Tuesday, November 25, 2008

Around the Leafs


The Leafs learned last night that defenceman Jonas Frogren will be out up to six weeks after an MRI revealed two muscle tears in his arm. The injury occurred in the first period of a loss to the Chicago Blackhawks on Saturday night.

The injury to Frogren and the trading of Carlo Colaiacovo to the St. Louis Blues earlier yesterday combined with the injury to Mike Van Ryn have depleted the Leafs blueline.

The Leafs had nine defencemen at one point but are down to six, with Ian White returning to the blue line for the foreseeable future after he performed well at forward for nine games.

Fletcher said there are no plans to call up a defenceman from the minors. Staffan Kronwall leads Toronto Marlies defenders with seven points in 10 games.

Colaiacovo and Steen both said they were shocked by the news they had been traded and, at the same time, were excited at the prospect of moving to a new town.

The deal, which is done in principal, should become final by 4 p.m. this afternoon, once the three players involved have undergone physical exams with their new teams. Stempniak was expected to arrive in Toronto last night, and had a doctor's appointment booked for this morning.

It's expected Stempniak, who has three goals and 10 assists in 14 games, will be in uniform against the Atlanta Thrashers tonight at the Air Canada Centre.

Stempniak was born and raised in the Buffalo area and used to come to Toronto to play in minor hockey tournaments.

It is still unknown with whom Stempniak will play.

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