What an amazing day today w/ @danglemedia as we shadowed Leafs GM Brian Burke (all day!). Feature pops up in next month's issue!
On Tuesday, David Pagnotta and others from the hockey magazine The Fourth Period shadowed Brian Burke all day for a future article. That piece should be interesting in itself, but a few other of Dave's tweets from the day got me thinking: what did they hear from the Leafs GM regarding the trade deadline?
Still grinding away, shadowing TOR GM Burke all day for new mag piece. Back in his office. Some calls (chill ppl, nothing close) & paperwork
Regarding Leafs... Irons in fire, but at this exact moment nothing is close. Can change quickly, tho. Lots of talk with multiple clubs.
Without direct confirmation from anyone at TFP, it's impossible to know how much information regarding those "irons in the fire" they were privy to. But using their website, could it be possible to connect the dots? Maybe so. Follow along after the jump.
The Fourth Period maintains a top 25 list of available players running up to the trade deadline. This list is updated every few days. While I have never played close attention to it in the past, I have been aware of its existence. The news that TFP was shadowing Brian Burke for a full day so close to the trade deadline made me wonder: will the top 25 list change after their day with the Leafs President & GM? The answer seems to be yes.
Here is the google cached version of the top 25 list from 2/17/12.
And here is the newest version, updated 2/22/12 (after the day with Burke).
Notice any changes? I did. On the 17th, the Leafs were thought to be in on Rick Nash, Bobby Ryan, Ales Hemsky, Paul Stastny, and Alexander Semin.
On the 22nd, the Leafs were thought to be in on Nash, Ryan, Hemsky, Jeff Carter, James van Riemsdyk, Stastny, Antoine Vermette, Ryan Malone, and if you look way down at the bottom, Josh Harding. Also note that Luke Schenn is listed, and the number of teams interested in his services increases from three to four (to include the Blue Jackets) on the 22nd.
| 17-Feb | 22-Feb |
| Nash | Nash |
| Ryan | Ryan |
| Hemsky | Hemsky |
| Stastny | Carter |
| Semin | JvR |
| Stastny | |
| Vermette | |
| Malone | |
| Harding |
Now, did the list change because of the meeting with Burke? Impossible for me to know. But it's fun to speculate anyways.