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With his team safely inside the playoff bubble and only a dozen games left to protect and/or enhance that spot, Nonis and coach Randy Carlyle have some very meaningful short-term preparations in front of them. But with a young roster and prospect-heavy organization, the long-term plan is at least as important.

So rather than dismiss the value of just squeaking into the playoffs, this team will use what’s left of the 12 remaining regular-season games and a likely playoff visit both as a developmental tool and opportunity to see what it has now.

“You’ve got to get experience somehow,” Nonis said a couple hours after the 3 p.m. deadline had expired. “(The players on the roster) have done a lot of good things so far. There’s a lot to be said about keeping that group together, the guys that have battled this hard.

“It was important for us not to take anyone out of the lineup unless we were getting somebody significant back.”

Factor in that there wasn’t much significant out there, with those predetermined parameters it doesn’t sound like it was difficult for Nonis to stick to the plan.

The growing confidence and rise up the standings has served the young Leafs well to this point, allowing them to climb to fifth place and a relatively comfortable seven-point cushion on the final playoff spot. With a three-game win streak and 13 points in their past 10 games, only the Pittsburgh Penguins and Montreal Canadiens have more over that stretch in the Eastern Conference.

Nonis acknowledged that those results certainly had an impact on his mindset as the deadline approached. And given that selling off players for prospects was never in the plan, limiting himself to the lone depth move of acquiring big Colorado defenceman Ryan O’Byrne suited him fine.

“When your team is playing well, it can affect some of the decisions you are going to make,” Nonis said. “The coaching staff has done a very good job with this team in terms of getting them ready to play and asking them to do certain things.

“The last two or three weeks, we’ve played some very good hockey and it was not our intention to alter that group and take some of those players that have worked hard to put points up on the board, to take them out of the lineup. That wasn’t something we really had an interest in.”

If there was a concern about Reimer and his ability to lead the team into the playoffs, Nonis was unable to address it at the deadline. More likely, he wasn’t willing to pay a huge price to do so, given that the team seems fine with allowing Reimer the chance to face up to the playoff heat.

But there’s another factor to consider: Sure, Reimer has yet to play in the NHL post-season, but his time in Toronto hasn’t exactly been pressure-free. From winning the starting job as a rookie, to being anointed the team’s starter the next fall to the injury-related slide that followed, he’s certainly seen his share of expectations.

Could anything prepare him — and the rest of the team for that matter — for what it’s going to be like around here in four weeks? It sure looks like we’re going to find out.

“There’s a lot of potential in the room here right now,” Leafs forward Clarke MacArthur said following Wednesday’s practice. “The way we play, too, I feel like it would be a great playoff style. I feel confident with our group.”

Apparently, the Leafs management team agreed.

LEAFS HAVE NEW PIECES TO PLAY WITH

Dave Nonis didn’t bring in many new bodies for his coach, but Randy Carlyle still has options down the stretch.

With 12 games remaining and a potential playoff run after that, the Leafs general manager likes the options he has provided for Carlyle, including the acquisition of defenceman Ryan O’Byrne and the imminent return of injured forwards Clarke MacArthur and Leo Komarov.

“Randy’s got some pieces that he can move around,” Nonis said on Wednesday. “That is important to him and it’s important to the players, too, for a number of reasons. There’s pressure to perform because you know that someone else is there. Also, the players that we have, the guys who have sat out various nights, we haven’t had any issues at all.

“Everyone understands we have a lot of players on the roster, but this group is very close.”

Toronto Sun LOADED: 04.04.2013

667959 Toronto Maple Leafs

Maple Leafs' James Reimer must feel like chopped liver

By Steve Simmons ,Toronto Sun

First posted: Wednesday, April 03, 2013 06:18 PM EDT | Updated: Wednesday, April 03, 2013 09:50 PM EDT

It is James Reimer’s job for now and he will smile beneath his mask, because that’s what he does.

But, inside, he has to know better.

Inside, there has to be a little hurt, a little disappointment, that as well as he’s played and as much as he has been a part of the Leafs’ success, it didn’t seem like enough to those who manage the decisions with the hockey club.

Inside, he has to know that general manager Dave Nonis and the Maple Leafs’ staff made every possible effort to bring Miikka Kiprusoff to Toronto. And not just make him part of the Leafs, but sign him up for two more years.

And when Kiprusoff finally made the difficult decision Wednesday morning, a decision that is was time to say goodbye rather than change uniforms, the Leafs didn’t stop there. They made one final lunge at the Vancouver Canucks, hoping to determine if their improbable pursuit of Roberto Luongo, and the contracts that “sucks,” was in any way possible for the Leafs.

Kiprusoff didn’t happen and Luongo didn’t happen for the Leafs and now they turn back to a goaltender who is younger, cheaper, and statistically better.

For now, the Maple Leafs’ management and coaching staff will hold their breath, say all the right things and indicate this wasn’t a slight at Reimer or Ben Scrivens. But, clearly, the opposite was at play here.

You don’t pursue Kiprusoff, even at this stage of his career, even after this terrible season, to wear a baseball cap on the bench and play the good soldier. You pursue him because you believe he is an upgrade, even now, with the playoffs — those ever-elusive playoffs — this close.

And you don’t pursue Luongo, with that twisted contract that he would like to walk away from, unless there is every belief he will be your goaltender for today and for the next many years.

So here is James Reimer today, the first-string goalie without portfolio, without consensus backing, and if every move wasn’t scrutinized before, it will be now. He is like that song from The Police: “Every single day, every word you say, every game you play, every night you stay, I’ll be watching you.”

Reimer understands, but it doesn’t mean he has to like it. He understands this season has been all about first among equals and he is winning that competition. He has put the Leafs in a position to make the playoffs and the best way to define a goaltender isn’t necessarily by statistics: The Grant Fuhr axiom works best in this case.

Did you give your team a chance to win? If you do that, you’re doing your job.

Reimer, for the most part, has done that — and still the Leafs were looking. They wanted more than him. They wanted better than him. They wanted a veteran — they will say — to teach the kid. Montreal didn’t care much about that when Patrick Roy is a kid, but nobody is about to call Reimer the next Roy. And the Leafs didn’t care much about Felix Potvin playing as a kid and beating out the Hall of Famer Fuhr when the time was right.

With Reimer, though, no one was willing to say the time is right. There are still parts of his game that concern the Leafs, and probably should concern them.

He’s had trouble with his catching glove and around the league that’s becoming a point of focus. Everybody shoots high glove on Reimer and they will continue to do so until he makes more saves in that area.

It isn’t just the glove. It’s the way in which he handles pucks dumped into the Maple Leafs’ zone. Goalies, these days, are expected to handle the puck better. And if they can’t handle it, at least they should be adept at setting in behind the net on a dump in. Reimer has difficulty doing this regularly. The more difficulty he has, the more a target of forecheck the Leafs become.

That may not matter on a fast-forward regular season with no time to breathe. But it will matter in a best-of-seven playoff series where an opponent has studied the nuances of the Leafs goalie.

That’s a problem for Reimer, as are his puck control around the net and his rebound control. He allows too many loose pucks and, again, come playoff time, when the intensity is amped up, that kind of mistake can lead to an inadvertent goal.

What Reimer needs to do now is work on the areas of concern, continue to be solid in net, and take the job Leafs management wasn’t sure he ready for.

It won’t be easy. But he has to do it with the knowledge the very people who now trust him were working to replace him just a day ago.

Toronto Sun LOADED: 04.04.2013

667960 Toronto Maple Leafs

Maple Leafs land Ryan O'Byrne from Avalanche

By Lance Hornby ,Toronto Sun

First posted: Wednesday, April 03, 2013 03:43 PM EDT | Updated: Wednesday, April 03, 2013 10:21 PM EDT

TORONTO - If he couldn’t get insurance in the net, Dave Nonis opted to add someone who can clear the front.

And in acquiring big defenceman Ryan O’Byrne as Wednesday’s NHL trade deadline closed, the Maple Leafs’ general manager gave a vote of confidence to his incumbent goalies and the gratitude of most players who didn’t want the band broken up. The surprising Leafs now head into their final 12 games and a possible playoff appearance without losing anyone from the roster, just as the players hoped would be the case before the 3 p.m. bell sounded across the league.

“We can definitely make a run with the guys we have here,” leading scorer Nazem Kadri said earlier in the day. “We haven’t been in this position in a long time and we’re still hungry for more.”

Not to say that Nonis didn’t try to add some grey power to the goalie mix after scooping the 6-foot-5 O’Byrne from Colorado for a fourth-round pick in 2014. He delved into the Calgary Flames’ fire sale and went hard after 36-year-old stopper Miikka Kiprusoff to bolster James Reimer and Ben Scrivens. That discussion, with counterpart Jay Feaster, player agent Larry kelly and, ultimately, Kiprusoff himself, went deep into Tuesday night and resumed Wednesday morning.

“The benefit of bringing Miikka in was that we wouldn’t have been moving either of our goalies out. We’ve always said if we could get a veteran presence to help them get experience and tips, it would’ve been ideal. I had that conversation with Miikka directly. Part of him was excited about that, part of him was not having his heart in it 100%, coming here and then letting us down.”

Kiprusoff’s wife just gave birth and, even if he took a contract extension from Nonis, there was doubt the Finn wanted to stay in the NHL beyond this season, especially if he’s changing cities.

“He didn’t want to take the extension (which the Leafs would have had to work on in July) if he wasn’t fully committed,” said Nonis. “I appreciated him giving us the heads up early in the day as opposed to us making the deal and not having it work out.”

TSN reported the Vancouver Canucks came back to the Leafs three times in the closing hour of the deadline to revive the Roberto Luongo trade, but Nonis wouldn’t meet their price, even though it was likely reduced from the summer. Nonis wouldn’t comment on Luongo specifics.

“We’ve also said that we’re happy with our goaltending, it’s quality goaltending,” Nonis said. “And that if we couldn’t (add someone), these two guys have earned the right to play. I know there is a big deal about goaltending and always has been in this market. But you look at what James has done (a .920 save percentage). We expect him to grab the net and go with it. He’ll play the majority of the games.

“I know (coach) Randy Carlyle has confidence in him. We have a quality goaltending coach (Rick St. Croix) whom we bring into a lot of decisions on our goalies and future goalies. He has a lot of time for James and that factors into our decision.”

Reimer, expected to start Thursday’s home game against the Flyers, was relieved he won’t have to field questions about everyone from Luongo to Jonathan Bernier to Kiprusoff taking his job. Though there have been holes in the plan to institute a cleaner defensive game to take pressure off of himself and Scrivens, he’s done what Carlyle asked — keep the Leafs in games.

“We have some great character in this room,” Reimer said. “Everyone who has played has been deserving. When that happens, you feel good because you know no one has been cheated. It’s been a fun run this year.”

O’Byrne should help keep Reimer’s front stoop free of traffic. About two weeks ago, Nonis initiated talks about the former Montreal Canadiens defender. The Avalanche were not keen on bringing him back after his $1.8 million (U.S.) contract runs out this year.

“The price tag we had early was not to our liking,” Nonis said. “As the week went on, it became something we were comfortable with. He’ll be one of eight defencemen. He won’t come in here and take over the defence, but he can play with good players, play with John-Michael Liles, with Jake Gardiner, with Mike Kostka. How much he plays, that’s up to the coaching staff.”

Holding all of his picks for the 2013 draft heading into the deadline, Nonis acknowledged he could have used them to pick up more veterans. But without naming names, Nonis said their “best before” date stamp was long past. It might be the Leafs revisit some in the free-agent market next summer.

“We added one player today we think can help us and, as we get healthy, we’ll have five full lines up front. The message to our team was we’re happy with their play. This wasn’t about trading draft picks for (rental player) UFAs, this was about keeping the team together.”

Toronto Sun LOADED: 04.04.2013

667961 Toronto Maple Leafs

Roberto Luongo’s contract hurts both him and Canucks

Bruce Arthur | 13/04/03 | Last Updated: 13/04/03 11:00 PM ET

Roberto Luongo was always going to be the star of this deadline one way or the other.

“My contract sucks,” said Roberto Luongo, live on national television. “That’s what the problem is. It had been an odd NHL trade deadline to that point, first a ghost town and then a busy intersection. Also, there was the moment a little later when Jay Feaster said his owner expected the Calgary Flames to be in the playoffs next season, but we’ll get to that masterpiece of delusion in a minute.

The best of the NHL trade deadline

But Luongo was always going to be the star of this deadline one way or the other, and his news conference in Vancouver was a strange thing, an oddly electric thing, because it’s not every day an NHL superstar comes out and says he hates his 12-year, US$64-million contract, and wishes, two years after reaching Game 7 of the Stanley Cup final, that he could start all over again.

“I’d scrap it if I could, right now,” said Luongo, who admitted it had been an emotionally difficult time. When it was reported he had been pulled off the ice with minutes to go before the deadline everyone’s ears perked up, and when it was announced he had not been traded, the balloon went pop.

For Luongo too, clearly. He said that if any trade had gotten to the point where he would have been asked to waive his no-trade clause, “Obviously I would have said yes.” He said he had to gather himself. He seemed to intimate that he could have conducted himself differently since the club chose Cory Schneider over their 33-year-old warhorse as the team’s No. 1 goaltender, but instead chose not to create negative energy. There was a weariness to him, an exhaustion, flickers of deep disappointment.

TSN’s Darren Dreger reported the Canucks made three last-ditch offers to Toronto between 2 and 3 p.m., asking for Ben Scrivens and multiple draft picks, and that the final one led to Luongo being yanked off the ice in case he had to waive his no-trade clause. That clearly meant they had gotten close, but something in the contract — the prospect of Vancouver retaining some of Luongo’s salary, Vancouver’s softening but still significant demands, something about the golden anvil — must have derailed it.

It was the messiest part of the day’s Canadian hockey landscape. The plummeting Winnipeg Jets watched idly as Washington burned a top prospect for help right now in the Southeast Division, and Edmonton and Montreal didn’t change their very different situations, and Ottawa managed to snag a new leading scorer in Cory Conacher, Tampa’s 23-year-old, 24-point rookie, in exchange for surplus goaltender Ben Bishop.

Oh, and in Calgary the fire sale more closely resembles an actual fire. Feaster told reporters “[Owner] Murray Edwards told me last evening that he expects to be in the playoffs next year, so there’s my marching order.” The Flames appear to be taking their nickname too seriously, and Edwards appears to be fiddling as it burns. Between Columbus stepping on the gas in its playoffs run by acquiring star Marian Gaborik from the New York Rangers and Murray Edwards saying he wants to make the playoffs next year, Calgary wins the up-is-down derby without breaking a sweat.

But Luongo was the potential franchise-changer for two Canadian teams, and afterwards he looked like a basset hound who had been kicked.

He’s not a tragic figure, obviously, but it’s easy to feel sympathetic for the guy, even if you don’t follow his delightful semi-anonymous alter ego on Twitter, @strombone1. The NHL had always warned that the long-term, long-tail deals that were splashed around during the life of the last collective bargaining agreement would be subject to penalty, and Luongo is the first one to feel its effects.

Under the new CBA, the team that signed and the team that trades for a long-contract player will be penalized under the salary cap if that player retires before the contract ends. Luongo’s big money stops in 2018. There are four seasons left after that.

Unless he plays until he’s 43, the contract is going to hurt somebody.

But still, they got close, and the contract came between them, and the Canucks were left to pretend otherwise. Vancouver general manager Mike Gillis said there had been discussions with five teams over the last six months, and “there’s been changes to the CBA that affect these situations, and it isn’t like when we signed the contract. There are significant changes to how they’re dealt with … at the time it was done it was very favourable to the organization, and very favourable for Roberto.

“And the top teams in the league that were competing for Stanley Cups did contracts like this for franchise players, and since that has occurred there have been a number of changes. It’s a fluid industry.”

My contract sucks. That’s what the problem is

Gillis protested that the contract was not as big an impediment as some people thought, which sounds like spin followed by an audible record scratch, but this summer he will get another chance to be proven right.

A compliance buyout would seem like a dangerous request for almost any GM — imagine going to your owner and saying you have made a US$40-million mistake. It means he’s going to have to trade his obviously unhappy goaltender, and that contract with it.

The Canucks, meanwhile, have to hope they can knit their injured and aging core back into a contender in under a month, and hope that Luongo can wait without it getting ugly. Not Calgary-ugly, but then, that sort of thing takes years.

National Post LOADED: 04.04.2013

667962 Toronto Maple Leafs

Leafs pin hopes on young goalies after relatively quiet trade deadline

Michael Traikos | 13/04/03 | Last Updated: 13/04/03 7:09 PM ET

TORONTO — It was not exactly a vote of confidence. More like a lukewarm endorsement.

In an ideal world, the Toronto Maple Leafs wanted to add a goaltender at Wednesday’s NHL trade deadline. Not to necessarily replace James Reimer or Ben Scrivens, but to augment the inexperienced duo. They had received permission to talk with Calgary’s Miikka Kiprusoff and tried desperately to convince him to waive his no-trade clause. They reportedly talked again to Vancouver about acquiring Roberto Luongo.

The best of the NHL trade deadline

But by the time the 3 p.m. ET deadline rolled around, Toronto’s only move was bringing in 28-year-old depth defenceman Ryan O’Byrne from Colorado in exchange for a fourth-round draft pick in 2014. And so, with 13 games remaining and the team sitting in fifth place in the Eastern Conference standings, the Leafs will continue with most of the same group that got them this far.

“Nothing changed at all,” general manager Dave Nonis said in a news conference at Air Canada Centre. “I know there was a big deal about goaltending. There always has been in this marketplace. The benefit of bringing Miikka Kiprusoff in would have been we weren’t moving any one of our goalies out. And we always said that if we could get some veteran presence to help these guys along and give them some experience and some tips, that it would have been an ideal situation.

“I had that discussion with Miikka directly. I think that part of him was excited about that, and part of his apprehension was not having his heart in it 100% and coming here and letting us down. That was the direction we wanted to head.”

Instead, a 25-year-old (Reimer) and a 26-year-old (Scrivens) with a combined 123 NHL games and zero NHL playoff experience will lead the team.

That might not be necessarily a bad thing. Reimer, who has won his last three games and has not lost in regulation in his last seven starts, has a better save percentage (.920) this season than Luongo (.904) and Kiprusoff (.868) and as many wins (13) as both combined.

“We’re happy with the goaltending,” Nonis said. “We have two quality goaltenders. We’re not trying to move one of them out. We wanted to add to that group. But if we couldn’t, those guys have earned the right to play.

“[Reimer is] still a young goaltender. It’s not about his ability. We’re fine with his ability. His play has been exceptional. It was just about getting him some experience to help him. There was nothing more to it than that.”

We have two quality goaltenders. We’re not trying to move one of them out. We wanted to add to that group. But if we couldn’t, those guys have earned the right to play

While the Leafs were unable to add that experience in net, the team beefed up its blue line with the acquisition of O’Byrne. The 6-foot-5 and 240-pound defenceman, who ranks second on the Avalanche in hits and is fourth in blocked shots, has appeared in 19 playoff games.

“He’s going to be one of our eight defencemen,” said Nonis, who added that O’Byrne would likely play on the second defensive pairing alongside former Avalanche teammate John-Michael Liles, Mike Kostka or Jake Gardiner. “He’s not going to come in here and take over our defensive corps. He’s a defensive defenceman. We feel he can play with good players.”

It was a small move. But for where this team is, both in terms of age and in the standings, it was probably the right one.

David Zalubowski/The Associated Press

Nonis said that this is the first year in his Leafs tenure in which the club is in playoff mode as opposed to selling off players for draft picks. At the same time, he knows that the team is not one or two pieces away from contending for the Stanley Cup. So the plan was to try to add some depth without disrupting the current lineup or giving away the future.

“I didn’t see a blockbuster,” Nonis of the trade landscape available to him. “I think everyone that made some deals made some modest improvements. And that’s all that was available to most teams.