Doing Business With The Enemy

Has hell frozen over? Are monkeys flying? Are pigs flying out of various people's butts?

I ask this because bitter rivals, Montreal Canadiens and Toronto Maple Leafs have made a trade. It's the rarest of rare to see these two teams work together and get something done. It would be like if the Red Sox and Yankees made a trade in baseball. Perish the thought!

The Habs traded German forward Mikhail Grabovski to the Leafs for the rights to 2008 fifth round pick Greg Pateryn and a second round pick in 2010.

"Mikhail had tremendous success at the most recent World Hockey Championships," said Fletcher in a statement. "He has great upside and we will look for him to contribute for us right away at the centre position."

It was rumoured on internet message boards that Grabovski would head to the Leafs as compensation if Montreal was able to sign Mats Sundin. When that didn't happen by July 1st, Leafs GM Cliff Fletcher got on the phone and tried to figure out another way to land Grabovski.

Though he is pretty unknown to Leaf fans, as a devoted Habs fan I have of course seen Grabo play many times both in Montreal and in Hamilton. Fletcher was right in his statement that he does have tremendous upside. But he's pretty far away from making any sort of an impact unless he's playing in the AHL. He's speedy but makes a lot of bad passes, and is very physically weak and gets pushed off the puck very easily.

The one thing I do like about this trade is that Montreal got more for Grabovski in Pateryn and a 2nd round pick than they did when they traded Cristobal Huet back at the deadline. Oh trusty Leafs. Always making bad moves and overpaying for things.