The NHL trade deadline is February 27th. The Leafs have until then to decide what to do with captain Mats Sundin and Darcy Tucker.

The Leafs hold a team option on Mats Sundin at $4.56 million for next season, but $6.33 will count against the salary, as that is the average yearly salary for his current contact. It is reported that the Maple Leafs will pick up this option. I don't see why the Leafs would do this. Why not decline the option, and then sign him to a multi-year deal at a lesser yearly average. It's pretty obvious that the Leafs want Mats to retire as a Leaf, so why not lower his 'cap' number. I'm not exactly sure if there is some league stipulation that would not allow the Leafs to alter his contract in this fashion. Sundin has a no-trade clause in his current contract and has said that he would not waive it to go to a Stanley Cup contender. The Toronto Star is reporting that there are teams that would be interested in acquiring Sundin, with the Anaheim Ducks being one of the teams that would be interested.

Darcy Tucker's name is also being thrown around rumor mill. The gritty winger will be an unrestricted free agent at the end of the season and will be looking for a nice raise from the $1.596 million he's making this season. Even though he's been out for about a month, and no time-table on his return, he's drawing interest from several west coast clubs. Edmonton, Calgary, Dallas and San Jose have all shown interest in Tucker. It was reported that the Leafs and Tucker were discussing a 5 year, $17.5 million contract.

Leaf management has some tough decisions to make before the trade deadline. If Sundin continues to refuse to waive his no-trade clause, there isn't much they can do with him. Tucker's situation will definitely cause some problems. If the Leafs playoff hopes fade by the trade deadline, I think it would be in the best interest of the organization to trade Tucker and hope that Sundin will decide to waive his no-trade clause. If they want to bring both players back next year, offer them a deal similar to what the Penguins did for Recchi and the Blues did for Weight. Both clubs dealt them to a contender with the promise that they would bring them back the following season. This enable the team to get some assets back in return that would help the team in the following seasons. Both Sundin and Tucker could bring valuable assets back to the Leafs if they were able to come up with a deal like this. The risk for Sundin would be that the team he was dealt to would pick up the 'team option', but I'm sure some sort of arrangement could be made where they wouldn't pick it up.