Luke Schenn - A Leaf for Now!

The Toronto Maple Leafs seem headed to starting their season with youngster Luke Schenn on their blueline.

I can't help but think that this is a bad idea. Sure the Leafs have Pavel Kubina and Tomas Kaberle to mentor him. But, this is the big leagues and players have to be responsible for themselves and with probably the weakest forward unit in the entire NHL in front of him there are going to be many times that Schenn is left exposed and the result will certainly be a goal, but more importantly the result may be a loss of self-confidence in himself.

There are many who think that the Leafs will be eliminated from play-off contention early in the new year. So why expose your future defensive anchor to even nine games in the NHL. The mediocrity may just rub off.

The Leafs should recall what happened to another young can't miss defenseman. Fred Boimistruck first donned a Leaf jersey for the 1981-82 season. That team was just terrible! Boimistruck, Jim Benning and Bob McGill where all youngsters with lots of potential. But after a couple of seasons with the Leafs, Boimistruck a former member of Canada's World Junior team, was out of the NHL and not long later became an engineer with VIA rail.

Sure Benning and McGill had relatively long careers, but they became journeymen defensemen never really living up to their supposed potential.

Whether its only nine games or not, if Luke Schenn has the potential that the Leafs think he does, they should let him watch tomorrow's opener from the stands in Detroit and then send him back to junior.