Leafs Trying to Trade Up

There is a lot of buzz surrounding Brian Burke and his Maple Leafs, trying to move up in the Draft, in order to secure one of the top picks in 2009. John Tavares, Victor Hedman and Matt Duchene are all top quality talent in this Draft and it is still unclear as to who is going to go number one to the Islanders, if they so decide to keep their pick.

Burke has not pulled any punches in saying that his main target is Tavares and he is going to work hard to try and call his name at the podium on Friday night. Of course, from the outside looking in, we don't know if he will be able to do that from the second pick, which the Lightning hold, or not. There is plenty of speculation that says that the Islanders could go with any one of the three top prospects, but the Islanders are holding their cards close to their chest and we can only guess as to what happens.

The Leafs are not coming to the table with a great deal of assets to move on Friday night, so I think this could be a main drawback in dealing with the Leafs. When the Leafs are talking about moving up to the top three picks in the Draft, or even number five for Brayden Schenn, the Leafs are not looking like a viable trading team. Possible marketable assets would include Justin Pogge, Pavel Kubina and Tomas Kaberle, but it seems like a rather long shot at pulling that all off.