2008–09 Toronto Maple Leafs season

2008–09 Toronto Maple Leafs
Division	5th Northeast
Conference	12th Eastern
2008–09 record	34–35–13
Home record	16–16–9
Road record	18–19–4
Goals for	219
Goals against	257
Team information
General Manager	Cliff Fletcher (Sept–Nov) interim Brian Burke (Nov–Apr)
Coach	Ron Wilson
Captain	Vacant
Alternate captains	Nik Antropov (Oct.–Mar.) Tomas Kaberle Pavel Kubina Brad May (Mar.–Apr.) Jamal Mayers Dominic Moore (Oct.–Mar.)
Arena	Air Canada Centre
Average attendance	19,243 (102%)
Team leaders
Goals	Jason Blake (25)
Assists	Matt Stajan (35)
Points	Jason Blake (57)
Penalties in minutes	Pavel Kubina (79)
Plus/minus	Alexei Ponikarovsky (+6)
Wins	Vesa Toskala (22)
Goals against average	Vesa Toskala (3.26)
<2007–08	2009–10>

The 2008–09 Toronto Maple Leafs season was the franchise's 92nd, and their 82nd as the Maple Leafs. The Leafs did not qualify for the playoffs for the fourth consecutive season, and have not qualified for the post-season since the 2003–04 season.

Offseason

The Leafs faced an off-season challenge to hire a general manager. Brian Burke was a favourite for the position held by Interim General Manager Cliff Fletcher, but Burke decided to stay with the Anaheim Ducks. He was not given permission to talk to the Leafs about their vacancy by Ducks owner Henry Samueli. Burke had one more year left on his contract as the general manager of the Ducks, and those close to him say he was interested in the Maple Leafs' job.

On May 7, the Leafs fired Head Coach Paul Maurice, along with two assistant coaches, after missing the playoffs in back-to-back seasons. On May 8, the Leafs asked the Vancouver Canucks permission to speak to Dave Nonis about hiring him for a position with the club.

In mid-May, there were rumours that Wayne Gretzky was in the running for a position with the Maple Leafs. Gretzky responded to the rumours linking him to the Toronto Maple Leafs by stating that his focus was on the Phoenix Coyotes and developing their young talent.

On June 10, Ron Wilson was hired as the new head coach of the Toronto Maple Leafs. Wilson was fired in May by the San Jose Sharks after the Sharks lost to the Dallas Stars in the second round of the NHL playoffs. Wilson has also coached the Anaheim Ducks and the Washington Capitals. The former U.S. college player spent parts of three NHL seasons with the Leafs in the 1970s.

The Toronto Maple Leafs hired Al Coates as their player-personnel director on June 16. Coates comes to Toronto after spending the previous six seasons with Anaheim. Coates has spent more than 30 years in pro hockey and has been part of two Stanley Cup-winning teams (2007 with the Anaheim Ducks and 1989 with the Calgary Flames).

The move perpetuated speculation that Anaheim General Manager Brian Burke would become the Maple Leafs' GM once his deal with the Ducks expired in 2009. The fact that new head coach Ron Wilson played hockey with Burke at the Providence College sparked further rumors about Burke potentially joining the club.

Former NHL star Joe Nieuwendyk was named as General Manager Cliff Fletcher's special assistant on July 8. While playing for the Florida Panthers, Nieuwendyk gained experience as a special consultant to GM Jacques Martin.

Throughout the off-season, the Maple Leafs have been involved in numerous transactions. On June 24, the Toronto Maple Leafs put goaltender Andrew Raycroft and forward Kyle Wellwood on waivers. Morever, Interim GM Cliff Fletcher informed Darcy Tucker that he is to be bought out of his three-year contract; however, this decision was not made official until June 25.

The Maple Leafs bought out goaltender Andrew Raycroft on June 28, making him eligible for free agency on July 1. When the free agent signing period began on July 1, Toronto signed defenceman Jeff Finger, goaltender Curtis Joseph and former Dallas Stars forward Niklas Hagman. Another transaction was made on July 3 when Toronto traded for former Montreal Canadiens forward Mikhail Grabovski in exchange for the rights to Greg Pateryn and a second-round draft pick in 2010. The Leafs also re-signed forwards Dominic Moore, John Mitchell and Greg Scott. On July 14, the Maple Leafs acquired forward Ryan Hollweg in a trade with the New York Rangers for a fifth-round draft pick in 2009.

Regular season

With a young roster, the Maple Leafs were expected to have a lacklustre season. This proved to be correct, as they fell out of the playoff race relatively early and showed little sign of recovery. However, they showed signs of improvement in February and March 2009, during which they had a stretch of seven consecutive games that went into overtime. The Leafs lost the first two in shootouts, then won four in a row with two overtime wins and two shootout wins, followed by an overtime loss.

In November 2008, Brian Burke obtained his release from the Anaheim Ducks and joined the Maple Leafs as president and general manager.

The Maple Leafs were mathematically eliminated from the playoffs on March 31, 2009, with six games remaining in the season.

The Maple Leafs finished the season with 286 goals allowed (excluding seven shootout goals), the most out of all 30 teams. The Maple Leafs also struggled on the penalty kill, finishing 30th overall in penalty-kill percentage, at 74.68%.

Divisional standings

Northeast Division

		GP	W	L	OTL	GF	GA	Pts
1	z – Boston Bruins	82	53	19	10	274	196	116
2	Montreal Canadiens	82	41	30	11	249	247	93
3	Buffalo Sabres	82	41	32	9	250	234	91
4	Ottawa Senators	82	36	35	11	217	237	83
5	Toronto Maple Leafs	82	34	35	13	250	293	81

Conference standings

Eastern Conference

R		Div	GP	W	L	OTL	GF	GA	Pts
1	z – Boston Bruins	NE	82	53	19	10	274	196	116
2	y – Washington Capitals	SE	82	50	24	8	272	245	108
3	y – New Jersey Devils	AT	82	51	27	4	244	209	106
4	Pittsburgh Penguins	AT	82	45	28	9	264	239	99
5	Philadelphia Flyers	AT	82	44	27	11	264	238	99
6	Carolina Hurricanes	SE	82	45	30	7	239	226	97
7	New York Rangers	AT	82	43	30	9	210	218	95
8	Montreal Canadiens	NE	82	41	30	11	249	247	93
8.5
9	Florida Panthers	SE	82	41	30	11	234	231	93
10	Buffalo Sabres	NE	82	41	32	9	250	234	91
11	Ottawa Senators	NE	82	36	35	11	217	237	83
12	Toronto Maple Leafs	NE	82	34	35	13	250	293	81
13	Atlanta Thrashers	SE	82	35	41	6	257	280	76
14	Tampa Bay Lightning	SE	82	24	40	18	210	279	66
15	New York Islanders	AT	82	26	47	9	201	279	61

bold – qualified for playoffs, y – division winner, z – placed first in conference (and division)

AT – Atlantic Division, NE – Northeast Division, SE – Southeast Division

Schedule and results

Overtime Statistics

	Games	Won	Lost	Goal Scorers
Overtime	10	4	6	Pavel Kubina (2), Niklas Hagman, Mikhail Grabovski
Shootout	13	6	7
	23	10	13

Playoffs

The Toronto Maple Leafs failed to qualify for the 2009 Stanley Cup playoffs. If the Leafs had qualified for the playoffs, it would have been their first qualification since the 2003–04 NHL season.

Player statistics

Skaters

Regular season

Player GP G A Pts +/− PIM Jason Blake 78 25 38 63 −2 40 Alexei Ponikarovsky 82 23 38 61 +6 38 Matt Stajan 76 15 40 55 −4 54 Mikhail Grabovski 78 20 28 48 −8 92 Nik Antropov‡ 63 21 25 46 −13 24 Niklas Hagman 65 22 20 42 −5 4 Dominic Moore‡ 63 12 29 41 −1 69 Pavel Kubina 82 14 26 40 −15 94 Tomas Kaberle 57 4 27 31 −8 8 Nikolai Kulemin 73 15 16 31 −8 18 Lee Stempniak† 61 11 20 31 −9 31 John Mitchell 76 12 17 29 −16 33 Ian White 71 10 16 26 +6 57 Jeff Finger 66 6 17 23 −7 43 Jamal Mayers 71 7 9 16 −7 82 Luke Schenn 70 2 12 14 −12 71 Anton Stralman 38 1 12 13 −2 20 Boyd Devereaux 23 6 5 11 +3 2 Mike Van Ryn 27 3 8 11 +2 14 Jeremy Williams 11 5 2 7 +2 2 Jonas Frogren 41 1 6 7 0 28 Jeff Hamilton 15 3 3 6 +2 4 Alexander Steen‡ 20 2 2 4 −4 6 Jiri Tlusty 14 0 4 4 0 0 Brad May† 38 1 1 2 −5 61 Ryan Hollweg 25 0 2 2 −7 38 Phil Oreskovic 10 1 1 2 −2 21 Jaime Sifers 23 0 2 2 −4 18 Christian Hanson 5 1 1 2 −1 2 Carlo Colaiacovo‡ 10 0 1 1 −2 6 Andre Deveaux 21 0 1 1 −3 75 Jay Harrison 7 0 1 1 −2 10 Tim Stapleton 4 1 0 1 −3 0 Ben Ondrus 11 0 0 0 −4 34 Kris Newbury 1 0 0 0 0 2

Goaltenders

Regular season
Player GP Min W L OT GA GAA SA SV Sv% SO Vesa Toskala 53 3056 22 17 11 166 3.26 1518 1352 .891 1 Curtis Joseph 21 841 5 9 1 50 3.57 383 333 .869 0 Martin Gerber† 12 705 6 5 0 38 3.23 402 364 .905 0 Justin Pogge 7 372 1 4 1 27 4.36 173 146 .844 0

^†Denotes player spent time with another team before joining Maple Leafs. Stats reflect time with Maple Leafs only.
^‡Traded mid-season.
Bold/italics denotes franchise record.

Note:

Pos = Position; GPI = Games played in; G = Goals; A = Assists; Pts = Points; PIM = Penalty minutes; +/- = Plus/minus; PPG = Power-play goals; SHG = Short-handed goals; GWG = Game-winning goals

Min, TOI = Minutes played; W = Wins; L = Losses; T,T/OT = Ties; OTL = Overtime losses; GA = Goals-against; GAA = Goals-against average; SO = Shutouts; SA = Shots against; SV = Shots saved; SV% = Save percentage;

Awards and records

Milestones

Regular Season
Player	Milestone	Reached

Transactions

On October 6, the team placed Mark Bell on waivers.

Trades

June 19, 2008	To Toronto Maple Leafs Jamal Mayers	To St. Louis Blues Third-round pick in 2008 (James Livingston)
June 20, 2008	To Toronto Maple Leafs First-round (5th overall) pick in 2008 (Luke Schenn)	To New York Islanders First-round (7th overall) pick in 2008 (Colin Wilson) Two conditional picks (Shawn Lalonde) (Mat Clark)
July 3, 2008	To Toronto Maple Leafs Mikhail Grabovski	To Montreal Canadiens Greg Pateryn Second-round pick in 2010 (Jared Knight)
July 14, 2008	To Toronto Maple Leafs Ryan Hollweg	To New York Rangers Fifth-round pick in 2009 (Andy Bathgate)
September 2, 2008	To Toronto Maple Leafs Mike Van Ryn	To Florida Panthers Bryan McCabe Fourth-round pick in 2010 (Sam Brittain)
November 24, 2008	To Toronto Maple Leafs Lee Stempniak	To St. Louis Blues Alexander Steen Carlo Colaiacovo
January 7, 2009	To Toronto Maple Leafs Brad May	To Anaheim Ducks Conditional sixth-round draft pick in 2010 (not exercised)
January 21, 2009	To Toronto Maple Leafs Ryan Hamilton	To Minnesota Wild Robbie Earl
March 4, 2009	To Toronto Maple Leafs Second-round draft pick in 2009 draft (Kenny Ryan) Conditional draft pick	To New York Rangers Nik Antropov
March 4, 2009	To Toronto Maple Leafs Second-round draft pick in 2009 draft (Jesse Blacker)	To Buffalo Sabres Dominic Moore
March 4, 2009	To Toronto Maple Leafs Olaf Kolzig Jamie Heward Andy Rogers Fourth-round draft pick from Carolina in 2009 draft	To Tampa Bay Lightning Richard Petiot

Free agents

Player Former team Contract Terms Curtis Joseph Calgary Flames 1 year, $700,000 Jeff Finger Colorado Avalanche 4 years, $14 million Niklas Hagman Dallas Stars 4 years, $12 million Christian Hanson University of Notre Dame 2 years, $1.575 million Tyler Bozak University of Denver 2 years, entry level

Player New team Darcy Tucker Colorado Avalanche Andrew Raycroft Colorado Avalanche Kyle Wellwood Vancouver Canucks Scott Clemmensen New Jersey Devils Andy Wozniewski St. Louis Blues

Claimed from waivers

Player Former team Date claimed off waivers Martin Gerber Ottawa Senators March 4, 2009 Erik Reitz New York Rangers March 4, 2009

Draft picks

Toronto's picks at the 2008 NHL Entry Draft in Ottawa, Ontario.

Round	Pick	Player	Position	Nationality	Club Team
1	5	Luke Schenn	(D)	Canada	Kelowna Rockets (WHL)
2	60 (from Pittsburgh)	Jimmy Hayes	(RW)	United States	Lincoln Stars (USHL)
4	98	Mikhail Stefanovich	(C)	Belarus	Quebec Remparts (QMJHL)
5	128	Greg Pateryn	(D)	United States	Ohio Junior Blue Jackets (USHL)
5	129 (from Phoenix)	Joel Champagne	(C)	Canada	Chicoutimi Sagueneens (QMJHL)
5	130 (from Florida)	Jerome Flaake	(LW)	Germany	Kolner Haie (DEL)
6	158	Grant Rollheiser	(G)	Canada	Trail Smoke Eaters (BCHL)
7	188	Andrew MacWilliam	(D)	Canada	Camrose Kodiaks (AJHL)

Roster

Updated March 30, 2009.

#	Nat	Player	Pos	S/G	Age	Acquired	Birthplace
55		Jason Blake	LW	L	51	2007	Moorhead, Minnesota
56		Andre Deveaux	C	R	40	2008	Freeport, Bahamas
22		Boyd Devereaux	C	L	46	2006	Seaforth, Ontario
4		Jeff Finger	D	R	44	2008	Houghton, Michigan
24		Jonas Frogren Injured Reserve	D	L	44	2008	Falun, Sweden
29		Martin Gerber	G	L	50	2009	Burgdorf, Switzerland
84		Mikhail Grabovski	C	L	40	2008	Potsdam, East Germany
9		Niklas Hagman Injured Reserve	LW	L	45	2008	Espoo, Finland
51		Jeff Hamilton	C	R	47	2009	Dayton, Ohio
20		Christian Hanson	C	R	38	2009	Venetia, Pennsylvania
43		Jay Harrison	D	L	42	2001	Oshawa, Ontario
		Jamie Heward Injured Reserve	D	R	53	2009	Regina, Saskatchewan
31		Curtis Joseph	G	L	57	2008	Keswick, Ontario
15		Tomas Kaberle (A) Injured Reserve	D	L	46	1996	Rakovník, Czechoslovakia
		Olaf Kolzig Injured Reserve	G	L	54	2009	Johannesburg, South Africa
77		Pavel Kubina (A)	D	R	47	2006	Čeladná, Czechoslovakia
41		Nikolai Kulemin	RW	L	38	2006	Magnitogorsk, U.S.S.R.
10		Brad May (A)	LW	R	53	2009	Toronto, Ontario
21		Jamal Mayers (A)	RW	R	50	2008	Toronto, Ontario
39		John Mitchell	C	L	39	2003	Oakville, Ontario
40		Phil Oreskovic	D	R	37	2005	North York, Ontario
1		Justin Pogge	G	L	38	2004	Fort McMurray, Alberta
23		Alexei Ponikarovsky	LW	L	44	1998	Kiev, U.S.S.R.
3		Erik Reitz	D	R	42	2009	Detroit, Michigan
2		Luke Schenn	D	R	35	2008	Saskatoon, Saskatchewan
14		Matt Stajan	C	R	40	2002	Mississauga, Ontario
12		Lee Stempniak	RW	R	41	2008	West Seneca, New York
35		Vesa Toskala Injured Reserve	G	L	47	2007	Tampere, Finland
26		Mike Van Ryn Injured Reserve	D	R	45	2008	London, Ontario
7		Ian White	D	R	40	2002	Steinbach, Manitoba

See also

• 2008–09 NHL season

Farm teams

• The Maple Leafs continue their affiliation with the Toronto Marlies of the American Hockey League.