Too Simple...

It's bold. It answers a need. It's too easy (sort of). And almost works...

Could the first big trade of the season be Zach Parise from New Jersey to Toronto for as little as Tomas Kaberle? How on earth could THIS happen?

The Pluses

Both teams have something to gain by this move.

Toronto:

1. Needs secondary scoring. Parise. (To borrow from Paul Bissonette) Boom. And don't think Brian Burke doesn't know the value of a Parise, his Olympic Finals game-tying goal scorer.

2. Tomas Kaberle is likely moved by the Trade Deadline or lost in free agency next summer.

3. And Toronto Cap Space (per Gap Geek) is $4,091,944 in room plus $4,250,000 if Kaberle moves. This equals better than $8.3M to offer Parise in the neighborhood of $6M to the $6.67M Cap Hit of Kovalchuk with some wiggle room to spare for future considerations.

New Jersey:

1. Might be asked for Parise and have a currently, slightly damaged forward they can move now for something to prop up a sagging team.

2. Can't move the puck out of their own end if it were fired by a cannon due in large measure to the torrent of injuries affecting this defensively-minded team. They need a Kaberle to move the puck.

3. They also cannot score from the blue line - they have five goals from three defensemen and six of 10 who have been on the roster this season with no points at all.

There's Just One Thing...

That damn Cap is in the way. New Jersey (again with a hat tipped to Cap Geek) has $0 Cap Space with relative (but legal) room being 'borrowed' off of $1.2M in Long Term Injured Reserve (LTIR) money bought back against the cap. So a loss of Parise's $3.5M with the addition of Kabele's $4.25M equals a $750K deficit that would equal more games with only 15 skaters and, ultimately, more losses. This, New Jersey cannot afford. (Not to mention Parise is potentially the face and future of the franchise.)

Summary

So no, Leafs' fans - you are not really likely to get yourself a Zach Parise on your team tomorrow.

Well then why on earth did this #@! blog get pushed out onto the Internet?

To show you that what might seem like a no-brainer to flog a GM with is not likely so simple. You would do better to speculate that Toronto might trade Kaberle for Bobby Ryan or even better, Chris Stewart on teams that are ranked 27th and 30th respectively in goals against average and need a solid defender on the blue line.

Hey! Now there's a rumor or two for you...