Maple Leafs fans have been spoiled. That might sound funny after the team has failed to made the playoffs for eight years, but it's true.

After years of lamenting the loss of Tuukka Rask, or bemoaning the missed opportunity of dealing Tomas Kaberle for Jeff Carter and a first-round pick, the Leafs' fortunes in the trade market have improved drastically.

So, February was a crazy month here in Leafs Nation, right? Who would have thought that this team would be making a charge for the final playoff spot after suffering through multiple death spirals throughout the season. The Leafs went a brutal 8-15-3 in November and December and made everyone hate their lives before giving a slight glimmer of hope in January with an outstanding 6-6-1 record. And then everything turned around. The classic Leafs move of turning it on when everyone has counted you out and the pressure is non-existent is in full effect. And like some idiot who never learns from the past I love every minute of it!

For the third consecutive year, Tomas Kaberle’s no-trade clause has interfered with the Leafs’ plans of dealing the veteran defenceman. Leading up to the deadline Kaberle and his agent reiterated their stance that they would not waive the clause or provide Brian Burke with a list of teams Kaberle was willing to play for. Burke also maintained that he would not ask Kaberle for a list of teams since he felt it necessary to honour the NTC based on Kaberle’s loyalty and dedication to the organization. That’s why it was somewhat surprising to hear that Kaberle provided Burke with a scant list of three teams that he was willing to accept a trade to on the day of the deadline.

The three teams have not been identified and at this point their location is purely speculative. In the past, Kaberle’s name has been linked to Boston (Kaberle for Kessel, which I feel would have been fair for both teams) and Philadelphia (the famous Kaberle for Jeff Carter and a first round pick deal in 2008).

Providing Burke with a list of three teams doesn’t provide the bombastic GM with much leverage, so it was not surprising to see the blueliner stay with the Leafs past the 3 pm trade deadline. Plus, since the Leafs will certainly miss the playoffs this year there will be a period between the draft and mid-August where Kaberle’s NTC is gone and his input into his future location becomes irrelevant.

What’s more interesting is why does Tomas Kaberle insist on staying in Toronto? Does he feel a tremendous sense of loyalty to the team? Does he feel leaving would be abandoning the team? Does he want to stay and help the team re-build? Does he genuinely like Toronto as a city? I don’t really understand why anyone, especially someone over 30, would want to stay in a situation like Toronto’s. Don't they want to win? Isn't that important? I don’t think Kaberle’s insistence upon staying is based on his tremendous loyalty to the team and the city, but is based more on his comfort in Toronto.

The NHL trade deadline has become a full day media event in Canada. It’s crazy. Sportsnet is producing ads for their deadline show that have the analysts comparing the race to break stories among networks to the competition they faced as players on the ice. Doug MacLean yells about trades, something like, “instead of making bad trades today, I get to praise them!”

TSN is pretty awful on deadline day, too. James Duthie makes smart-ass remarks, while we watch Darren Dreger and Bob MacKenzie text on their blackberrys for 8 hours. Spectacular television. That being said, I do like watching for an hour near the actual trade deadline to get a nice recap of the day’s trades and to see if there is any sort of flurry near 3pm. I don’t need to watch each trade analyzed for an hour until the next trade occurs.

It hasn’t always been this way.