Hollweg: A 5th round pick for a 4th line guy

The Leafs acquired Ryan Hollweg from the New York Rangers in exchange for Pittsburgh’s 2009 fifth round pick (picked up by the Leafs in the Hal Gill trade).

Hollweg is best known for being Chris Simon’s piñata (Madres de Dios - sin dulce!) an incident that led to the longest suspension in the history of the NHL.

An RFA at the end of the season, Hollweg was 23rd in the NHL in hits last season, an impressive stat considering he only logged about twelve shifts or 8 minutes of ice a night for the Rangers.

I have to say, I haven’t been this excited about a transaction since the Leafs signed UFA Mike Blaisdell in 1987.

I’m sorry, did I say excited? I meant bored.

I think, "Meh" is the word I'm looking for here.

The acquisition puts the Leafs well over the 23 man NHL roster limit (and gives them about 10 guys ideally suited to 4th line duty).

Incredibly, Fletcher told 640AM that he’d like to add yet another forward (hopefully, someone who can play on at least the 3rd line) and one more D-man.

Given the number of players on the current roster, there’s not much use in calculating the Leaf’s salary cap as clearly quite a few players and their salary dollars are headed out of town.

That said, here’s the current Leafs Roster, listed alphabetically, with each player’s cap hit (taken from NHLNumbers. Oh, and if you’re doing any math, don’t forget to factor in Raycroft’s and Tucker’s buy-out.)

Forwards
1. Alex Steen ($1.7M)
2. Alexei Ponikarovsky ($2.105M)
3. Boyd Devereaux ($575K)
4. Dominic Moore ($700K)
5. Jamal Mayers ($1.33M)
6. Jason Blake ($4M)
7. Jiri Tlusty ($855K)
8. Mark Bell ($2.167M)
9. Matt Stajan ($1.75M)
10. Mikhail Grabovski ($850)
11. Nik Antropov ($2.05M)
12. Niklas Hagman ($3M)
13. Nikolai Kulemin ($1.48M)
14. Ryan Hollweg ($512K)

Likely to the Marlies:
15. Bates Battaglia
16. Brent Aubin
17. Darryl Boyce
18. Jeremy Williams
19. John Mitchell
20. Kris Newbury
21. Robbie Earl

Defence
1. Anton Stralman ($732K)
2. Bryan McCabe ($5.75M)
3. Carlo Colaiacovo ($1.283M)
4. Ian White ($850K)
5. Jeff Finger ($3M)
6. Jonas Frogen (TBD)
7. Pavel Kubina ($5M)
8. Staffan Kronwall ($487.5)
9. Tomas Kaberle ($4.25M)
10. Luke Schenn (TBD)


Goal
1. Vesa Toskala ($4M)
2. Curtis Joseph ($700K)

3. Justin Pogge ($616K)