First Trade of the Month!

Today the Toronto Maple Leafs and Anaheim Ducks broke the trade season ice with a solid deal for both clubs.

The Maple Leafs received right wing Joffrey Lupul, defensive prospect Jake Gardiner and a conditional 2013 draft pick, while the Ducks ended up with solid vet blueliner Francois Beauchemin.

Additional info on the jump...



Anaheim fans remember Beauchemin as a skilled offensive defenseman who played with Anaheim from 2005 to 2009 before signing with Toronto last season. Beauchemin will bring a much needed kick to the Ducks defense, who with the exception of Lubomir Visnovsky and rookie Cam Fowler, have been generally disappointing.

Here's Beauchemin as a Duck with a baby. The baby could not be reached for comment.

On the other side of the trade, we see Toronto gaining a solid right wing through Joffrey Lupul. Though Lupul's season has been hindered by injuries, he could still do much good for Toronto's offense, seeing as historically he has the skills to put up at least a good 50 point season.

Years later, Lupul signs Beauchemin's baby.

In addition to Lupul the Leafs gain defensive prospect Jake Gardiner, who currently plays NCAA hockey at the University of Wisconsin. At such a young age (20) it doesn't seem like Gardiner is a player we should be watching to make a splash in the NHL any time soon, especially because he'll be returning to Wisconsin to play his junior year season next year. One day he could potentially be a decent offensive defenseman (he started at forward and moved to defense; he naturally retained his offensive skills), but I wouldn't expect any more than a 3rd line defenseman out of him.

I couldn't find a picture of Gardiner and a baby. This will have to do.

It'll definitely be interesting to see who comes out on top of this deal in the long run, especially with Toronto receiving a 2013 draft pick and prospect. My early prediction would be that Toronto has the edge on this deal, simply because it seems they lost less and gained more, but we'll have to watch and see how Beauchemin responds to the move back to Anaheim.