestricted free agent.

Insuring this was the included no-trade clause. Toronto decided, on their own will, that since they just adored McCabe so much, that they would make sure he would not possibly be traded until his contract termination in 2012.

Agreeing to this deal seemed to be a great idea at the time. McCabe loved Toronto and knew it was a great hockey city that would thrive on success. But, after multiple seasons of not making the playoffs, signing that deal with the Leafs has become McCabe’s worst idea since dying his mohawk blue.

It isn’t necessarily McCabe who wants himself out of Toronto, but instead the Maple Leafs who want McCabe out of Toronto.

If both parties agree to waive the no-trade clause, very few problems should ensue. However, if one party decides to cling to the clause, a world of hurt will follow.

This is where it gets juicy…

Toronto has been very open about their current feelings toward McCabe. To make things brief, they want to change their recipe for success and McCabe is clearly not included in the new mix.

However, looking through next season’s salaries for the Leafs, one might notice that McCabe would be making more than any other player on the team (assuming Sundin doesn’t return from free agency).

Next season, Bryan McCabe would be making $6.15 million and $4.15 million the two following seasons after next. And why would he pass that up?

So, McCabe has decided to fight the Leafs and cling to his no-trade clause. In other words, an angry McCabe is staying in an angry city just to make them angrier as the season goes on.

Any of this making sense? Well if not, since we’re talking about the Maple Leafs, let’s look at it this way…

Bryan McCabe is maple syrup and the Toronto Maple Leafs organization is a big stack of pancakes. Now the Leafs only like butter on their pancakes but Toronto GM, Cliff Fletcher, has poured syrup on top of the stack. He realizes two years later, that he doesn’t like syrup anymore. Frantically, he grabs a knife and tries to scrape the syrup off, but to no avail as it has already settled into every layer of pancake.

So, at the draft in Ottawa, Fletcher tries to get a new stack of pancakes by trying to make a deal to get McCabe out of Toronto, even though he has no authority to do so. This failed because no one wants to get involved in the, shall we say, “sticky” situation in Toronto.

Fletcher’s other option is to buy out McCabe’s contract (along with the no-trade clause), which would cost about $11 million. And that is money Toronto can’t afford to lose. Also, as you can imagine, with July 1 being upon us now, time is running out on the Leafs.

So what is this poor “sap” (pardon the puns), Fletcher, going to do?

There have been talks of Toronto setting up a deal involving McCabe with the New York Islanders, who would be very generous in payroll considering GM Garth Snow is below the mandated payroll floor of $40.7 million.

Unfortunately, this leads to other speculation that Toronto is trying to make McCabe look like a complete fool if he doesn’t take the deal. This seems to be a recurring trend for the Maple Leafs as they tried to do the same thing to Sundin and Kubina at the trade deadline. However, they did successfully buy out Darcy Tucker and are looking to do the same to Andrew Raycroft.

Toronto is trying to get rid of all its old-fashioned home-made syrup that was brought to the table by Sundin, Kubina, Tucker, and McCabe (which has gone sour over the past seasons), and replace it with new, factory-made syrup that has been laced with young talent and retains sweet goodness in every bite.

Now this is where every young hockey player’s Marvel comic superhero (with a slight twist to fit this article) should be stepping in. That’s right it’s… na na na na Bett-man. However, Commissioner Bettman is yet to show even a night-light on the issue.

According to the guidelines for the league’s front office operations, Bettman should have stepped in as soon as McCabe refused to waive his no-trade clause. In playing the role of Toronto’s mother, Bettman was supposed to have told Fletcher to finish his syrup-filled pancakes and like them too. And remind him he can’t eat just buttered pancakes until 2012.

Let’s review shall we?

McCabe is passing up an $11 million contract buy-out that would send him to a team that will accept him with open arms and put lots of cash in his pockets just to make the team that poured his syrup pay his bill (I’m done with the syrup puns, I promise).

So…If you’re an NHL rights activist, you don’t want McCabe to take the deal because he should be able to stand up to Toronto, or at least take a big chunk of change out their pockets.

If you’re Fletcher, you want McCabe to saddle up and get out of town as soon as possible so you can start rebuilding for the future.

If you’re McCabe’s agent, you’ve probably gone crazy and yanked enough hair out to give yourself a mohawk seeing your client willingly pass up a great opportunity out of spite.

And so, once again, I ask the question who’s the bad guy? Is it Fletcher for trying to break McCabe with money and shame? Or is it McCabe for causing a stink even though he has all the legality and every right to do so?

Nonetheless, the Maple Leafs’ situation looks to be getting “stickier” (ok, now I’m done) every day.