The chin that wrecked many lives ...

A lot happened since CLS has been updated, but the biggest events occurred most recently: Olli "Hokey Pokey" Jokinen was traded to the Rangers, Dion Phaneuf finally was dealt to Toronto along with J. S. Giguere.

Obviously, those trades involved many other moving pieces but those were the pivotal parties. So why don't we take a look-see at how these trades altered the landscape for all four teams? Maybe we'll get more in-depth later, but for now I'll just hit the high points.

First, the "centre" of the hockey universe in Toronto ...

• It's been about a season of The Brian Burke scowl, but only now can we truly begin to look at the Maple Leafs as "Burke's team." He traded for the team's three biggest contracts: Phaneuf ($6.5 annual cap hit through 2013-14), Giguere ($6 million cap hit for the remainder of this season plus 10-11) and Phil Kessel ($5.4 million hit until 2013-14).
• Add Mike Komisarek's hefty $4.5 million hit and Francois Beauchemin's $3.8 million cap hit and that means that Burke's Boys account for a staggering $26.2 million in cap commitments for 5 players.
• According to Cap Geek's numbers, the as-of-this-moment Leafs would include 6 forwards, 7 defensemen and Giguere for a combined cap hit of $47.6 million! (Naturally, a lot can change but it's obvious that aside from Tomas Kaberle and Jeff Finger much of the Leafs' possible moves have already been made)
• Giguere is the short term goalie in Toronto, no doubt about it. Apparently Burke treasured the security blanket of nostalgia in Giguere rather than the fresh start opportunity of Vesa Toskala's contract expiring after this season ...
• Then again, Burke had to make some bold moves since ... you know, he traded what could have been hugely beneficial draft picks for Kessel.

• Somehow, Sather managed to move two of his many blunders off the team's cap in some (dare I say?) one-sided trades for him. While ridding the Rangers of Ales Kotalik is nowhere near the miracle of hypnotizing Bob Gainey to accept Scott Gomez's ludicrous contract, it still shows that Sather isn't the only GM with a few screws loose.
• It's probably wrong of me to look at Olli Jokinen as nothing more than an expiring contract, but the Rangers could be looking at a win-win situation. Wait, no, scratch that idea because if Jokinen plays well then they'll probably sign him to a motivation-killing 10 year contract and he'll play horrible hockey while Scotty Hockey plots the firing (like, burning flesh not pink slipping) of Sather. So maybe we should hope for a poor season for Jokinen ...
• More thoughts on the cap implications once Cap Geek does the work for me.

Now, the wildly different Calgary Flames

If given the opportunity, I will always use the "how to draw Jokinen" graphic. ALWAYS.

• Jokinen's name can be added to the growing list of players who couldn't cut it as Jarome Iginla's center. This list includes such luminaries as Chris Drury, so let's not lay this failure at Iggy's feet.
• It seems like Elisha Cuthbert's adorable cleft chin destroys everything it touches, like an alternate universe version of an airplane's black box. One moment, Phaneuf appears to be the next Chris Pronger and is on the cover of one of the best hockey games ever yet a couple years later he's not even one of the Flames' top two defensemen. I must ask, Cuthbert/Cuthbert's chin: who's next? You destroyed your own career, Phaneuf's career and indirectly neutered Sean Avery. No doubt about it, I fear what you're capable of in the future.
• Really, the Flames seem like they've hit the "reset" button on their franchise. Once again the team is basically a random mismatch of players alongside Iginla, Regehr and Kipper, only now with the expensive Jay Bouwmeester. It will be interesting to see what the future holds for this confounding franchise.

Finally, the cancer-fighting crew in Anaheim

• You can say that the changing of the goaltending guard actually truly took hold when Jonas Hiller started in the playoffs and out-played Giguere the past two regular seasons but this confirms those well-founded suspicions. One must wonder if Hiller will be as impressive now that he makes a standard No.1 goalie's salary going forward.
• With Pronger and Giguere shipped out in trades and Scotty Niedermayer and Teemu Selanne on the verge of retirement, this Ducks team is trading in its gray hairs for peach fuzz. (Braces for standard practice Getzlaf-inspired "but they'll still have similar hair lines!" type joke)
• It's great that Anaheim finally got rid of Giguere's problematic contract, but they also had to take on dead weight in the form of Jason Blake.

Now, the team is basically left with this nucleus:

The Good

Getzlaf-Perry-Hiller (about $15 million cap hit)

To Be Decided, but Quality Player

Bobby Ryan

Bad

Blake, Ryan Whitney (about $8 million cap hit)

So if Ryan makes Getzlaf-Perry type money the Ducks will have spend a little under $30 million for Ryan-Getzlaf-Perry-Blake-Whitney-Hiller. On one hand, there are some decent pieces in there. On the other hand, the Ducks are desperately thin on defense (a pretty shocking statement considering how they were among the league's best just a couple seasons ago).

Overall, I'd say that the biggest "winners" in that wild flurry of trades were the Ducks and the Rangers. Toronto is the team that just bet the deed of their house on [insert shaky poker hand] and Calgary is living in a broken home.

Someone asked if this is the "new" trade deadline and, to be honest, these trades are more exciting than anything that happened in last year's deadline.

So what are your thoughts, brave returning readers?

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