| Nick Obergan. 26th June, 2011 - 2:41 am
 On the first day of the draft, the Toronto Maple Leafs made a move that would be overshadowed by a busy day in the NHL, acquiring defenseman John-Michael Liles from the Colorado Avalanche in exchange for a 2012 second round draft pick.
Liles is a 30-year-old puck-moving defenseman with above average passing ability and average skating ability. The American-born Liles was a 5th round draft pick in 2000 and has carved out a decent career to this point, potting 275 points and a -16 rating in 523 career games since 2003-04. In seven seasons, the durable blueliner has played less than 70 games only once.
Liles carries with him a $4.2M cap hit, but is only signed for the upcoming season, so he does not bring any long-term risk for the Leafs, who still have nearly $19M in available cap space. He looks to be preliminarily slotted into a second-pairing alongside Luke Schenn. Toronto already has their six defensemen locked up for the coming season now with Dion Phaneuf, Keith Aulie, Mike Komisarek, Carl Gunnarsson and Brett Lebda also signed to contracts; Jeff Finger is signed but is stowed away in the AHL, while Schenn is a restricted free agent.
GM Brian Burke and coach Ron Wilson are very familiar with Liles, who has played with the US National team four times, so they obviously feel good about his ability to contribute to the improvement of the Leafs. And the draft pick they gave up was the conditional second that Boston sent them in the Tomas Kaberle deal that Toronto received only because the Bruins made it to the Stanley Cup Finals.
Grade for Toronto: A
For Colorado, this is a head-scratcher at best. As mentioned, Liles is only signed for one year, so carries no long-term risk. Also, Colorado is now sitting at just over $27M in contracts for next season, a good $20M below the salary cap floor, so why did they feel the need to dump salary? The second they receive will be in the 50s, and it does not improve their roster or their ability to sign more players. I just cannot understand it, they obviously disliked Liles.
Grade for Colorado: D |
