Leino for Tollefsen

			2009/2010 NHL Statistics
To Philadelphia	Position	Age	GP	Goals	Points	2010 Cap Hit	2011 Cap Hit
Ville Leino	Forward	26	42	4	7	$800,000	$800,000
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To Detroit	Position	Age	GP	Goals	Points	2010 Cap Hit	2011 Cap Hit
Ole-Kristian Tollefsen	Defenseman	25	18	0	2	$600,000	UFA
2011 5th Round Draft Pick

It looks as though the Red Wings are finished with Ville Leino and his experiment has fallen flat, as such with a deal that sends him out of Detroit and into Philadelphia on Saturday morning.

The older rookie did come into the 2010 season with some higher expectations, following in the footsteps of some of the other Red Wings stars of today and they may have been a tad too lofty for Leino, who found himself an occupant of the press box more often than not of late.

In return, the Red Wings ended up using Leino's marketability to get a journeyman defender in Ole-Kristian Tollefsen and get themselves a later round pick to round out the deal. With Niklas Kronwall's health an uncertainty, the Wings had to shore up their defense a little bit more with some new legs. Tollefsen should bring some of that edge and grit that Kronwall leaves behind, so that should work out in their favour.

For the Flyers, they are now rid of a defender that has been a healthy scratch fairly often of late, due to their defensive depth. Tollefsen was added to the Flyers for his depth in the position and was expendable for a trade that would help their scoring depth up front. I don't think the book is complete with Leino, he will get a chance to flourish in a new system with lessened expectations, so that has to be a plus for him.

Looking at the numbers up top, this definitely isn't a cap move for this season. The 2010 numbers look very similar. This does, however, look like a deal for the 2011 season, moreso for the Red Wings. If Leino wasn't going to be a fit with the team, there was no sense having him around for another season and now they have chopped $800,000 from their cap hit next year and get a defenseman for this year.

Numbers-wise, the Red Wings 2011 cap schedule looks like this: 12 players @ $39.8 million. That's pretty flexible, if you ask me. The Flyers for 2011, 14 players @ $47 million. That isn't terribly healthy, looking forward, but they've dug themselves a bit of a hole. The buzz does suggest that the Flyers are not done shaking up their roster and the deadline could be interesting for them.

This trade doesn't shake up the pools much this year. Leino was a Draft-ee this season, chosen by Trevor at the start of the season, but his lack of production made him a Waiver Draft casualty. On the Sheet pool, he's a member of Box 8, where he still has 5 active selections. I believe he's been dropped a few times by other teams, realizing he was nowhere near his potential.

Tollefsen, on the other hand, was not fantasy worthy this season and doesn't appear anywhere.

This deal does solve some problems on both sides, which is what most teams are looking to do at this point of the season. The Red Wings are on the outside looking in on the Western Conference playoffs, 2 points down, 1 game in hand, but 1 win short of the tie-breaker, so a win tonight would still keep them in 9th in the West, but more defense might solve their negative goal differential.

The Flyers are an even .500 in their last 10 games, sitting 7th in the East, but are only middle of the road when it comes to goal scoring. Sacrificing a press box player for a new forward may help them out in that regard.

This deal just seems to make sense and neither team really paid too much for it, so we'll give this the thumbs up.

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