INSIDE HOCKEY

With the trade deadline less then one month away (March 4), there are trading rumors swirling around the Toronto Maple Leafs organization and Nik Antropov. Antropov is a streaky player who can have a breakout game and then play the worst game of his career the next, he is an unpredictable player! With this being said despite the trade rumors surrounding him, I don’t think Antropov will be moving anywhere until the offseason.

It seems as though the Toronto Maple Leafs organization and Brian Burke think too highly of the Kazakhstan-born right winger, and therefore will be expecting too much in return. Unless something spectacular occurs between now and the March 4 trade deadline or some team has faith in his skills and makes Burke an offer that he just can not refuse, every trade offer will not be what Burke expects and Nik Antropov will still be a Leaf. The numbers that Antropov has put up so far this year have been a lot better when compared to his statistics from last year but that is only because his teammates rely more heavily on him now with the departure of Mats Sundin and the fact that the Leafs do not have one player that can be considered their “sniper”.

When reporters for the Toronto Sun asked Antropov about the trade rumors surrounding him, he replied with this statement: “The trade stuff probably is in the back of my mind,” Antropov admitted. “But it is not in my control. That is up to Brian Burke.” All that Nik Antropov can think about is the task at hand, that being helping the team put up a few more wins on the board as the Leafs try to make a push for the playoffs, which is highly unlikely this season considering the way the team has been playing. I think that if Antropov strives to do his best for the rest of the season, he will make a name for himself and have a better chance of being signed this off season when he becomes an unrestricted free agent.

On the other hand, Ron Wilson had a different point of view of the right winger:

“When you look at his numbers, they’re not unlike his other years in the NHL,” Wilson said. “He doesn’t have someone of Mats Sundin’s magnitude to play with, so I actually think he’s having a pretty good year. He had a slump that he seems to go through every season — a period in December and January when he struggled to score. A lot of players have things like that. But, where we’re going in the future is an entirely different story. We’ve got to get younger; we’ve got to get quicker; we’ve got to get meaner. In many cases, we’ve got to get more skilled. So, there’s going to be a lot of changes, and we’ve talked about that all year. I don’t think this [Antropov discussion] should be a revelation to anyone,” Wilson went on to say.

All we can do is wait until the deadline approaches to see whether Nik Antropov will have a change of scenery or will lace up his skates as a member of the Toronto Maple Leafs - the waiting begins!