The Toronto Maple Leafs have already won the Cody Franson - Brett Lebda deal by a mile but, while that title might seem wildly optimistic, the margin of victory may be extended:
"He is cleared for full activity on the bike," Burke said in a phone interview. "The last report I got he was doing 20-plus minutes without symptoms. He has been declared symptom-free and now it's about getting the workload back up."
That comes courtesy of Kevin McGran who I assume put a shirt over his undershirt in order to talk to the Leafs' GM. Since the trade Brett Lebda has been bought out by the Nashville Predators in an effort to prevent him from infecting their young crop of defenders with his special brand of Keystone Kops play. Previously Chemmy looked at what having Lombardi present at training camp might mean while Jonathan Willis took a look at what kind of production we might expect if he makes it into the lineup.
To be honest, both are wildly optimistic. Any beer leaguer knows that going from something like running or biking to playing hockey is not an easy transition at the best of times. Lombardi still has a long way to go before he is ready to compete on the ice in training camp let alone in a full contact environment so we shouldn't get too far ahead of ourself but if we look at this as one small step on the road to recovery then it's a good bit of news.
Glove tap to On The Forecheck for the heads up.